My son is 13 and this is his first year swimming in a club. For many different reasons he was late getting into the sport and slow to warm up to it but right now he is loving it and wants to do everything he can to get better. The problem is he is not getting better fast enough (for him). I keep telling him to be patient and put in the work, but it's completely devastating to him to go to meet after meet and have marginal improvements. I want to stress that he is the one who wants this - to improve his times, to get faster, to not be dead last in every event. He is very much aware of where he is right now. He does not want to be an Olympic swimmer, obviously, just a better one than he is right now. We talk about improving in relation to his own times, not comparing himself to others, enjoying the fun of it, but he is 13 and I guess it's not great for your self esteem when your times are so much worse than your teammates. He keeps asking me, when is it going to kick in for him. Right now he swims 4 times a week about 2 hours each practice. He does some dryland (not much). I guess what I am asking is - what can we do to help?
I just listened to a fairly interesting podcast featuring Olympic swimmer Conor Dwyer. Although he comes from an athletic family, he was a late bloomer. Not recruited out of high school. 5'9" (to his current 6'5"). It may help provide some perspective with respect to persistence, patience and provide a real world juxtaposition between early success and a longer journey.
findingmastery.net/.../
I just listened to a fairly interesting podcast featuring Olympic swimmer Conor Dwyer. Although he comes from an athletic family, he was a late bloomer. Not recruited out of high school. 5'9" (to his current 6'5"). It may help provide some perspective with respect to persistence, patience and provide a real world juxtaposition between early success and a longer journey.
findingmastery.net/.../
