9 Year Old Marvel What? But How?

I have been lurking for a little while. I did a search today on youth swimming as my 9yr old told me she was going to play soccer this spring and not continue with her year round club. I came across this thread. Her background, started summer club as a 5yr old part time, a few meets and practice 3X week and had a ball. She did summer club full time (here it is 2 months during the summer, 5 mornings a week practice and a meet on Saturdays) as a 6yr old and placed 7th in the state meet 8U in the backstroke (25m). As a 7yr old, she made the state tourney in Free (25m and 50m), Fly (25m), and Back (25m) and really improved her times all around, except her back which was about the same as her state time from a year previous. She swam for a couple of months during the winter last year (2X) a week as an 8yr old but didn't do any meets and then was a world beater in her summer club, state champ in both 50 free and 25 back and 2nd in 25 free. Qualified for state in every event and even swam a legal *** three times (B time, then League time, then State time). This fall, after soccer ended in October, she wanted to swim again for the winter. We limit the kids activities to something athletic and something else (music, art, chess, oral interp etc.) at a time, they would want to participate in everything it seems, at all times. Instead of the group she had swam with the previous winter, we decided to try out the local year round clubs (there are three about the same distance from our home). She spent a week with each. I sent an email to each of the three clubs with her experience and times and let them know that she was looking to swim 3X a week, but not necessarily race as ski season was coming up and she would be gone most weekends with the family skiing. It was an interesting three weeks. The largest club put her in a beginner group because all of their "serious" groups swam at least four times a week. So she swam circles around these kids for a week and we moved on to the next club. The next club had her come in and start with their beginner group. They pulled her out of the lane after a lap and told her to wait until the next higher group started in 45 minutes. In the 45 minutes she met a couple of the girls in the next group and was besties with them before practice had even started. She really enjoyed her new friends, the coach, and the workouts. The last club she really clicked with the coach and liked the workouts but didn't meet a soul in the week and didn't have fun. After the three weeks it was a no brainer, club #2. After Thanksgiving break we would start her in her first year round club. There was a meet at the end of that first week, there were office x-mas parties so we couldn't ski and she wanted to compete and the coach was able to get her into the meet. Whoa! What a difference between summer club and year round. Our little swimmer did great in her first meet but I found out the true meaning of those younger phenoms the OP referred to. It is a whole different level. She placed in the top 1/5 of her 10U events but there were a handful of girls her age beating her, and a couple decidedly so. After that first week and her first meet, the coach moved her up into the next training group (she's the only 9yr old in the new group). Luckily there are a few 10 yr old girls that she quickly bonded with so the fear of leaving her besties behind quickly subsided. She's having fun and told me the other day coming home from practice that "Daddy, I just love swimming." My wife and I were taken back by how accomplished some of the 9yr olds were. Being the obsessive Dad, I did my research, all of them had been swimming year round for at least a couple of years. Some more, to the OPs question about young speedsters: My daughter has a perfect late May summer club swim birthday, she beats the age cutoff by four days so has up to almost a year advantage on some swimmers. It's not bad for year round SCY either with state being in March. She is tallish and very muscular for her age. I presume she has had great and consistent coaching for four summer seasons, our summer club is a top club in the state and consistently has strong performances. I have no swimming background so I wouldn't know and I've never sat through one of her practices so I have no idea what they do. She is the younger sister to an older brother and competitive as hell, she will kill herself in practices, doesn't know any different. To Astro, my daughter did "Girls on the Run" last year as her fall and spring sports (5k run training program) with 2 months of 2X a week swimming in the winter, she dropped from 19-20 second 25m Free's as a 7yr old to 16-17 seconds, one season to the next. This has all been a long drawn out way of getting to our fears that she was going to be left behind by not staying with the year round team and going back to soccer and hence the search and find of this thread this morning. To everyone here, I came with my worries, after reading all of this I intend to go home, hug her, tell her how proud I am of her and wish her the best when soccer comes around. She still intends to do summer club ("Dad, I would die for them!") and we will see what she wants to do next fall, next fall. USA Swimming should add this thread to their parents page.

I have been lurking for a little while. I did a search today on youth swimming as my 9yr old told me she was going to play soccer this spring and not continue with her year round club. I came across this thread. Her background, started summer club as a 5yr old part time, a few meets and practice 3X week and had a ball. She did summer club full time (here it is 2 months during the summer, 5 mornings a week practice and a meet on Saturdays) as a 6yr old and placed 7th in the state meet 8U in the backstroke (25m). As a 7yr old, she made the state tourney in Free (25m and 50m), Fly (25m), and Back (25m) and really improved her times all around, except her back which was about the same as her state time from a year previous. She swam for a couple of months during the winter last year (2X) a week as an 8yr old but didn't do any meets and then was a world beater in her summer club, state champ in both 50 free and 25 back and 2nd in 25 free. Qualified for state in every event and even swam a legal *** three times (B time, then League time, then State time). This fall, after soccer ended in October, she wanted to swim again for the winter. We limit the kids activities to something athletic and something else (music, art, chess, oral interp etc.) at a time, they would want to participate in everything it seems, at all times. Instead of the group she had swam with the previous winter, we decided to try out the local year round clubs (there are three about the same distance from our home). She spent a week with each. I sent an email to each of the three clubs with her experience and times and let them know that she was looking to swim 3X a week, but not necessarily race as ski season was coming up and she would be gone most weekends with the family skiing. It was an interesting three weeks. The largest club put her in a beginner group because all of their "serious" groups swam at least four times a week. So she swam circles around these kids for a week and we moved on to the next club. The next club had her come in and start with their beginner group. They pulled her out of the lane after a lap and told her to wait until the next higher group started in 45 minutes. In the 45 minutes she met a couple of the girls in the next group and was besties with them before practice had even started. She really enjoyed her new friends, the coach, and the workouts. The last club she really clicked with the coach and liked the workouts but didn't meet a soul in the week and didn't have fun. After the three weeks it was a no brainer, club #2. After Thanksgiving break we would start her in her first year round club. There was a meet at the end of that first week, there were office x-mas parties so we couldn't ski and she wanted to compete and the coach was able to get her into the meet. Whoa! What a difference between summer club and year round. Our little swimmer did great in her first meet but I found out the true meaning of those younger phenoms the OP referred to. It is a whole different level. She placed in the top 1/5 of her 10U events but there were a handful of girls her age beating her, and a couple decidedly so. After that first week and her first meet, the coach moved her up into the next training group (she's the only 9yr old in the new group). Luckily there are a few 10 yr old girls that she quickly bonded with so the fear of leaving her besties behind quickly subsided. She's having fun and told me the other day coming home from practice that "Daddy, I just love swimming." My wife and I were taken back by how accomplished some of the 9yr olds were. Being the obsessive Dad, I did my research, all of them had been swimming year round for at least a couple of years. Some more, to the OPs question about young speedsters: My daughter has a perfect late May summer club swim birthday, she beats the age cutoff by four days so has up to almost a year advantage on some swimmers. It's not bad for year round SCY either with state being in March. She is tallish and very muscular for her age. I presume she has had great and consistent coaching for four summer seasons, our summer club is a top club in the state and consistently has strong performances. I have no swimming background so I wouldn't know and I've never sat through one of her practices so I have no idea what they do. She is the younger sister to an older brother and competitive as hell, she will kill herself in practices, doesn't know any different. To Astro, my daughter did "Girls on the Run" last year as her fall and spring sports (5k run training program) with 2 months of 2X a week swimming in the winter, she dropped from 19-20 second 25m Free's as a 7yr old to 16-17 seconds, one season to the next. This has all been a long drawn out way of getting to our fears that she was going to be left behind by not staying with the year round team and going back to soccer and hence the search and find of this thread this morning. To everyone here, I came with my worries, after reading all of this I intend to go home, hug her, tell her how proud I am of her and wish her the best when soccer comes around. She still intends to do summer club ("Dad, I would die for them!") and we will see what she wants to do next fall, next fall. USA Swimming should add this thread to their parents page.