The Fastest Age

Originally posted by dorothyrd My son was pushed up into the higher training levels because of his speed at 10. Because of that at 16 he is fighting some technique issues. His "VO2" is probably great based on ION's theory, but what he is lacking is some technique that is holding him back from achieving things like Y-nat cuts. The coach recognizes this, is working hard to correct it, and I see some improvements, and with these improvements has come a drop in time 200 free 2:02 to 1:56 this year. Just this year my son has told me he can now feel when the stroke goes bad and that makes him correct. I think this is one of the more profound statements in this entire thread! I was rather startled several months ago to read a statement by a former Olympic swimmer in which he said that he thought a competitive swimmer should, for the first 2 or 3 years, not worry about speed at all, but focus entirely on perfecting technique. Of course, I doubt that very many kids have the maturity to actually do this. But they at least have the advantage that the swimmers they are racing against are also (if their coaches are good) focusing primarily on perfecting their technique. And they also know that they are too young to compete in the Olympics this year, regardless of how good their times are. While swimmers who begin competing as adults hopefully have more maturity, they also have the disadvantage of having to race against swimmers who have, for the most part, perfected their technique and who are now focusing on speed in their training. And they may also feel a certain urgency about accomplishing their goals, since they know that their body's aging clock is ticking, and that, for them, aging is going to make them less able to achieve their goals, not more able (as it would for a 10-year-old). Also, adults usually feel much freer to ignore the advice of coaches. The bottom line is that beginning competitive swimmers have needs that are very similar regardless of whether they are 6 years old or 60 years old. It takes a number of years to develop yourself as a competitive swimmer, and trying to find a short cut will most likely just short circuit your long-term progress as a swimmer. Bob

Originally posted by dorothyrd My son was pushed up into the higher training levels because of his speed at 10. Because of that at 16 he is fighting some technique issues. His "VO2" is probably great based on ION's theory, but what he is lacking is some technique that is holding him back from achieving things like Y-nat cuts. The coach recognizes this, is working hard to correct it, and I see some improvements, and with these improvements has come a drop in time 200 free 2:02 to 1:56 this year. Just this year my son has told me he can now feel when the stroke goes bad and that makes him correct. I think this is one of the more profound statements in this entire thread! I was rather startled several months ago to read a statement by a former Olympic swimmer in which he said that he thought a competitive swimmer should, for the first 2 or 3 years, not worry about speed at all, but focus entirely on perfecting technique. Of course, I doubt that very many kids have the maturity to actually do this. But they at least have the advantage that the swimmers they are racing against are also (if their coaches are good) focusing primarily on perfecting their technique. And they also know that they are too young to compete in the Olympics this year, regardless of how good their times are. While swimmers who begin competing as adults hopefully have more maturity, they also have the disadvantage of having to race against swimmers who have, for the most part, perfected their technique and who are now focusing on speed in their training. And they may also feel a certain urgency about accomplishing their goals, since they know that their body's aging clock is ticking, and that, for them, aging is going to make them less able to achieve their goals, not more able (as it would for a 10-year-old). Also, adults usually feel much freer to ignore the advice of coaches. The bottom line is that beginning competitive swimmers have needs that are very similar regardless of whether they are 6 years old or 60 years old. It takes a number of years to develop yourself as a competitive swimmer, and trying to find a short cut will most likely just short circuit your long-term progress as a swimmer. Bob