If your kid was an AAAA swimmer at 10 and 12?

[Anonymous]

Just curious for those who had elite age groupers, what was their progression and did they end up swimming in college? I know we hear a lot on these boards about the “10 and under wonder” and how the slower kids sometimes rise to the top once they’re older, but what about those whose kids were consistently exceptional? If they were passionate about swimming when young, were they able to maintain their excitement and enjoyment? Any tips to help keep them engaged and not burn out?

[Anonymous]

I have a swimmer off to a Power 5 program in the fall. They were very good at 10 and 12 (advanced track immediately and always after 8&u), but seriously I don’t actually know if they were AAAA. I can say they were zones and NCSA age group qualifying level from 10 on.

Things that we did that were purposeful and I think mattered:
-3 practices per week until MS
-A second sport (or activity) each season through MS
-Saying yes to as many social and family activities as possible. Sometimes this meant missing practice. If you don’t make a habit of being short on practice, this is not a problem. Missing many birthday parties or sleepovers becomes a problem.
-If kid asked for a night off, the answer was yes. If this became a habit there would have been conversation about sticking with it or moving on.
-We focused on one season at a time, committed year to year. There was always an off ramp if kid was ready to move on or pick another sport as primary sport in HS.
-We did not talk about College swimming until halfway through high school. *unless kid wanted to
-Always followed kid’s lead
-Let them find the right academic balance (HS)

We also lucked into things - great coaches close to home with a cohesive group of kids. The vast majority of the cohort stayed at one club their entire career. My kid is a well rounded swimmer. I think not being stuck as a specialist was very helpful for motivation and being fine with ruts or plateaus bc there was always something else to focus on.

[Anonymous]

This has been re-hashed here numerous times. The reality is you can look up things like the A finalists in JO meets and see that those kids by and large stick with the sport and end up swimming in college. It’s nonsense to suggest that slower than B 12 year olds are going to all of a sudden set the world on fire in HS. In terms of engagement, if your kid truly loves it and is passionate about it, you don’t have to manufacture it. My kid loves it, I don’t have to do anything to encourage them to stay with it. I do let them skip practice when they say they need a day off. It doesn’t happen often, so when it does I always allow it, no questions asked. After age 12, your kid really should be driving things regarding their training.

[Anonymous]

My BB 12 year old grew 6 inches and is now hitting NCSA cuts. I think it is hard to know until puberty although as PP said, most A finals kids are still in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a swimmer off to a Power 5 program in the fall. They were very good at 10 and 12 (advanced track immediately and always after 8&u), but seriously I don’t actually know if they were AAAA. I can say they were zones and NCSA age group qualifying level from 10 on.

Things that we did that were purposeful and I think mattered:
-3 practices per week until MS
-A second sport (or activity) each season through MS
-Saying yes to as many social and family activities as possible. Sometimes this meant missing practice. If you don’t make a habit of being short on practice, this is not a problem. Missing many birthday parties or sleepovers becomes a problem.
-If kid asked for a night off, the answer was yes. If this became a habit there would have been conversation about sticking with it or moving on.
-We focused on one season at a time, committed year to year. There was always an off ramp if kid was ready to move on or pick another sport as primary sport in HS.
-We did not talk about College swimming until halfway through high school. *unless kid wanted to
-Always followed kid’s lead
-Let them find the right academic balance (HS)

We also lucked into things - great coaches close to home with a cohesive group of kids. The vast majority of the cohort stayed at one club their entire career. My kid is a well rounded swimmer. I think not being stuck as a specialist was very helpful for motivation and being fine with ruts or plateaus bc there was always something else to focus on.

Follow this template. Really good advice. Even if your kid sets a National age group record, follow this. Don’t fall into the trap of going all in on swimming at a young age if they are really good. If they one day aspire to swim at college level and beyond, no one cares what place they got at JOs at 10. They’ll be a better swimmer in the long term by having an athletic background in other sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a swimmer off to a Power 5 program in the fall. They were very good at 10 and 12 (advanced track immediately and always after 8&u), but seriously I don’t actually know if they were AAAA. I can say they were zones and NCSA age group qualifying level from 10 on.

Things that we did that were purposeful and I think mattered:
-3 practices per week until MS
-A second sport (or activity) each season through MS
-Saying yes to as many social and family activities as possible. Sometimes this meant missing practice. If you don’t make a habit of being short on practice, this is not a problem. Missing many birthday parties or sleepovers becomes a problem.
-If kid asked for a night off, the answer was yes. If this became a habit there would have been conversation about sticking with it or moving on.
-We focused on one season at a time, committed year to year. There was always an off ramp if kid was ready to move on or pick another sport as primary sport in HS.
-We did not talk about College swimming until halfway through high school. *unless kid wanted to
-Always followed kid’s lead
-Let them find the right academic balance (HS)

We also lucked into things - great coaches close to home with a cohesive group of kids. The vast majority of the cohort stayed at one club their entire career. My kid is a well rounded swimmer. I think not being stuck as a specialist was very helpful for motivation and being fine with ruts or plateaus bc there was always something else to focus on.

This is all very good advice.

Most clubs/coaches will see a good kid and approve them for higher level groups, that is more practices. This is great for the club because they get a top swimmer, but not great for the swimmer because a young kid swimming 5-6 days a week will burn out and get injured.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My BB 12 year old grew 6 inches and is now hitting NCSA cuts. I think it is hard to know until puberty although as PP said, most A finals kids are still in it.

Yes this can happen but the AAAA 12 year olds also hit puberty and then they are making Olympic trials cuts. It’s all relative but too much too soon doesn’t serve any of them well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a swimmer off to a Power 5 program in the fall. They were very good at 10 and 12 (advanced track immediately and always after 8&u), but seriously I don’t actually know if they were AAAA. I can say they were zones and NCSA age group qualifying level from 10 on.

Things that we did that were purposeful and I think mattered:
-3 practices per week until MS
-A second sport (or activity) each season through MS
-Saying yes to as many social and family activities as possible. Sometimes this meant missing practice. If you don’t make a habit of being short on practice, this is not a problem. Missing many birthday parties or sleepovers becomes a problem.
-If kid asked for a night off, the answer was yes. If this became a habit there would have been conversation about sticking with it or moving on.
-We focused on one season at a time, committed year to year. There was always an off ramp if kid was ready to move on or pick another sport as primary sport in HS.
-We did not talk about College swimming until halfway through high school. *unless kid wanted to
-Always followed kid’s lead
-Let them find the right academic balance (HS)

We also lucked into things - great coaches close to home with a cohesive group of kids. The vast majority of the cohort stayed at one club their entire career. My kid is a well rounded swimmer. I think not being stuck as a specialist was very helpful for motivation and being fine with ruts or plateaus bc there was always something else to focus on.

Follow this template. Really good advice. Even if your kid sets a National age group record, follow this. Don’t fall into the trap of going all in on swimming at a young age if they are really good. If they one day aspire to swim at college level and beyond, no one cares what place they got at JOs at 10. They’ll be a better swimmer in the long term by having an athletic background in other sports

PP of big list adding on...
I love the "even if" because some times there is pressure to do certain things.
We were not willing to give up summer family vacations. Summer availability gets very limited very quickly. This means that some years we did not participate in a summer travel meet. It does not matter if they go to summer zones at 10, 11, 12... if it doesn't work for your family, don't do them. There were years we said zones/summer camp/family vacation - we can only do two and mom and dad pick vacation. The other thing we lucked into was siblings who were all swimmers as primary sport with similar opportunities. This helped a lot with these decisions.

I also believe the full 4-6w off was really important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My BB 12 year old grew 6 inches and is now hitting NCSA cuts. I think it is hard to know until puberty although as PP said, most A finals kids are still in it.

Yes this can happen but the AAAA 12 year olds also hit puberty and then they are making Olympic trials cuts. It’s all relative but too much too soon doesn’t serve any of them well.

Or, like what happened to my friends daughter - she hit puberty and her stroke “fell apart.” Was never as good after that. And her mom was a swim coach!!
Sh¡t happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My BB 12 year old grew 6 inches and is now hitting NCSA cuts. I think it is hard to know until puberty although as PP said, most A finals kids are still in it.

Yes this can happen but the AAAA 12 year olds also hit puberty and then they are making Olympic trials cuts. It’s all relative but too much too soon doesn’t serve any of them well.

Or, like what happened to my friends daughter - she hit puberty and her stroke “fell apart.” Was never as good after that. And her mom was a swim coach!!
Sh¡t happens.

True. I know this can happen to girls depending on body type. For boys, puberty is a net positive.

[Anonymous]

Don’t forget there is a humongous difference between the number of 12 year old BB swimmers than 12 year old AAAA swimmer so I’m sure for every 12 year old BB swimmer that does make it there are probably at least 50 that don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My BB 12 year old grew 6 inches and is now hitting NCSA cuts. I think it is hard to know until puberty although as PP said, most A finals kids are still in it.

Yes this can happen but the AAAA 12 year olds also hit puberty and then they are making Olympic trials cuts. It’s all relative but too much too soon doesn’t serve any of them well.

Except many AAAA 12 yr old girls have already hit puberty but others have not. (you must have boys)

[Anonymous]

Can someone humor me and explain why it’s important to have another sport? I’m assuming the poster meant team sport?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone humor me and explain why it’s important to have another sport? I’m assuming the poster meant team sport?

I am not OP or PP, and my child does not have AAAA times at 10 (looked this up out of curiosity and there are maybe 6 kids total across 9-10 girls and boys who have a AAAA time or times). The reason we want our child to continue in her activities (theatre/music/dance) is because she may decide to quit swimming one day and that gives her other outlets. Like swim, it’s hard to just pick up tap or ballet at an older age.

[Anonymous]

AAAA boy at 9-10 had trouble getting much faster after about age 12 and was merely AA by high school. Had the unusual experience of *not* getting a whole lot faster after puberty, probably because he lost the finesse of his technique and just wasn’t motivated to do the work to get it back, being pretty burnt out from training year-round starting so young. Moved on to spend more time on other interests but swimming kept him in good shape at least.