9 Year Old Marvel What? But How?

I know this is an old thread but I came about it in my search for an answer to my own question about best training strategies for 11 year olds. I agree with member petermass that RAC has been treated quite rudely in the responses. I see him as enthusiastic and wanting to do his part as well as he can. How does a child become a champion swimmer? There are many factors: 1) child has natural athletic ability 2) child has physique that lends itself to swimming (importance of this and exactly which type seems still a matter of debate) 3) child has interest in swimming, wants to train, wants to compete, is willing to make sacrifices to complete the training necessary to keep improving 4) child has access to great coaching 5) parents can afford training 6) family lives near pool and regular training is practicable 7) parents willing/able to drop off and pick up, parents are involved and make decisions in early years about how and when child will train, parents are available to give support and encouragement and perhaps some mental coaching - how to handle setbacks, how to give yourself pep talks, how to handle the pressure of competition 8) swimmer has access to national organization to develop talent and pull swimmers along through age level competitions, zone meets, nationals, etc. 9)child makes it through middle school with no competing interests Probably other factors can be added to this list. I like the previous poster's comment about "necessary but not sufficient". Perhaps each of these factors is "necessary but not sufficient". Each of these factors must come in to play and be sustained over the long haul. We are American, currently living in Beijing, and my daughter trains here with a private club. We have attended international meets around Asia. At these meets I have seen amazing performances from 9-10 year olds from the Philippines, in particular. They were also doing under 30 times for 50 m free. I talked to some of the parents and learned they had a very aggressive training schedule: early morning and afternoon training, 6-8 practices a week already at 9 y/o. My daughter's coach works on the principle, with which I tend to agree, that too much endurance training at that age leads to, at the least, an over-reliance on strength and possibly burnout. He came out of the Chinese national team and he has the same critique of his own training: too much volume at a young age. They were beating everyone in the field at 9-10 y/o because they were pushing high volume at a very early age. Then at 15 they started losing out to people who had been focusing more on technique and not so much on sheer power, who then got a natural boost in power from growth and muscle development at 13-14 and who had started stepping up the volume(yardage) of their training at that point. The Philippines is not known as a powerhouse for swimming, yet their young swimmers were beating everyone in the pool. It will be interesting to see if these same swimmers stay in the game and are top contenders when they are 17-18 yrs old, or are they focusing on the wrong things? Or are there other factors that come in to play that distract or divert swimmers from the Philippines away from the Olympic track? So that may be why the 9 yr old that RAC mentioned may be such a marvel now: lots of high volume swimming. It could also be natural talent. But we know that natural talent is not enough. All the other factors must be in place for the long haul. As swim parents we must find a way to 1) be happy for that other child’s success, 2) potentially learn from her, 3) not get discouraged about where our own child is at. It is good to be aware of the fastest times out there, but not to freak out or obsess about them. Incorporate them into your daughter's own time targets and stretch targets, keeping in mind that anything might happen along the way to your swimmer and other swimmers. Some top swimmers might burn out or get other interests. I see my daughter has incredible mental stamina, she doesn't get discouraged or beat herself up, the stress of competitions has a focusing and relaxing effect on her, and she is great on race day. In the long run this may give her better times than people who are beating her now. Who knows? But I am not going to give up on her, even at 11 y/o, just because there are faster times out there. My daughter is small: is that going to be an advantage or a disadvantage? I don't know, but I can't control that so I won't worry about it. I just want her to have beautiful technique, beautiful starts, beautiful turns. She focuses on her PBs and trying to improve those times. On training The focus on technique seems to make sense, so my daughter has only gradually stepped up the number of practices. At 10 my daughter started doing 4 practices a week, 1.5 hrs each, 3000-3500m each practice, and at 11 added to that some dry land training for endurance, strength and variety, sometimes 5 practices a week. So, RAC, the 1500m per practice you mentioned sounds a bit low. Maybe you could add a practice time to get her volume up to 10,000m+ a week. And see how your daughter is doing: does she feel burned out and tired from that much? Then scale it back. Or add dry land training for variety: go running together. On the non-swimming days run 2-3K and do some strength and stretching. I think you are smart to find a coach to supplement the team training. Why not? I want to do that as well. I see that my daughter's coach can't give her the extra help she needs, I accept that, I try to find another way. As parents we can do our best to control all the factors that we can control and be at peace with our decisions, be at peace with our performance as a swim parent. And peacefully accept those factors we can't control (other people's times, natural born ability or lack of). On having fun My daughter enjoys training and being with her swim mates but she is there to train. She is a gracious winner and gracious loser, but she competes to win. She started at a new school this term and swimming has been a nice continuity for her, the training is a good stress reliever. I think she is comforted by the predictability of it: if she works hard at it she will improve, while other things in life are unpredictable and out of her control. So in that way it is a good activity for her. I wouldn’t say she does it to “have fun” but does derive a deep satisfaction from the training itself and the sense of achievement. She doesn’t do it to be social and make friends, but that is a secondary benefit. I try to be at as many swim practices as I can because I love my daughter and want to watch her swim. :anim_coffee:

I know this is an old thread but I came about it in my search for an answer to my own question about best training strategies for 11 year olds. I agree with member petermass that RAC has been treated quite rudely in the responses. I see him as enthusiastic and wanting to do his part as well as he can. How does a child become a champion swimmer? There are many factors: 1) child has natural athletic ability 2) child has physique that lends itself to swimming (importance of this and exactly which type seems still a matter of debate) 3) child has interest in swimming, wants to train, wants to compete, is willing to make sacrifices to complete the training necessary to keep improving 4) child has access to great coaching 5) parents can afford training 6) family lives near pool and regular training is practicable 7) parents willing/able to drop off and pick up, parents are involved and make decisions in early years about how and when child will train, parents are available to give support and encouragement and perhaps some mental coaching - how to handle setbacks, how to give yourself pep talks, how to handle the pressure of competition 8) swimmer has access to national organization to develop talent and pull swimmers along through age level competitions, zone meets, nationals, etc. 9)child makes it through middle school with no competing interests Probably other factors can be added to this list. I like the previous poster's comment about "necessary but not sufficient". Perhaps each of these factors is "necessary but not sufficient". Each of these factors must come in to play and be sustained over the long haul. We are American, currently living in Beijing, and my daughter trains here with a private club. We have attended international meets around Asia. At these meets I have seen amazing performances from 9-10 year olds from the Philippines, in particular. They were also doing under 30 times for 50 m free. I talked to some of the parents and learned they had a very aggressive training schedule: early morning and afternoon training, 6-8 practices a week already at 9 y/o. My daughter's coach works on the principle, with which I tend to agree, that too much endurance training at that age leads to, at the least, an over-reliance on strength and possibly burnout. He came out of the Chinese national team and he has the same critique of his own training: too much volume at a young age. They were beating everyone in the field at 9-10 y/o because they were pushing high volume at a very early age. Then at 15 they started losing out to people who had been focusing more on technique and not so much on sheer power, who then got a natural boost in power from growth and muscle development at 13-14 and who had started stepping up the volume(yardage) of their training at that point. The Philippines is not known as a powerhouse for swimming, yet their young swimmers were beating everyone in the pool. It will be interesting to see if these same swimmers stay in the game and are top contenders when they are 17-18 yrs old, or are they focusing on the wrong things? Or are there other factors that come in to play that distract or divert swimmers from the Philippines away from the Olympic track? So that may be why the 9 yr old that RAC mentioned may be such a marvel now: lots of high volume swimming. It could also be natural talent. But we know that natural talent is not enough. All the other factors must be in place for the long haul. As swim parents we must find a way to 1) be happy for that other child’s success, 2) potentially learn from her, 3) not get discouraged about where our own child is at. It is good to be aware of the fastest times out there, but not to freak out or obsess about them. Incorporate them into your daughter's own time targets and stretch targets, keeping in mind that anything might happen along the way to your swimmer and other swimmers. Some top swimmers might burn out or get other interests. I see my daughter has incredible mental stamina, she doesn't get discouraged or beat herself up, the stress of competitions has a focusing and relaxing effect on her, and she is great on race day. In the long run this may give her better times than people who are beating her now. Who knows? But I am not going to give up on her, even at 11 y/o, just because there are faster times out there. My daughter is small: is that going to be an advantage or a disadvantage? I don't know, but I can't control that so I won't worry about it. I just want her to have beautiful technique, beautiful starts, beautiful turns. She focuses on her PBs and trying to improve those times. On training The focus on technique seems to make sense, so my daughter has only gradually stepped up the number of practices. At 10 my daughter started doing 4 practices a week, 1.5 hrs each, 3000-3500m each practice, and at 11 added to that some dry land training for endurance, strength and variety, sometimes 5 practices a week. So, RAC, the 1500m per practice you mentioned sounds a bit low. Maybe you could add a practice time to get her volume up to 10,000m+ a week. And see how your daughter is doing: does she feel burned out and tired from that much? Then scale it back. Or add dry land training for variety: go running together. On the non-swimming days run 2-3K and do some strength and stretching. I think you are smart to find a coach to supplement the team training. Why not? I want to do that as well. I see that my daughter's coach can't give her the extra help she needs, I accept that, I try to find another way. As parents we can do our best to control all the factors that we can control and be at peace with our decisions, be at peace with our performance as a swim parent. And peacefully accept those factors we can't control (other people's times, natural born ability or lack of). On having fun My daughter enjoys training and being with her swim mates but she is there to train. She is a gracious winner and gracious loser, but she competes to win. She started at a new school this term and swimming has been a nice continuity for her, the training is a good stress reliever. I think she is comforted by the predictability of it: if she works hard at it she will improve, while other things in life are unpredictable and out of her control. So in that way it is a good activity for her. I wouldn’t say she does it to “have fun” but does derive a deep satisfaction from the training itself and the sense of achievement. She doesn’t do it to be social and make friends, but that is a secondary benefit. I try to be at as many swim practices as I can because I love my daughter and want to watch her swim. :anim_coffee: