Which motivational times should a "good" swimmer hit?

[Anonymous]

Are u guys all this serious about 10 year olds? I have a 10yo who swims and enjoys it twice a week, she also enjoys soccer, legos, riding her bike…….. this seriousness over our young kids is kinda mind blowing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if you are BB/A boy at 13 is it over? No chance of college swim?

Like everyone has said, puberty will have a huge say in this. If your 13 year old doesn’t sprout up in puberty, probably not. But if he does, sure it’s possible. The swimmingrank website allows you to search your kid’s events and it charts where their times fit in with D1, D2, and D3 swimmers. This would give you an idea of how far away your son is from that level in his best strokes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous



Are u guys all this serious about 10 year olds? I have a 10yo who swims and enjoys it twice a week, she also enjoys soccer, legos, riding her bike…….. this seriousness over our young kids is kinda mind blowing.

Not all of of. I’m a PP whose kid got good at puberty. Before that he was swimming twice a week year round because he loved the camaraderie of his summer team and wanted to do well/have fun. I could not even tell you his times before he started getting serious about making cuts and swimming in high school at 13. The intensity of the sport has ramped way up for him recently but at this point it seems a healthy diversion from girls and video games.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who was a BB/A swimmer as a 14 year old boy. This year as a senior he has sectional cut times. He will be swimming D3 next year.

I also know a girl who was a BB swimmer last year as a 12 year old. This year as a 13 year old she has AA times. She maybe grew a couple of inches but certainly not a crazy amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who was a BB/A swimmer as a 14 year old boy. This year as a senior he has sectional cut times. He will be swimming D3 next year.

I also know a girl who was a BB swimmer last year as a 12 year old. This year as a 13 year old she has AA times. She maybe grew a couple of inches but certainly not a crazy amount.

Going from a BB 11-12 swimmer at 12 to a AA 13-14 swimmer at 13 is an extremely large jump. As an example, the BB standard for 11-12 girls 100
Free is 108.29 to 103.10, and the AA standard for 13-14 year old girls 100 Free starts at 57.99. That type of improvement absent a growth spurt is really unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who was a BB/A swimmer as a 14 year old boy. This year as a senior he has sectional cut times. He will be swimming D3 next year.

I also know a girl who was a BB swimmer last year as a 12 year old. This year as a 13 year old she has AA times. She maybe grew a couple of inches but certainly not a crazy amount.

This happens all the time. If your kid is an AAAA swimmer at age 10, yes, they have a good shot at being great later. But BB 10 year olds can take off and surpass them. They may have not been swimming seriously at a young age, they may have not had good instruction, they may have a later growth spurt. You can also see many very fast 10U swimmers who are “maxed out” in terms of practice time, private instruction, technique etc. They don’t have as much to improve on as kids who haven’t had as much practice, technique and conditioning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who was a BB/A swimmer as a 14 year old boy. This year as a senior he has sectional cut times. He will be swimming D3 next year.

I also know a girl who was a BB swimmer last year as a 12 year old. This year as a 13 year old she has AA times. She maybe grew a couple of inches but certainly not a crazy amount.

Going from a BB 11-12 swimmer at 12 to a AA 13-14 swimmer at 13 is an extremely large jump. As an example, the BB standard for 11-12 girls 100
Free is 108.29 to 103.10, and the AA standard for 13-14 year old girls 100 Free starts at 57.99. That type of improvement absent a growth spurt is really unusual.

I have such a swimmer. He was 12 with a mid 27 50 free and now has a low 24 one month after he turning 14. I have no idea what happened other than puberty, but he is also going through puberty on the late side.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This really is not possible to answer with these facts. A kid with AAAA times at 10 may end up having no shot at it when older. It depends on lots of things: height, training days, lack of injuries, endurance, etc.

This is my question. Does a kid with AAA, AA and A times at 10 have a shot at being "good" long term, or does the mix of times rule them out? I understand that a kid with AAAA times across the board can perform poorly later on, but what about a kid with a mix of times? Is that a bad sign?

It’s not a sign of anything. Yes they have a shot of being good. But so does the 10 year old with BB times. You won’t know until they are 15+

The BB 10 year old has a 1% chance of being a D1 whereas a 10 year old with AAA times might have a 20% chance.

There is a correlation. The reason the AAA kid isn’t a guarantee is growth, motivation, etc. a lot of good swimmers drop out. It happens.

A kid also needs to be good at multiple strokes and longer distances. So a 10 year old good at 50 free is less likely to succeed than the backstroker who kills a 100.

This is true. What strokes and distances is the kid good at? Recognizing that a good breast stroker has usually a better advantage than being good in back or fly. At 10 the kid should be at A times and by 12 they should be hitting A minimums but probably AA times if they are looking for D1. I would think As at 12 would be D3 if they continue on the curve.

+1, being a good breaststroker from a young age is something that seems to hold up over the years, and also is an advantage in IMs. Being good across all the strokes as opposed to just being a good freestyler is an advantage, so I would think if you have a kid that is an A or better swimmer in all the strokes that is something that bodes well. But as others have said, puberty will play a big part in determining how good a kid can be in their late teens headed into college.

Imo, breast stroke holds up bc less reliant on height. Long distance free and 200 fly would be next strokes that may have early indicators. Girls hit puberty first so if girls are hitting sectionals cuts in middle school, they will make Metros in HS and have a chance to swim d3 in college provided still want to/no injuries. I would say your kid is “good” if making those times in middle school.

Boys tend to grow later so likely have to wait a little longer to see, imo.

Sectionals times are significantly faster than Metros times, so that doesn't make much sense.

Sorry, meant final/place highly at metros

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who was a BB/A swimmer as a 14 year old boy. This year as a senior he has sectional cut times. He will be swimming D3 next year.

I also know a girl who was a BB swimmer last year as a 12 year old. This year as a 13 year old she has AA times. She maybe grew a couple of inches but certainly not a crazy amount.

This happens all the time. If your kid is an AAAA swimmer at age 10, yes, they have a good shot at being great later. But BB 10 year olds can take off and surpass them. They may have not been swimming seriously at a young age, they may have not had good instruction, they may have a later growth spurt. You can also see many very fast 10U swimmers who are “maxed out” in terms of practice time, private instruction, technique etc. They don’t have as much to improve on as kids who haven’t had as much practice, technique and conditioning.

This does happen, but I think it’s a huge stretch to say it happens “all the time.” The AAAA 10 year old has an infinitely higher chance of being great later than the BB 10 year old. Those are just the facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who was a BB/A swimmer as a 14 year old boy. This year as a senior he has sectional cut times. He will be swimming D3 next year.

I also know a girl who was a BB swimmer last year as a 12 year old. This year as a 13 year old she has AA times. She maybe grew a couple of inches but certainly not a crazy amount.

Going from a BB 11-12 swimmer at 12 to a AA 13-14 swimmer at 13 is an extremely large jump. As an example, the BB standard for 11-12 girls 100
Free is 108.29 to 103.10, and the AA standard for 13-14 year old girls 100 Free starts at 57.99. That type of improvement absent a growth spurt is really unusual.

I have such a swimmer. He was 12 with a mid 27 50 free and now has a low 24 one month after he turning 14. I have no idea what happened other than puberty, but he is also going through puberty on the late side.

I think all this just goes to show that puberty is the ultimate decider in whether someone is ultimately a good swimmer vs. a great swimmer. One you get past the early years of swimming, say 12U, the drastic time drops aren’t as easy unless puberty starts late and there is a big growth spurt.

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of posters are overlooking the number of times the kid swims a week. If your kid is swimming 3xs a week and has A times, and then picks up a couple more days later on, they are likely to drop a lot of time.

You really can’t predict how a swimmer will do later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of posters are overlooking the number of times the kid swims a week. If your kid is swimming 3xs a week and has A times, and then picks up a couple more days later on, they are likely to drop a lot of time.

You really can’t predict how a swimmer will do later.

My kid was swimming several AAAA at 10 years with 3x practice/week (more in summer if add in summer league though those practices were mostly fun). Went up to 4xweek at 11 and now 5xweek at 12. Time drops in almost all strokes but hasn’t hit AAAA times again yet. Feels like it could still happen but we will see.

Holding back on anything beyond team practice (no extra dryland until high school for example) and trying to hold off to 6xweek until 14. Kid isn’t going to be tall but hope they like swimming through high school with chance to swim some sort of program in college if they still love it. Seems to know distance would be the path.

Swim has been great for the Sofia aspect of nice friends and has really helped with executive function/time management.