Too much swimming?

[Anonymous]

I am a former swimmer with an overuse injury that affects me today, at 35. So yes definitely possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. His club swim practices are Monday - Friday and last between 1.5 to 2 hours a practice. If he makes it to the next level group, there are six practices a week for the 9/10s age group. Yes, it's insane and we are relaxed about him missing a practice or two a week.

We live in an extremely competitive area but what area isn't competitive these days, though? I didn't expect it to get so crazy so young. Silly me.

It isn't supposed to be that crazy that young. The good programs do not allow it. It is a money grab that will lead to burn out.

is his club actually any good at producing elite swimmers? None of the ones with track records would allow anything approaching this at his age. It seems like a money grab or just a very ignorant coach to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. His club swim practices are Monday - Friday and last between 1.5 to 2 hours a practice. If he makes it to the next level group, there are six practices a week for the 9/10s age group. Yes, it's insane and we are relaxed about him missing a practice or two a week.

We live in an extremely competitive area but what area isn't competitive these days, though? I didn't expect it to get so crazy so young. Silly me.

It isn't supposed to be that crazy that young. The good programs do not allow it. It is a money grab that will lead to burn out.

is his club actually any good at producing elite swimmers? None of the ones with track records would allow anything approaching this at his age. It seems like a money grab or just a very ignorant coach to me

OP here. The swim club is a feeder to prep for the high school teams. The girls high school swim team has won 35 consecutive state championships, which is a national record. The boys high school swim team has only won 7 consecutive state titles but won many intermixed before that.

The head high school swim coach for both the boys/girls teams is also the head coach/CEO of the swim club. It's not so much of a money grab as it is a title grab.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like too much for 9. There may not be shoulder issues now, but there very well might be in a few years at which time your son will only be 12 years old... not even puberty yet which is when a lot of things change. I wouldn't be allowing more than 3-4 practices per week at that age and I would be mixing in one other sport at a time of your son is interested (e.g. a team sport that doesn't have to be treated as the primary sport but is good for cross training and preventing overuse injuries). I would also be making sure that the practices spend a lot of time on stroke technique as opposed to yardage.

Swimming is a grind. I can't imagine practicing 5+ days a week from age 9 onward. Sounds like a recipe for burnout.

PP here. I should add that I swam all the way through college (D1). I saw many many young swimmers burn out from training so hard at a younger age. I had just joined a winter team that practiced one or two times per week at 9.

OP here. Those are good thoughts. I think we'll scale him back. He's definitely going to burn himself out. He typically does the soccer/baseball/basketball rotation too and will naturally drop some swim practices to accommodate it. We're just overdoing it for the summer.

If your son truly loves swimming, having him scale back now for long term injury prevention will not kill his love for it. But overtraining young may force him out of the sport early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. His club swim practices are Monday - Friday and last between 1.5 to 2 hours a practice. If he makes it to the next level group, there are six practices a week for the 9/10s age group. Yes, it's insane and we are relaxed about him missing a practice or two a week.

We live in an extremely competitive area but what area isn't competitive these days, though? I didn't expect it to get so crazy so young. Silly me.

It isn't supposed to be that crazy that young. The good programs do not allow it. It is a money grab that will lead to burn out.

is his club actually any good at producing elite swimmers? None of the ones with track records would allow anything approaching this at his age. It seems like a money grab or just a very ignorant coach to me

OP here. The swim club is a feeder to prep for the high school teams. The girls high school swim team has won 35 consecutive state championships, which is a national record. The boys high school swim team has only won 7 consecutive state titles but won many intermixed before that.

The head high school swim coach for both the boys/girls teams is also the head coach/CEO of the swim club. It's not so much of a money grab as it is a title grab.

Well I can tell you are not in the DMV. Nobody here cares about winning a HS state title.

[Anonymous]

Unless you’re division 1 summer swim practice is a joke. It’s easy. I wouldn’t worry about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you’re division 1 summer swim practice is a joke. It’s easy. I wouldn’t worry about it.

The summer practices are not the problem. It’s the club, way too much at 9 years old. The kid will end up injured and unable to swim by 12.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would look for a new club. A club that allows that volume at 9-10 is not looking out for the long term development and health of its swimmers. Sounds like they are also not very knowledgeable about the sport or the physiology of young athletes.

+100!

Unless it’s 5 available, 3 required, this is too much!

My kids started swimming 5 days in middle school and even still a lot of weeks it was 4 to balance another sport/homework/social life

[Anonymous]

OP here.

The club says that 6 practices are available (for example) but 70% are required and then the next level is, like 7 are available and 80% are required. At a certain point they move to two practices a day.

The problem we're running into is that although only x% are required, the culture is that each practice must be attended. My older DS is really good at setting limits and saying "I will go to this number of practices each week and that's it." His limits are very practical. The younger DS is all caught up in it and fights it when we try to scale him back.

It's not that the club isn't knowledgeable because they are very knowledgeable but it's a machine designed to churn out top swimmers and I actually don't think they're very concerned about anything else.

I'm going to make him step back. As PPs said, summer swim doesn't really even register as much swimming at all but the club is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Most club swimmers I know cut down on the club swim during summer. And they hardly swim during summer swim practices although they attend. Sometimes they even go in a slow lane to hang out with friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most club swimmers I know cut down on the club swim during summer. And they hardly swim during summer swim practices although they attend. Sometimes they even go in a slow lane to hang out with friends.

What age? This is not my experience with the stronger club swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: MY DS9 is in year round club swimming with 5 practices a week. He also in a summer swim team just for fun that has three practices a week (only 45 minutes each) with two swim meets a week. The summer swim team doesn't amount to that much swimming overall. But, he also pursues private instruction from his summer swim coaches and, if he can, his club swimming coaches. Basically, he sweet talks them into some stroke technique help.

He's self-motivated because he wants to make state cuts in his club swimming, as well as make the next level up swim group.

We just have him in swimming for exercise. We're not concerned or interested in state cuts or the next level up swim group.

The summer swim team only runs through the end of June so this doubling up on swim is short term.

Should we be concerned about any overuse injuries? I'm not a swimmer so I don't know what to look for here.

Curious why this is coming up now versus when you put him in up to 10 hours a week of just club swim?

Drop all B meets and don’t go to summer practices. He’s now down to his regular schedule with one meet a week, swimming short distances at that meet, for just a few weeks.

[Anonymous]

My 10 year old had a fracture of his shoulder growth plate from overuse- the exact same swimming situation you mentioned. I was shocked since it’s so low impact. The doctor said at that age (before puberty), when get work out really hard but don’t have the upper body stretch, growth plate fractures aren’t that uncommon. I’d be careful. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Upper body strength I meant to say

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a former swimmer with an overuse injury that affects me today, at 35. So yes definitely possible.

Same here, and I wasn't even a champion - more like a 4th place getter.

Far better swimmers like Missy Franklin, Ian Thorpe etc have terrible shoulder problems.

Consider the caveman. Did he go outside and rotate his arms for two hours every day? Nope.

1.5-2 hour practices are too much at 9.