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 would say in general with steady practice, it is a three year process of steady year round work to get good. Good being maybe 80% of where you would be after 10 or more years. It’s been said 10 years to reach 100% full potential and that’s probably about right. If we take the 100 free for example and take 45 as 100% full potential for an elite HS athlete, then I would think if he were blessed with same ability then maybe he can hit 54 after 2-3 years. If he was at 50sec max potential, which by the way is extremely respectable, then I would think he could be under a minute in year two or three.
A lot has to do with body awareness and feel for the water. Those things hopefully he has. His time drops should be very significant over the next three years. They may not be linear, but nothing for a while then sudden, so he needs to take it as at least a three year process.
I would say in general with steady practice, it is a three year process of steady year round work to get good. Good being maybe 80% of where you would be after 10 or more years. It’s been said 10 years to reach 100% full potential and that’s probably about right. If we take the 100 free for example and take 45 as 100% full potential for an elite HS athlete, then I would think if he were blessed with same ability then maybe he can hit 54 after 2-3 years. If he was at 50sec max potential, which by the way is extremely respectable, then I would think he could be under a minute in year two or three.
A lot has to do with body awareness and feel for the water. Those things hopefully he has. His time drops should be very significant over the next three years. They may not be linear, but nothing for a while then sudden, so he needs to take it as at least a three year process.
