Why are kids faster now days?

I beg to differ with the premise of this thread. As I look back to my own age group and highschool experience in the late 1970's in Ohio and compare for example the winning state championship times to the winning times from last year, many of the events seem to have improved very little or none at all. Certainly, stroke changes in back, *** and fly have allowed times to fall in comparison to times back then, but freestyle has had no major changes and appears to be similar when compared to times a quarter of a century ago. Certainly Phelps and others have lowered the mark, but age groupers don't seem that much faster to me now..... many seem slower. John Smith

I don't know if kids (age groupers) these days are really that much faster that kids from years past here's where you can see the All Time Top-100 Times for Age Groupers in the US www.usaswimming.org/.../DesktopDefault.aspx today's kids have every opportunity to swim faster, there's: + dolphin kicking + fast skin suits + the dolphin kick in breastroke and + freestyle turns in backstroke there's still several times and records holding up from years ago that aren't likely to be broken any time soon like: Jesse Vassallo 1500 free in 13 & 14 boys, he went 15:31 in 1976 One issue swimming faces is great athletes (people who could have been awesome swimmers) gravitate towards other sports I follow the results year after year from the Texas state high school championships, around 20.5 tends to win the 50 even though swimmers are now going 19 low, 18 high I think the difference is strength that comes from weight training and maturity Ande the craziest thing about Jesse Vassallo's record is the fact that the 13-14 boys 1650 free record is only a 15:26.93 (which converts to around 15:50.70 for LCM, so 4th in the top 100)... And Vassallo's best 1650 time is only a 15:30.66, also good enough for 4th in the top 100. I know some people excel at one course or the other, but that's insane! :eek: i agree with ande, i don't see that record going anywhere anytime soon...

Swimming in general,goggles. Goggles became popular in the early 70s,yardage went up and times went down through the 70s,but have leveled off for men since,except for dropping after a rule change.For women,title IX. Womens times continue to drop,and more girls are swimming(the number of boys swimming has been relatively stagnant.If Michael Phelps and Cullen Davis attract more boys to swimming then the mens times will begin to drop faster again.)

I agree with Jeff and John. The really elite swimmers aren't that much faster. But I think in general there are more swimmers competing at a higher level. I don't think it's all technique though. Where I live, a lot of kids are swimming 5-6x a week at age 10. (That's way too much, I think.) So it might be obsessive yardage or obsessive parenting that makes more kids fasters. Although I will say that my daughter really loves shaving down and putting on her fastskin...

Interesting thought Allen. What else can a great swimmer do to promote the sport to increase attendance and stop the drain to soccer and other sports? Seems like swimming doesn't promote itself as well as other sports. No doubt money and marketing are the reasons, but how many great swimmers in our lifetime spend as much time as say, Rowdy, promoting the sport that made them great to begin with. Arguably the greatest swimmer of all, Spitz, is seldom seen in the national media positively addressing or promoting the sport for its own sake. Perhaps this discussion is best left to another thread. John Smith

I don't know if kids (age groupers) these days are really that much faster that kids from years past here's where you can see the All Time Top-100 Times for Age Groupers in the US www.usaswimming.org/.../DesktopDefault.aspx today's kids have every opportunity to swim faster, there's: + dolphin kicking + fast skin suits + the dolphin kick in breastroke and + freestyle turns in backstroke there's still several times and records holding up from years ago that aren't likely to be broken any time soon like: Jesse Vassallo 1500 free in 13 & 14 boys, he went 15:31 in 1976 One issue swimming faces is great athletes (people who could have been awesome swimmers) gravitate towards other sports I follow the results year after year from the Texas state high school championships, around 20.5 tends to win the 50 even though swimmers are now going 19 low, 18 high I think the difference is strength that comes from weight training and maturity Ande

I'm not sure that there is much difference from when I was in hs (14 yrs ago). The top times are just about the same, but there is way more depth. Instead of two girls per team going 53-54 in the 100 free there are 7-8 girls in that range. I just attribute it to the fact that there is more pool time at an earlier age.

Can speak for the US but I think in Australia more kids learn to swim today (and hence talent is noticed early) than 30 years ago. Swimming lessons are compulsory in all primary schools.

Beetle, Do the kids take a bus to get their swim lessons or do the elementary schools have pools in them? If so, that is fantastic! I went to 3 different high schools and only one of the 3 had a pool. I think mandatory elementary swim lessons is a great idea, if for safety more than any other reason. The problem here (in the US) is pool access.

First off, it's not just the kids who are swimming faster. My 2006 almanac shows that all of the men's world records in swimming were set in 2000 or later, and that the same is true in women's swimming except for some long-standing distance freestyle records set in 1988 and 1989 by Janet Evans and a 200m backstroke record set in 1991 by Kristina Egerszegi. The record board at my local YMCA bears out what you are saying, though. But it also gives some clues about what the cause may be. There are quite a number of long-standing records in the 8 and under age group. In fact, the only records from this millenium were set by a boy who, significantly, has two older brothers and two older sisters who are competitive swimmers, and who consequently began swimming at a very young age (I know he was competing by at least age 6). But there are only a few old records in the 9-10 age group, and there are no old records in the 11-12 age group and above! The message is pretty clear! First, the cause of the faster times is not new swimming pool design, or better lane lines, or better starting blocks, or better swimsuits, or electronic timing systems. All of the swimmers, regardless of age, would benefit from these things, so they can't explain why the improvements are not being seen in the youngest swimmers. Nor is it the rule changes. First, beneficial rule changes have been made for only some strokes, but the improvements have been seen for all strokes. Second, the rule changes should, if anything, benefit younger swimmers more, since they were trained to take advantage of the new rules from the beginning, whereas older swimmers have had to retrain their strokes to take advantage of the rule changes. Third, most of the rule changes weren't all that recent. Backstroke flipturns have been allowed for more than a decade, so that can't explain why so many backstroke records have been set since 2000. What has changed is improvements in training and technique. And that can also explain why the improvements don't appear in the youngest age groups, who have only had one or two years of competitive training, but gradually appear over the next few years. Bob