Is Swimming Eating Its Young?

I think any large USA Swimming team should have two different tracks for swimmers. An elite track for those striving for a scholarship to an NCAA Division I program, Olympic Trials cuts, etc. and another for kids who enjoy competitive swimming but don't want to spend every waking moment either in the pool or in school. It seems like a lot of coaches have strict policies about attendance and training that end up turning lots of kids away. There should always be a place for those who want to really sacrifice for the sport, but does every swimmer need to do this?

There is a great article in the current ASCA magazine about training high school only swimmers. It advises making the feel like swimmers and make them feel they belong. Teach them starts and turns and technique. Don't worry about conditioning as the will get that working on those things. The author says that then some will want to make the jump to the USS team. rowdy Gaines and Ed Moses came to swimming at HS age and did well.

And then they kick you out when you are 18 saying go swim in college, or have a nice life. It seems like if you haven't "made it" or about to make it by the time you are 18 you aren't going to "get anywhere" with swimming. This is not unique to swimming. In fact, swimming is one of the few sports where you can compete on a high level with the elite until you are 18. By age 12 or 13 in basketball and football and perhaps a bit later in baseball you are either on the elite/select/varsity team or playing with the other scrubs in some local rec league. In pretty much all sports the big age of decision on committment is around 14/15. Plus, the number of teams dwindles as you get on in your teen years so naturally only the better kids will stay around. The nice thing about swimming is there are still a ton of teams for kids even if they aren't elite, but can still train with some darn good swimmers until the college years. We can all cite an example here and there of some kids who made the jump at age 17 but the vast majority aren't going to do that in any sport, period.

to be honest, most age group coaches have no idea what is going on. They train their little kids for the now and forget about the future.

to be honest, most age group coaches have no idea what is going on. They train their little kids for the now and forget about the future. And then they kick you out when you are 18 saying go swim in college, or have a nice life. It seems like if you haven't "made it" or about to make it by the time you are 18 you aren't going to "get anywhere" with swimming. I was never taught you should work out for at least a half hour a day for the rest of your life, might as well keep up the swimming since you like it. My sister, who was an excellent age grouper was totally burnt by the time she made it to college and decided it was time to focus on school because it was clear by what she had been taught that she could not get any further with her swimming. She was lucky enough to go to a school that had a masters program in addition to their varsity program so she ended up coaching and swimming a little bit. But I think if it wasn't for the do or die approach both her and I could have broken that barrier in college and been able to swim at a national rather than regional level. There's a misconception that you can't have a breakthrough and peak when you are 20, 22, 25, etc. Looking back I think I could have. I wasn't fully developed until I was 21. How are you supposed to be at your best when your body hasn't even peaked yet? And if you aren't going to that level you're pretty much tossed to the wolves and have no idea what the options are for continued swimming purely for fun. The good news for me is I've found my way back and it only took 4 years. :agree: AND my sister is going to make a cross state expedition with her 3 month old to watch my swim meet next week. There's no way she will be able to watch and not get charged about swimming again. I think she secretly knows this about herself and thinks this will help motivate her. I feel like the more I talk about it, the more I get former swimmers interested and involved. I think it's just a lack of realizing the opportunity.

1) Children should progress with children of their same age. A fast 12 year old should not train with 17 and 18 year olds no matter how fast he/she is. Maturity level of the swimmers needs to be the same and the coach should not have to try to speak to multiple levels of age appropriate intellects. 2) Children up to about the age of 10 to 12 should do more than one sport even if one is done more than the other. you don't know what they will really like or what they will excel at later in life. 3) The amount of time spent on any give sport/hobby/interest (music included) should be age appropriate. No 8 year old should be doing any one thing (non-school) more than 2 or 3 hours a week including travel time. The time can increase with age as interest increases but it has to be appropriate for the maturity of the mind and body. Freshman in high school should not be doing doubles during the school year. Juniors might do it once or twice. Seniors twice a week. On the mental side, this is important because too many kids will begin to measure themselves by what they do with this time (in this case we are talking swimming) and they need to be more than single dimensional people. 4) Parents need to look at this before they join a swim team if they have more than one option. In any case, they need to let the team know that this is what they believe up front so that there are no surprises later. Leo Leo: Great post. Excellent, excellent advice. I chose my kids' team for all the reasons you articulated, although my daughter does swim with some older kids -- but not 17 year olds. I would also add that I think summer swim leagues are fabulous. It is more of a team sport. It is very low key. People do silly cheers and have meet "themes." Parents embarass themselves by swimming old codger relays one night. It is a nice break from high intensity youth meets and long course summer training. My kids love their summer team. I wouldn't let me daughter swim long course until this year. I remember when I started it, I hated it. I wanted her to wait a bit before embarking on that long haul. It's clearly in her future. But there's no reason the future has to start so very young. All: I wonder if personality play a role in burnout? I have an evolving theory that I have been studying and mulling over. No one, of course, has to agree with it. In my experience, and only my personal experience, I have found many (not saying most here) young elite swimmers are somewhat introspective perfectionists who prefer individual sports and are very intense and hard on themselves. (I was like that as an age grouper.) I am beginning to wonder whether this particular personality type may risk burnout more than others when it is combined with high yardage and (possible) injury. I read an article in Splash magazine about Whitney Myers. She is a bubbly, chatty extrovert. Kate Zeigler is the same way. I know some other age groupers just like that who view swim meets as parties, smile the whole time and don't sob or pout or chastise themselves when they don't do a personal best. I wonder if that type of personality is perhaps not as apt to burn out? Just a thought. Obviously, lots of intense types do equally well and don't burn out. And you need intensity and focus as you get older. I just wonder whether intensity + intense yardage might = earlier burnout.

My son quit because of burn-out, and the things Donna points out. At 16, he wanted to spend more time with friends, who because our school has no swim team were not swimmers. He said he was very, very tired of going to practice every day, and wanted to do other things. He had been swimming since he was 8. He also said there was no where to take it after high school. The schools he was interested in attending had no men's teams because they had been cut long ago. The things that had been motivating, such as making Nationals, and such, no longer were important to him. It was hard for him to make the decision, but we pointed out that it is always there, if he found out he missed it he could go back. And since he is a late grower, he would probably find he was stronger with growth. At 18, he has not gone back, except to be a life guard. I asked him last summer if he missed it at all. He said he misses competing, and his swim team friends, but he does not miss going to practice at all. My daughter is 13, and not at a very high level at all. She was angry when he quit, because she saw it as such a waste, he was the one that won all the medals and such, and he was throwing that away. She has gotten over that, and actually is starting to struggle with the same thing. Her friends at school are not swimmers. Next year when she goes to High School, and her swim team friends have high school teams, it may change and she will not want to swim. I already know she will not even have time to swim until November because she will be in marching band, and in drama, and the fall play takes a lot of time. Then the band and chorus is going to Hawaii in December, so there will be lots of additional practices. If the swimming were local, it would not be as hard to fit in, but fitting the driving time in as well, is going to make it real hard for her to stick with it. So with her, I have been trying to sell the fitness swimmer aspect. Maybe she will not be highly competitive, but she can get in and swim, keep in touch with her swim friends, but not swim as many days as it takes to achieve at a higher level. She actually really enjoys swimming practice more than meets, so she is different than my son, who swam practice for the meets. She also likes to swim with me(and beat me), and likes the idea of being on a Masters relay some day with me.

Geek, LOVE the avatar. "You got a pretty mouth..."

I would be interested to hear how your daughter is doing at age 13-14. My observations is that this is the most difficult time for girls, and when the drop out is highest. Their bodies change so much, and there is a lot of things for them to deal with.

This is probably right, unfortunately. But I do know good age group coaches too. I think the parents might need to step in a bit here. My daughter starting swimming relatively late at 8 with a summer swim league. I only let her practice with her USS 2x a week for 1 hour until she turned 11. Then I let her go 3x a week. She was also playing other sports, which I understand help create/build an all around better athlete. She did quite well. Swimming 2x a week she went to the Eastern Zone Championships in NJ. I say this not to brag -- although she is a totally rocking swimmer chick and so bursting with enthusiasm and passion that it would mitigate some of Terry's concerns about burnout and "hamburgers" -- but to show what can be done on low yardage. She swims more now, and I do worry that burnout is possible. But she swims a lot less yardage than her peers who are doing 400 IMs at age 12. My wife swam in college but did not enjoy it. She was burned out and hated her "conventional" coach. I did not swim. But I sure like it now. Some guy: Since the other post we were conversing on was closed, I just wanted to tell you that my daughter did not kick my butt in the 50 fly. :groovy: Ha, ha, ha. I might still have one year left. However, she is now 5 seconds ahead of me in the 50 ***. Natch. But I love watching her! I sounds like your daughter is already kicking your butt. :yawn: