How many times/wk 10yo year round swim?

[Anonymous]

I signed my newly 10yo boy up for club swim (this will be our 3rd year in club) for 3/week. First year he did 1/wk, last year he did two. He’s a solid A meet swimmer, not all star qualifying, but pretty fast. It was suggested to me to also sign him up for a stroke/mechanics practice. So that would be 4/week plus meets once a month—is that too much? He absolutely loves swimming but does swimming this much risk overuse and swimming injuries? For seasoned swim parents and former swimmers—how much do you have to be swimming to have overuse injuries?
Sorry, I’m clueless. We’re a soccer family with the exception of my 10yo swimmer.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t do more than 3x a week at 10. The issue is more burnout than injury.

Why do you need stroke mechanics too? A 2-3 days a week program should be doing all that and if it’s not you need a new club.

[Anonymous]

Practicing 3x a week with a meet every 4-6 weeks is pretty standard for a 10 year old who wants to pursue swimming. 3 total hours of practice over the course of a week is not going to cause an overuse injury.

[Anonymous]

What club team is suggesting this? Don’t listen to other parents. Ask your kid’s coach. Maybe you could do a few private lessons between now and the start of the season to work on technique

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t do more than 3x a week at 10. The issue is more burnout than injury.

Why do you need stroke mechanics too? A 2-3 days a week program should be doing all that and if it’s not you need a new club.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t do more than 3x a week at 10. The issue is more burnout than injury.

Why do you need stroke mechanics too? A 2-3 days a week program should be doing all that and if it’s not you need a new club.

+1

+2

There should still be considerable emphasis on stroke technique at 10 and under, and really at 12 and under. Many high-level swimmers end up with shoulder tendinitis in their later years. Once you have it, it’s hard to manage while training in the way that you want in order to achieve your goals. You want to protect those shoulders as long as possible.

3 days leaves room for another sport or non-sport activity. If you have an intense kid, it’s probably better not to put all the eggs in one basket. Or if they are really all in on swimming and don’t want to do anything else, that 4th day could be used for some kind of age appropriate dryland work. Working on overall athleticism pays off in the pool, especially on starts and turns.

[Anonymous]

We restricted our kids to one or two practices a week less than they want to go to until they reached 14. My then 10 year old wanted to practice 4-5 times a week, but he was restricted to 2-3 times due to his club soccer schedule. After fall and spring soccer, he was allowed to go 4-5 times a week the month before sc and lc age group champs, but he would have gone 6 times a week if he was allowed. Restricting practices kept our swimmers engaged and eager to go to practice. Every kid is different. Some kids will get burned out with 3 practices a week and some will practice twice a day if allowed.

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. Keep an eye out for reluctance, making excuses, and an unhappy kid at the end of practice. you need to have club coaches who care about keeping young swimmers happy and focused on having fun and insist on real breaks between short and long course seasons. Our coaches ask us to let them know if our kids do not want to come to practice and seem at risk for burning out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We restricted our kids to one or two practices a week less than they want to go to until they reached 14. My then 10 year old wanted to practice 4-5 times a week, but he was restricted to 2-3 times due to his club soccer schedule. After fall and spring soccer, he was allowed to go 4-5 times a week the month before sc and lc age group champs, but he would have gone 6 times a week if he was allowed. Restricting practices kept our swimmers engaged and eager to go to practice. Every kid is different. Some kids will get burned out with 3 practices a week and some will practice twice a day if allowed.

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. Keep an eye out for reluctance, making excuses, and an unhappy kid at the end of practice. you need to have club coaches who care about keeping young swimmers happy and focused on having fun and insist on real breaks between short and long course seasons. Our coaches ask us to let them know if our kids do not want to come to practice and seem at risk for burning out.

What club lets a kid start attending more practices for just a month? Were you paying for 4-5 days all year and just not using it? Most clubs don’t give that kind of flexibility because they don’t have the lane space. And aren’t SC age groups champs at a time when spring soccer is still in full swing? None of this makes sense for the DC area.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for all the helpful responses! Like I said, we’re a soccer fam and I’ve been playing soccer since I was four—but I am falling in love with swim for/through my kiddo. What a great sport! Thanks, all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We restricted our kids to one or two practices a week less than they want to go to until they reached 14. My then 10 year old wanted to practice 4-5 times a week, but he was restricted to 2-3 times due to his club soccer schedule. After fall and spring soccer, he was allowed to go 4-5 times a week the month before sc and lc age group champs, but he would have gone 6 times a week if he was allowed. Restricting practices kept our swimmers engaged and eager to go to practice. Every kid is different. Some kids will get burned out with 3 practices a week and some will practice twice a day if allowed.

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. Keep an eye out for reluctance, making excuses, and an unhappy kid at the end of practice. you need to have club coaches who care about keeping young swimmers happy and focused on having fun and insist on real breaks between short and long course seasons. Our coaches ask us to let them know if our kids do not want to come to practice and seem at risk for burning out.

What club lets a kid start attending more practices for just a month? Were you paying for 4-5 days all year and just not using it? Most clubs don’t give that kind of flexibility because they don’t have the lane space. And aren’t SC age groups champs at a time when spring soccer is still in full swing? None of this makes sense for the DC area.

Not in the DC area. Short course champs are in early march and long course champs are in July. Due to the long winter here, club fall soccer season ends by early november and then spring season starts again in mid March and ends in May. From nov-Feb, our team does indoor training, futsol, and an away tournament in December, and my kid was allowed to opt out for jan and Feb.

The younger swim groups have 5 practices offered a week, the middle group has 6, and the older groups have 8. Our dues are quarterly, which covers all the practices whether we use them or not. We happen to have enough pool space and coaches and it allows flexibility for kids with other commitments. One year, my kid had soccer M/W/F in the fall and then T/Th/F in the spring and could still swim 2-3 times a week on the off days and days when soccer was cancelled due to field conditions.

What kind of club allows kids to come more often for a month? You answered it- clubs with lane space, which we have. Also, clubs that are more understanding and willing to accommodate kids who also participate in band, robotics, volleyball, hula dancing, whatever.

[Anonymous]

I've seen many competitive 10 year olds swim 3-4x a week. If they're making progress in stroke technique or mock times, they'll put up with it. If they're not, burnout will set in fairly quickly.

Swimming is supposed to be fun, not a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We restricted our kids to one or two practices a week less than they want to go to until they reached 14. My then 10 year old wanted to practice 4-5 times a week, but he was restricted to 2-3 times due to his club soccer schedule. After fall and spring soccer, he was allowed to go 4-5 times a week the month before sc and lc age group champs, but he would have gone 6 times a week if he was allowed. Restricting practices kept our swimmers engaged and eager to go to practice. Every kid is different. Some kids will get burned out with 3 practices a week and some will practice twice a day if allowed.

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. Keep an eye out for reluctance, making excuses, and an unhappy kid at the end of practice. you need to have club coaches who care about keeping young swimmers happy and focused on having fun and insist on real breaks between short and long course seasons. Our coaches ask us to let them know if our kids do not want to come to practice and seem at risk for burning out.

What club lets a kid start attending more practices for just a month? Were you paying for 4-5 days all year and just not using it? Most clubs don’t give that kind of flexibility because they don’t have the lane space. And aren’t SC age groups champs at a time when spring soccer is still in full swing? None of this makes sense for the DC area.

Not in the DC area. Short course champs are in early march and long course champs are in July. Due to the long winter here, club fall soccer season ends by early november and then spring season starts again in mid March and ends in May. From nov-Feb, our team does indoor training, futsol, and an away tournament in December, and my kid was allowed to opt out for jan and Feb.

The younger swim groups have 5 practices offered a week, the middle group has 6, and the older groups have 8. Our dues are quarterly, which covers all the practices whether we use them or not. We happen to have enough pool space and coaches and it allows flexibility for kids with other commitments. One year, my kid had soccer M/W/F in the fall and then T/Th/F in the spring and could still swim 2-3 times a week on the off days and days when soccer was cancelled due to field conditions.

What kind of club allows kids to come more often for a month? You answered it- clubs with lane space, which we have. Also, clubs that are more understanding and willing to accommodate kids who also participate in band, robotics, volleyball, hula dancing, whatever.

DP - it’s all lane space. No club can be “understanding” when they don’t have lane space to flex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We restricted our kids to one or two practices a week less than they want to go to until they reached 14. My then 10 year old wanted to practice 4-5 times a week, but he was restricted to 2-3 times due to his club soccer schedule. After fall and spring soccer, he was allowed to go 4-5 times a week the month before sc and lc age group champs, but he would have gone 6 times a week if he was allowed. Restricting practices kept our swimmers engaged and eager to go to practice. Every kid is different. Some kids will get burned out with 3 practices a week and some will practice twice a day if allowed.

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. Keep an eye out for reluctance, making excuses, and an unhappy kid at the end of practice. you need to have club coaches who care about keeping young swimmers happy and focused on having fun and insist on real breaks between short and long course seasons. Our coaches ask us to let them know if our kids do not want to come to practice and seem at risk for burning out.

What club lets a kid start attending more practices for just a month? Were you paying for 4-5 days all year and just not using it? Most clubs don’t give that kind of flexibility because they don’t have the lane space. And aren’t SC age groups champs at a time when spring soccer is still in full swing? None of this makes sense for the DC area.

Not in the DC area. Short course champs are in early march and long course champs are in July. Due to the long winter here, club fall soccer season ends by early november and then spring season starts again in mid March and ends in May. From nov-Feb, our team does indoor training, futsol, and an away tournament in December, and my kid was allowed to opt out for jan and Feb.

The younger swim groups have 5 practices offered a week, the middle group has 6, and the older groups have 8. Our dues are quarterly, which covers all the practices whether we use them or not. We happen to have enough pool space and coaches and it allows flexibility for kids with other commitments. One year, my kid had soccer M/W/F in the fall and then T/Th/F in the spring and could still swim 2-3 times a week on the off days and days when soccer was cancelled due to field conditions.

What kind of club allows kids to come more often for a month? You answered it- clubs with lane space, which we have. Also, clubs that are more understanding and willing to accommodate kids who also participate in band, robotics, volleyball, hula dancing, whatever.

DP - it’s all lane space. No club can be “understanding” when they don’t have lane space to flex.

PP. This is our 3rd club in as many cities. Some clubs are indeed more understanding than others and it’s not just about lane space. Our first club was a large one with multiple pool locations and they were not very flexible even with a plethora of training groups and locations. Over the course of 2 years, I could count the number of conversations with the coaches that exceeded minutes on one hand. Our current club is smaller with one location, and they are less bureaucratic, refreshingly available to talk to, and just nicer in general.