Is swimming "eating its young?" Are they being burned out with mindless yardage? Do they have to do volume training for long events? Are we missing masters swimmers who were burned out as youths? As to the kids, what can we do to stop the cannabalism?
Parents
Former Member
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.
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.
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.
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.
