Hello. I found this forum while searching for an answer to my question. My son is a 14 year old high school swimmer and has just completed his meet season. He did not make state finals, so at the current time he is not swimming (or working on dry lands). The coach is focused on the kids who made it to state and they are currently swimming. My concern is that while he has made some huge improvements, how long is too long out of the pool? I encouraged him to start running for 30-45 minutes but compared to the 3-4 hours a day he was in the pool it doesn’t seem like enough. From my understanding he will be out for 3-4 weeks total. I just hate to see him lose the edge he’s worked so hard for.
Welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear your son is not able to swim in a team setting for about 3-4 weeks. Although it is slightly easier for a 14-year-old to bounce back from a few weeks without swimming, it is definitely better to keep up technique and conditioning by maintaining a more consistent swim schedule year-round, not to mention keeping up the interest and motivation in swimming. This would be a perfect time for your son to work on stroke technique - which is something that is more difficult to focus on in a team setting. You could try consulting with your son's coach to see what areas he could focus on, and he could then work on those areas a few days per week if he wanted to. Or, if that doesn't work out and the coach is not able to provide any additional insight, you could consult with a separate coach who specializes in stroke technique. From your posts it seems like you enjoy doing activities together with your son - you could even make swimming a project by helping him out as he swims once you've determined what he might need to work on.
There are definitely plenty of opportunities to keep up with the swimming, even when there is a forced break. Good luck!
The UIL rule is since swimming is listed as an individual sport, there isn't a limit on how much they can train. Our kids train (high school team) throughout the summer... over thanksgiving break, christmas break, etc. Every morning during the summer the kids are in the pool at 6 AM. incredible dedication from these kids, as well as from the coaching staff. We made sure he swam over the Christmas break, which just makes it more surprising to me that the're taking off this extended period of time. I found out they're actually taking off around 7 weeks.
I have my son working on some dry land tasks now... lots of isometric exercises, cycling, and a couple days a week in the pool. although dad is kind of a fatty these days, I used to be fairly active in cycling back in college, but have nearly zero experience with swimming. I would imagine the cardiovascular aspect is very similar.
I'm not an "abusive" sideline coaching kind of parent, I've just watched him work his butt off, and hate to see him regress. He even shaved his legs at the district meet!!! :D thanks for the responses everyone. I appreciate the input.
