When to increase practice

[Anonymous]

Looking for advice on when to increase practice to 2x/week, 3x/week, etc. for swim club teams. DS 7 swims 1x a week on his swim team. His swim times improve every meet, and has times in 3 strokes. For average swimmers, when should they advance to 2x/week, 3x/week, etc? I am considering having him practice 2x/week next season when he will be 8.

[Anonymous]

Based on a current popular thread, I suspect the responses will be all over the map!

I think that 2x/week club is great for 8. My swimmer moved to 3x in 4th and 5th grades, and then 4x/week in 6th, which is their current commitment in 7th. They are a AAA+ swimmer, so this gradual transition hasn’t necessarily held them back (although I’m sure you could argue they should do more to truly excel).

I would also let your child take the lead. There is a balance between burn out/dread from doing too much too soon and also not practicing enough to see the time drops that motivate them to stay with it and try hard. A good club will also help decide what is best for your swimmer each year based on their ability. Age group swimmers are ready to do more practices per week at different times. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I would concentrate on making sure that your kid is enjoying practice and has a fair and consistent coach. I would not worry too much about the number of practices and hours I. The pool at 7 or 8. The goal is not how fast your swimmer is at 8, 9 or 10. It is not to burn them out.

[Anonymous]

I would say that for most 7yo swimming club, they are ready physically to swim 2x per week. The questions are do they want to and how busy are they with other sports/activities.

What we do and have done at this age is vary a bit from week to week - sometimes 2, sometimes 3 and on rare occasion 4... the latter being when there is a meet coming up and we are trying to get some extra time in the water in advance of the meet. On those occasions, we'd back off and do only 1 practice the following week.

My current DC around this age is 6 and this similar to what we are doing except he hasn't done 4 in a week yet but has done some 3s in the weeks leading up to the meet.

A pp made a good point above which is let the DC take the lead and listen to them - you can suggest it but leave it up to them -- there have been times where it would have been good to get in some extra sessions in on meet week but DC was tired or wanted to do something different or there was a conflict with another activity and so we didn't. Not a big deal.

Good luck to your swimmer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking for advice on when to increase practice to 2x/week, 3x/week, etc. for swim club teams. DS 7 swims 1x a week on his swim team. His swim times improve every meet, and has times in 3 strokes. For average swimmers, when should they advance to 2x/week, 3x/week, etc? I am considering having him practice 2x/week next season when he will be 8.

Keep it 2x a week in elementary school (through age 10). 3x a week to start middle school and shoot for 4 at the end. Have your child play other sports to build athleticism that will help them later on. This is the best path to prevent burnout, promote long term development and create athletes that love our sport. No championships are won or scholarships earned at the age group level.

[Anonymous]

My kid started club swimming at 8 and did 3 practices per week. She's 10 and still at 3x/week. But she doesn't do other sports (she's tried a bunch but doesn't like them much) so it's never felt like too much exercise or too busy of a schedule. She will go to 4 days/week at 11.

[Anonymous]

I think 2x per week is great through age 9.

Then 3x at 10 and 11, 4x at 12, 5x at 13, 6x at 14, and doubles at 15.

[Anonymous]

Love all the "follow the kid's lead" answers and it will also differ if kid is a more advanced swimmer.

My kids who were in advanced track at 9 and are now top level HS swimmers did this -
2 weekdays 1st-3rd grades
2 weekdays/1 weekend morning 4th-5th grades (sometimes a 4th day, more towards mid-late 5th progressing towards next group, but also always did another sport, so 3 was good)
4 weekdays/1 weekend 6-8th grades
5 weekdays/1 weekend HS (adding in a double, usually 7 swims)

[Anonymous]

My kid is on the high level track and they started with 3 days a week at 9, 4 days a week at 10 with most practices being 1 hour (it was during this season it became apparent that they had talent), and 5 days a week at 11-12 (90 minute practices). Once they are 13-14 the expectation is 5-6 days (the practices are longer than what the 11-12 year olds do and there is dryland). The highest level HS group does have doubles, etc. but that is a group with pretty much exclusively D1 level swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking for advice on when to increase practice to 2x/week, 3x/week, etc. for swim club teams. DS 7 swims 1x a week on his swim team. His swim times improve every meet, and has times in 3 strokes. For average swimmers, when should they advance to 2x/week, 3x/week, etc? I am considering having him practice 2x/week next season when he will be 8.

Keep it 2x a week in elementary school (through age 10). 3x a week to start middle school and shoot for 4 at the end. Have your child play other sports to build athleticism that will help them later on. This is the best path to prevent burnout, promote long term development and create athletes that love our sport. No championships are won or scholarships earned at the age group level.

This is the best and most accurate post ever on this board. Please follow this advice, cannot agree more

[Anonymous]

He should do 3-4 days a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He should do 3-4 days a week.

Not routinely at 7yo - that's horrible advice and would be a disaster in the making.

[Anonymous]

My 3rd grader practices 5 days a week, but he is very advanced and is already talking about opportunities to swim competitively in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 3rd grader practices 5 days a week, but he is very advanced and is already talking about opportunities to swim competitively in college.

I hope you are joking. Terrible idea. No third grader’s swimming should be planned around wanting to swim in college. So many things will happen between now and then. Better to do other sports alongside swim and build overall athleticism and prevent boredom. Can only so much before the shoulders say enough. Your kid will hit that point way too early on this path. And get passed by kids who aren’t swimming as frequently yet, once they do decide to ramp up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 3rd grader practices 5 days a week, but he is very advanced and is already talking about opportunities to swim competitively in college.

obvious troll is obvious, lol