Good Morning
I have posted before and as some may know I am the parent of a 13 year old age grouper. I have a question for all of you coaches and former swimmers as his mom and I have never swam competitively? How much volume should he be swimming at his age? I limit him to three hard workouts per week at this point and one dive practice. He also takes a lesson from a great private coach once a week that is just technique oriented and is just thirty minutes long. His total yardage is probably around 15K per week. Some of the other kids his age are doing twice the volume and the subtle pressure is there.
What do you suggest?
Thanks
Spudfin
PS I would rather he study more than swim more........
our 11-14 yr olds are swimming 5 times a week for 90-120 minutes a practice and they get between 4500-7500m depending on the type of practice. the 14-19yrs olds swim 6 times a week, 2 hours a day and get a lot more yardage in than the 11-14 yr old. the older kids also have wrestling on wednesday for 60 minutes.
back when I was 8-13 we swam 5 times a week can't remember if it was for 60 or 90 minutes, but I remember liking it. the only times I didn't swim every week night was when I had soccer or baseball practice.
it was around 13 that I started saturday mornings. and around 15 when I started 9 a week, and 16 when I could drive myself to all the mornings doing 11 a week.
The question really is : what is the overall goal ?
Strictly in terms of swimming - 3x a week is not enough to be highly competitive >> college swimming in the future.
Great point above. At some point - kids often wonder why they aren't improving much any more. 3 days a week is just not enough for most. Even if college swimming is not a goal - in Texas they would likely not reach the state high school swimming championships (16 swimmers per event) without more training.
3x a week is not enough to be highly competitive >> college swimming in the future.
Very true. The window of time to become a good recruit is very small.
By 16 or 17 you've got to be good, or that opportunity may pass right by (to be recruited/and or receive an athletic scholarship.)
There are however cases of still improving 18 year olds...joining up as walk-ons... and they turn out to be star athletes.
On the other hand, parents of younger children might just be happy to have their kids doing a sport.
I think the overall yardage is a whole different discussion - but there is not a lot of disagreement in terms of the required time commitment. There is quite a lot of info out there that 13-14 is the key age to start building - so 5-6 swim workouts at 90min+ is simply what it takes (you can probably add 2-3 dryland sessions) to become an elite swimmer.
I think this is sound advice. I taught a young man to swim at 11 and talked him into swimming year-round at 13 with the USA team I coached. He swam 5 times a week about 4,000 to 5,000 yards in a workout. Eased him into dryland work. By age 14, he was going a 55 in 100 back and 100 fly (yards). At 15, I sent him to a bigger USA team that had a number of boys on his level. He then started doing 9 swim workouts a week. His senior year of high school he was offered a full scholarship to swim for Tennessee.
If your son wants to add a practice in so that he swims 4 times a week, you might want to consider letting him do it.
I think the amount is based on what the parent is comfortable with based on other things like studying. I practice with age groupers and some are your son's age. They swim 4-6 times a week usually 4000-4500 a week day and 5000-6000 on Sat. Week day practices are 4:30-6am and Sat at 7-9am. We work on dives once a week - Thursdays.
If your child is comfortable with the schedule, keep it that way. If you son wants to do more harder workouts, let him. I was probably doing about 25,000 yards when I was his age.
I think the overall yardage is a whole different discussion - but there is not a lot of disagreement in terms of the required time commitment. There is quite a lot of info out there that 13-14 is the key age to start building - so 5-6 swim workouts at 90min+ is simply what it takes (you can probably add 2-3 dryland sessions) to become an elite swimmer.
My daughter just turned 14 and that's basically what she does. She just bumped up to 6x week, 2 hours each, with drylands. She has friends that do 8-9 x week, but that seems too much to me.
I think the overall yardage is a whole different discussion - but there is not a lot of disagreement in terms of the required time commitment. There is quite a lot of info out there that 13-14 is the key age to start building - so 5-6 swim workouts at 90min+ is simply what it takes (you can probably add 2-3 dryland sessions) to become an elite swimmer.
Volume is a just one tool coaches use to accomplish different goals. Increasing yardage can improve cardiovascular endurance, pain tolerance, pacing knowledge, stroke efficiency, and other important facets of swimming but you need to be careful. Increasing yards can be a double-edged sword. When coaches add yardage to swimmers with stroke flaws, bad habits can be reinforced and future successes can be stunted significantly.
It's rather easy to make sets more difficult by lowering intervals and/or increasing yardage and/or intensity. In a nutshell, a coach must have a method to their madness when manipulating various training aspects. If the program is helping improve athleticism (strength and specific swimming strength), technique, and adaptation to stress (swimming), it's on the right track.
A parent can become too involved in micro-managing their children's activity and in most cases (not all) it becomes very counterproductive. There are many support organizations that can help parents help their swimmers. Please go to the United States Swimming website and the American Swimming Coaches Association website where you'll find an abundant amount of helpful information for parents. Good luck!
