9 Year Old Marvel What? But How?

Haven't checked to see if anyone has posted this yet. www.usaswimming.org/.../ViewMiscArticle.aspx

I should mention that to my son's Suzuki piano teacher, who stresses the importance of daily practice AND parental involvement to foster proper technique. I was exposed to the Suzuki Method as a young violist. The instructors were a lot more serious than my swimming coaches.I don't think you can be accomplished in music (classical) without private lessons. I still play music. I still swim. They are both hard.

One thing that has always puzzled me, though. I'm pretty smart, and I have no problem saying my brain power was a gift. Why are some gifted athletes unwilling to acknowledge their gift? Because how are you going to sell $150 shoes to be like Mike when Mike got their on talent (and *some* hard work). It also doesn't make for much of a movie: Johnny gets his ass kicked by the lazy 6' 4" super star who didn't show up to workout till the 3rd week.

Hi I'm writing from Australia where swimming is our most popular sport for girls aged 8 to 16 years. I'm hoping RAC will still read this. I came across the thread by accident but I read it with fascination. I think RAC has been treated very rudely by the members on this thread, and some have 'projected' onto him the 'crazy swimming parent' image they have, very unfairly. The guy just loves his daughter and wants her to be the best she can be at swimming. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I can tell you I am just like RAC - I have a 9 year old daughter - and I have similar worries as he. And I am not alone. At our swimming club, there are a lot of parents who spend 1.5 hours every day of the week sitting by the pool watching our chilren swim simply because WE LOVE OUR CHILDREN and we want enjoy watching what they do. We don't tell the coach what to do, we don't shout at our children, we don't say anything other than 'you swam well today'. I think the 'crazy parenting' bullying says more about your experiences with swimming, very sad actually, than RAC. Some feedback for RAC on what he actually asked for. In Australia, my daughter swims for one of the leading clubs in Sydney (Australia's largest city). Her current times are: 50m free 33.7 50m back 38.2 50m fly 38.6 50m *** 48.8 She is top 10 in NSW (our largest state) for her age in free and back and top 15 fly and top 15 ***. What makes her good? Physically, she is pretty big for her age. Coaching, fantastic coach focuses on technique not yardage. Mentally, she is competitive, listens and learns quickly. Social environment, she enjoys being part of the team and her friends. Personal motivation, she sets herself targets and has pride in her achievements. But she is not the best. There is a 10 year old in Sydney who swam 1.08 for 100 m fly at a meet yesterday. It was beautiful to watch her swimming, she was graceful and powerful. Probably swim at the olympics one day. What makes her so good? Physically, she is a giant for her age. But technique is the key at that age. She has been exceptionally well coached. As for the 'elephant in the room' for the wise sages of U.S. Masters swimming kicking this poor guy to death, burnout for young swimmers due to pushy parents. Bull ***. In Australia we've tracked this pretty well. While many good young kids quit of course, the top kids can be easily tracked (its all on the internet nowadays) and most of the really good kids say 4-8 years ago, are still swimming and still top of their age groups. Two points to close. 1) Libby Trickett (Australia's world record holder freestyler) once did a talk to our swimmers and she explained how she didn't make Nationals till she was 17 (and almost quit at 14) but soon after nationals she was swimming at the olympics. So that supports the U.S. Masters sages' point about developing late rather than the child prodigy thing. I actually believe that being good at 9 only matters if it keeps your child interested in swimming. Swimming is a great sport for teaching life skills and for your fitness and self-esteem. I just want my daughter to keep swimming. 2) I accept the points about pushy parents. I know my daughter is swimming every day at age 9 for me and she punishes her body at meets so she doesn't disappoint me. And that makes me feel bad. But I also see the benefits it has for her in making her feel good about herself, her sense of achievement, her health and well-being, and her friendships. Pushy parents aren't all bad. Sometimes our only crime is that we love our children too much. RAC is not a bad parent. He just wants his daughter to succeed at life. I think her times are good and she is already a good swimmer. My adice? Get a new coach. Keep going to every training session and enjoy loving your daughter. It is a special time and it goes so fast. But let her find her own motivation as well, otherwise she''ll grow to resent you and quit. Best regards.

I think the key is to realize that unless your name is Debbie Phelps, you probably are not a parent to the fastest kid out there. I grew up in the Fresno area...I was not great but in the area I could consistently turn out top-10 area times (keep in mind sometimes there might only be 20 swimmers). The most eye-opening experience of my life was going to a "AA" meet in Irvine, CA (Southern CA). I realized there were probably 50 swimmers in my age group at the meet as fast or faster then me. I didn't lose my competitive desire, but also realized that I couldn't just sit there depressed if all I can get is a "participant" ribbon. You do your best, you learn, and then you train harder.

Having children, 9 or 10 years old, swim 6-8 practices a week seems excessive to me. When do they have time to "play"? I can unequivocally tell you what will happen to those Philippine swimmers, they will burn out. Because there haven't been m(any) super fast Philippine international swimmers, it seems likely that this approach to swimming does not work.

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'll bite. Why do you feel the need, or want, to come back and "shove it in our faces"? What reasonable adult would come back onto a public forum and do that? I was actually happy to see that your daughter had improved so much. Good for her. Not you, but her. You have made the entire topic about you, which you vehemently denied that you were doing. While we all want what is best for our children, and do what we think is best to help them, you quite clearly wanted her to do well so that you could come back and "show us" what a great parent you are. That's just weird.

Please, don't come back. (If this board sucks something horrible I'm sure you won't have a hard time avoiding it). But if you do, I hope you find an excellent family therapist in the mean time, who can help you with your feelings of inadequacy. And truly, I pray for your daughter.

Call me weird, call me crazy whatever you want but you all were proved wrong and that's simple fact. What exactly did you prove? Did you prove you are crazy - yes. I don't know if you are aware but many of us have kids and some who post here have kids who are truly incredible swimmers and are quite humble about it (Copeland comes to mind, along with John Smith). And, we also have Q to make fun of because he is childlike and a simpleton with an oddly bulbous head.