I come from a running background, not swimming so much. I've learned through the years that the worse thing you can do to a kid who has aspirations of being a serious competitor is to allow them to do very long distances. I believe during your developmental years you should strive to gain power, speed, and strength. Truthfully, when you become as fast/strong as you can be that is a good time to start increasing to long distances. In running it has been proven to me that the kids who run lots of 10K, half marathons, and marathons place high (going slow), get tons of attention (they are cute and precocious), but then really don't enjoy their middle school and high school programs too much since the longest distances are 2 mile in Track and 5K (HS) in Cross Country. It's a tough pill to swallow when you're used to getting a big trophy and lots of attention for a subpar 10K, and not being able to win the 2 mile varsity race in ms/hs and receiving a lousy ribbon for doing so. With that said I also believe keeping people moving is a big issue in society. If I had a child who was begging me to do uber distance events or challenges I'd probably allow it if it got them off their butts and moving.
I come from a running background, not swimming so much. I've learned through the years that the worse thing you can do to a kid who has aspirations of being a serious competitor is to allow them to do very long distances. I believe during your developmental years you should strive to gain power, speed, and strength. Truthfully, when you become as fast/strong as you can be that is a good time to start increasing to long distances. In running it has been proven to me that the kids who run lots of 10K, half marathons, and marathons place high (going slow), get tons of attention (they are cute and precocious), but then really don't enjoy their middle school and high school programs too much since the longest distances are 2 mile in Track and 5K (HS) in Cross Country. It's a tough pill to swallow when you're used to getting a big trophy and lots of attention for a subpar 10K, and not being able to win the 2 mile varsity race in ms/hs and receiving a lousy ribbon for doing so. With that said I also believe keeping people moving is a big issue in society. If I had a child who was begging me to do uber distance events or challenges I'd probably allow it if it got them off their butts and moving.
