Coaches not focusing on technique
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Anonymous
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My DD (7) is doing club swim for the second year. The first year she did the stroke development focused group for under 8s. They placed her in the 7 and up group this year. They are supposed to be working on technique but my observation is that they are really focused on conditioning and doing laps without a ton of feedback on their strokes.
Is this something I need to be getting for her in private lessons or is it worth talking to the coach about whether she is in the right group? She is keeping up and wants to be in this group (with a friend) but I feel like the practice is a lot for a little kid to begin with. |
Anonymous
What in your view is "working on technique"? From my experience as a parent of 2 swimmers (1 in MS and another in HS) outside of a weekly stroke development class, once you are in age group, "working on technique" looks different. It's less about 1-on-1 with the kid in the water and more about progression through drills (e.g., kicking on side, one-arm freestyle, shoulder-head touch, finger drag). Yes, there will be times when the coachees may be more hands-on with the entire group (e.g., working on IM turns), but otherwise the focus will be drills coupled with more swimming. That said, different clubs and practice sites within clubs can vary in approach and their structure for continual progress. Certainly, no harm for you to reach out to the coach to inquire. |
Anonymous
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I have two older swimmers and one still age group.
You have to realize that technique at that level is not like swim lessons where a coach is working one on one with a kid, or even talking to a particular kid. They are working at getting off the wall consistently in streamline (so important) and a lot of drills to teach them how to swim correctly (this is the technique of it). You probably are not aware of what you are seeing in the water. For age group swimming the key to success is for the kid to really, really focus on the drills that they are doing. They will get better, swim builds every year. Now, if your kid is just swimming laps and not doing drills - then there might be some issues. Ask your kid what the sets were each day. |
Anonymous
OP - focus on this part (and agree with the other comments) how many days and how long is your kid in the water? At 7, two days a week for 60 to 75 minutes is the appropriate amount. More than that, I would say way too much. Since you kid is keeping up, it is not too much. You will see parents at clubs push to move swimmers up to harder groups (huge mistake 98% of the time). They think that upper level groups will make their kid better, but since their swimmer is not ready it is bad. Our club got sick of pushy parents and sometimes will let the swimmer "try out" for the upper group for a week or two. They ask the parents to watch the practices. You always know when this is happening because the poor kid is way behind and still swimming while the swim group is talking about the next set. Most parents can see that the group is too much. |
Anonymous
I would give it a couple weeks. At this point in the season - esp with the younger groups - the coaches are just trying to get a sense for who’s where so that they can divide up the lanes appropriately and plan the practices. Any decent club should be focused on technique over yardage at that age. It may not always show up in individual feedback but via the drills and focus of the set and the accompanying group instruction and correction. |
Anonymous
| If your kid is in age group and is the one finishing last at the end of practice, would you reach out to the coach? She’s fine for first hour but then loses steam. Also youngest in the group by far. |
Anonymous
| Pp. this is top group btw |
Anonymous
Give it a few weeks for her conditioning to improve. If it does not, maybe they are not ready for the group. |
Anonymous
There's a lot that goes into "keeping up" with your practice group particularly at 10&under. All else being equal (e.g., technique and proficiency), then size /weight and attention span can be factors. Smaller kids, for example, have smaller lung capacity that can impact their endurance. If your kid isn't complaining and is having fun and the coach hasn't raised it with you, just take it in stride. Kids grow out of these things. |
Anonymous
Relax. Don't push her at age 7, else she may quit. It's hard to know who will be good. I was great at age 8. Kids who started swimming after me and weren't that good ended up at the Olympics. I didn't. |
Anonymous
| OP, no parent ever thinks their club spends as much time as they should on technique. And for the younger swimmers, they are not strong enough or coordinated enough to have the same technique that the senior swimmers have. Coaches know that they will improve their technique with endurance work, improving their feel for the water, and getting stronger. They aren’t as worried about a weird breastroke kick at age 7 as we are. They could spend the whole practice working on technique and it wouldn’t stick at race pace. It’s weird, but that seems to be how swim works. I have two kids who have been in club swim for 6 and 4 years. |
Anonymous
| This is a tough one. On one hand maybe the first couple weeks they are just trying to gauge where everyone is by having them swim the strokes, like PP said. On the other hand, 8 and under and should be doing technique work almost exclusively. After a short warmup and maybe some kicking with a kickboard, they should be doing drills for whatever stroke they are focusing on that day. They should progress to swimming the full stroke by the end of practice, but not more than a 25 at a time and only in the last few minutes. Repetitive drills with individual feedback is how kids learn to do the strokes properly. This can be done in a group setting if the coach is competent. Kids who need someone in the water to help their body do the proper stroke movements probably aren’t ready for club swim in my opinion. Demonstration on deck and verbal feedback should be enough. There are other stroke development programs that can be done leading up to club swim. Summer league is also great because they’re in the water more frequently and there is often a way to book private lessons with a coach wt the summer pool, with in water instruction, for relatively cheap. |
Anonymous
PP. Not sure if this was asked, but if anyone wants to know, “why do they spend so much time on freestyle and not the other strokes?”, it’s because freestyle is the stroke that can be swum for long sets and is the best at developing the level of endurance and kick strength that swimmers need. Young swimmers cannot do long sets of 200/400 breast, fly or even back, that can develop endurance. |
Anonymous
The OP didn’t specify, but there’s a difference between weird or inefficient and illegal. If a kid is doing a scissor kick and no one is correcting it, that’s a problem. At 7 a lot of kids can swim a legal race when everything goes right, but easily slip into bad habits that will get them DQ’ed at meets if technique is not being paid sufficient attention. |
Anonymous
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Op here. Thanks for all the feedback. I was a swimmer through high school so I do have an idea of what I am seeing in the pool, though it's not always obvious. They are not getting any individual feedback that I can see but I'll ask her and give it some time. I think the coach has a little too much on her plate is part of it.
I am most concerned with poor technique causing injuries - I tore my rotator cuff in high school swimming too much freestyle and it's never been the same. I might take her to the pool some weekend and work with her 1:1 on the stuff I on |