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?
Whew, I feel better getting that off my chest.
I'm glad you got it off your chest. It was a great post. Did you live in a small town or rural area or a metro area? Just wondering. It seems to me that the emphasis on intense specialization at a young age and hyper-competition is more prevalent in urban areas with a lot of super achieving parents. But could be wrong ... I biked and climbed trees and did stuff as a youth long ago. But I quit other sports to focus on swimming at age 12. I still did some fun stuff, just not other organized sports. I always put school first. Which is probably why my swim team did not beat Princeton and Yale when I was in school. :rofl:
Whew, I feel better getting that off my chest.
I'm glad you got it off your chest. It was a great post. Did you live in a small town or rural area or a metro area? Just wondering. It seems to me that the emphasis on intense specialization at a young age and hyper-competition is more prevalent in urban areas with a lot of super achieving parents. But could be wrong ... I biked and climbed trees and did stuff as a youth long ago. But I quit other sports to focus on swimming at age 12. I still did some fun stuff, just not other organized sports. I always put school first. Which is probably why my swim team did not beat Princeton and Yale when I was in school. :rofl:
