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?
Sprinter Girl,
I spent my first two years in HS in Newark, NJ then we moved to Westfield, NJ a town of maybe 25,000 at the time. Westfield was maybe 20 minutes from Newark and considered the suburbs. We moved there because of swimming. Swimming was big in Westifeld. Some of my teammates swam age group and thru college. I never even heard of age group swimming until we moved to Westfield at age 15. We trained from mid November to March when we had the state meet - that was it. No weight training, no year round, no summer (and no goggles). I suspect we may have even been better if we had gone year round but I probably wouldn't be swimming and with so much joy today.
Glenn Gruber:)
Sprinter Girl,
I spent my first two years in HS in Newark, NJ then we moved to Westfield, NJ a town of maybe 25,000 at the time. Westfield was maybe 20 minutes from Newark and considered the suburbs. We moved there because of swimming. Swimming was big in Westifeld. Some of my teammates swam age group and thru college. I never even heard of age group swimming until we moved to Westfield at age 15. We trained from mid November to March when we had the state meet - that was it. No weight training, no year round, no summer (and no goggles). I suspect we may have even been better if we had gone year round but I probably wouldn't be swimming and with so much joy today.
Glenn Gruber:)
