Greetings
OK I am calling on all of you current/former competitors and/or age group coaches and parents. I am the parent of a 13 yo age grouper who is crazy about swimming. In his current season he has gone from a B/A swimmer to a sectional qualifier. He has worked very hard since last September and will swim sectionals in mid March. Here is my question. Should I require that he backs off or stops swimming in the spring and summer just for resting purposes. He is like a young colt that will just keep on swimming if not reigned in. He loves to swim and compete. I worry about burning him out. I want him to still like to swim when he is my age. By the way I have no personal competitive swimming background so all of this is new to me.
Regards
Spudfin
Greetings
My sense when I wrote the question was that I would try to talk him into a 2 or 3 week break to just relax and have some fun away from the pool. That seems to be what I am hearing from you all who have been through this. I honestly don't know if he will want to be away from it that long. The social connection he has with his team is really strong.
I think one way you'll gauge whether or not his coach and his group are likely to be good for him in the long term is whether or not you have to talk him into it. If your son's coach has your son's and his peers' best interest in mind, the coach will encourage them all to periodize their training, and they will all do it because it's part of the program. If the team is taking a break, meaning less swimming or no swimming, he'll take a break. When I was growing up it wasn't an option to "swim through," because we just didn't have practice (or didn't have doubles) some times of the year.
Greetings
My sense when I wrote the question was that I would try to talk him into a 2 or 3 week break to just relax and have some fun away from the pool. That seems to be what I am hearing from you all who have been through this. I honestly don't know if he will want to be away from it that long. The social connection he has with his team is really strong.
I think one way you'll gauge whether or not his coach and his group are likely to be good for him in the long term is whether or not you have to talk him into it. If your son's coach has your son's and his peers' best interest in mind, the coach will encourage them all to periodize their training, and they will all do it because it's part of the program. If the team is taking a break, meaning less swimming or no swimming, he'll take a break. When I was growing up it wasn't an option to "swim through," because we just didn't have practice (or didn't have doubles) some times of the year.
