Is Swimming Eating Its Young?

Fortress, I agree with your summer league comments. My wife ran one in St Louis for 21 years. The team grew from about 100 to where they capped it at 200. There were a few things that were key themes for her. The kids learned to swim the strokes, everyone participated, there were other things that were fun during the summer that you did with the team - parties etc. She also got the older kids to come in and help with the younger kids which really helped build a sense of team. With this true sense of team she was able to keep a great number of kids until they graduated from High School. She also was a major reason the club stayed opened when many of the other ones were being turned into homes. It was also interesting to see how others reacted to the team. The team she coached only lost 4 or 5 meets while she was there - having 6 and unders who can do all 4 strokes legally really helps - and more than once someone came to the league meeting with a plan to split the team or kick them out because of the success. We heard people complaining about the fact that she was a "professional" coach. The bottom line though was that these kids kept coming back because they had fun and enjoyed the team. Leo

I think there are many examples of good and bad youth coaches. In Austin TX my kids have swum for three different club teams and our worst experience is with the one everyone associates with Austin. It was shocking how little coaching our kids got. My kids are solid but not elite swimmers. One coach (no longer there) gave my son's team a 75x100 set and left the deck for the duration of the set. 5700 pull was another. Absolutely ridiculous. Many of the stars of this particular team are imports whose parents do not live with their kids. The talent was developed elsewhere. They come here to swim with the fastest. My kids don't swim there anymore. I won't recommend that team to anyone unless they already have AAAA times ore are close to Trials cuts. What disappoints me about so many youth coaches is that they coach like they were coached 20 years ago. They have so little knowledge of physiology. They don't spend enough time on technique - just yardage. My HS freshman swims HS in the mornings 5x, then club 4x in the afternoons. His HS practices are fairly sloppy and not particularly hard. We're monitoring his fatigue level closely and at all times his grades are prioritized above swimming.

Think dueling banjos Fortress. You may not live this one down.:laugh2: I read books. I don't watch TV much. I'm trying to keep up with LBJ and Frank Thompson in the encyclopedia department. Now, however, you've wrecked my nice new image of Geek and I will have to continue thinking of him as Speedo-Man....

That movie is old.....I think I was in HS when it came out.

That movie is old.....I think I was in HS when it came out. See, I was too busy doing doubles in high school and stressing out my shoulder to be watching R rated movies...

See, I was too busy doing doubles in high school and stressing out my shoulder to be watching R rated movies... :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:

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:

I am a few years past the "age of commitment," yet welcome alternate sport distractions. Basketball, flag football, softball (which let me tell you, there's practically no exercise there, but its fun!)... I like to view them as part of my crosstraining. Granted, most of the time, swimming will take priority in a conflict. And back to the commitment thing, I am signed up to learn how to play hockey this winter, which I am counting on helping me kick some buttocks in Federal Way this May! On the one hand, I know I may be nearing my swim peak and am willing to go to extremes to kick butt while I still can. On the other hand, swimming can get a little monotonous sometimes... :banana:

crosstraining.... I may be nearing my swim peak and am willing to go to extremes to kick butt while I still can. :banana: Cross-training. :banana: You're not at your peak -- ridiculous. It seem to me that you're improving! :banana:

Cross-training. :banana: You're not at your peak -- ridiculous. It seem to me that you're improving! :banana: True - just PB'd the mile this morning (but when you've only swum it once before, thats not too hard to do ;-P). Just trying to keep that peak further away! I love the bananas!