Year round swim advice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Piggy-backing on OP with a similar "what would you suggest" question. I have searched and searched this forum and still feel stuck.

How often should a 10 year old be practicing, and how important is the club? My simmer has several JO times and was an NVSL all-star this year in two events. She loves swim, but isn't ready for it to be her main activity, (mostly I'm not ready). We are looking for a new club and we're scared off by 4x a week with drylands. She also hasn't had much targeted instruction on teqnique outside of private lessons. Previous club team seemed to focus mostly on conditioning, so we're looking for a program with energetic coaches that work on technique and mechanics.

What are the most important things when looking for a club team - specially for the swimmer? She's still so young, and I don't want her to burn out. She only swam 2x a week during the '23-'24 year-round season. 4 times seems like too much.

Thanks!

4 days a week is pretty common. What is worog with dryland? Its stretching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Piggy-backing on OP with a similar "what would you suggest" question. I have searched and searched this forum and still feel stuck.

How often should a 10 year old be practicing, and how important is the club? My simmer has several JO times and was an NVSL all-star this year in two events. She loves swim, but isn't ready for it to be her main activity, (mostly I'm not ready). We are looking for a new club and we're scared off by 4x a week with drylands. She also hasn't had much targeted instruction on teqnique outside of private lessons. Previous club team seemed to focus mostly on conditioning, so we're looking for a program with energetic coaches that work on technique and mechanics.

What are the most important things when looking for a club team - specially for the swimmer? She's still so young, and I don't want her to burn out. She only swam 2x a week during the '23-'24 year-round season. 4 times seems like too much.

Thanks!

4 days a week is pretty common. What is worog with dryland? It’s stretching.

Seriously, my 12 year old has done “dryland” for several years and it’s 30 minutes a couple times a week of yoga, stretching, meditation, core work or occasionally they just go outside and play a field game like kickball. People act like they are putting 10 year olds in the gym to do weight training. The training group for 10 year olds where we are doesn’t require 4 practices, they require 3 (and the practices are 1 hour). 3 hours of swimming a week is not excessive for a 10 year old. As your swimmer moves into MS, the time requirements increase (especially if they are fast) and then you will have to decide whether to make more of a commitment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Piggy-backing on OP with a similar "what would you suggest" question. I have searched and searched this forum and still feel stuck.

How often should a 10 year old be practicing, and how important is the club? My simmer has several JO times and was an NVSL all-star this year in two events. She loves swim, but isn't ready for it to be her main activity, (mostly I'm not ready). We are looking for a new club and we're scared off by 4x a week with drylands. She also hasn't had much targeted instruction on teqnique outside of private lessons. Previous club team seemed to focus mostly on conditioning, so we're looking for a program with energetic coaches that work on technique and mechanics.

What are the most important things when looking for a club team - specially for the swimmer? She's still so young, and I don't want her to burn out. She only swam 2x a week during the '23-'24 year-round season. 4 times seems like too much.

Thanks!

4 days a week is pretty common. What is worog with dryland? It’s stretching.

Seriously, my 12 year old has done “dryland” for several years and it’s 30 minutes a couple times a week of yoga, stretching, meditation, core work or occasionally they just go outside and play a field game like kickball. People act like they are putting 10 year olds in the gym to do weight training. The training group for 10 year olds where we are doesn’t require 4 practices, they require 3 (and the practices are 1 hour). 3 hours of swimming a week is not excessive for a 10 year old. As your swimmer moves into MS, the time requirements increase (especially if they are fast) and then you will have to decide whether to make more of a commitment.

Different programs vary. We have an aggressive program in town that has the 11/12 year olds lifting weights. Our program has them jog, stretch, do plyometrics (planks, box jumps) and calisthenics. It’s basically like a middle school PE program but more geared towards swimming. The stretching instruction has been great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Piggy-backing on OP with a similar "what would you suggest" question. I have searched and searched this forum and still feel stuck.

How often should a 10 year old be practicing, and how important is the club? My simmer has several JO times and was an NVSL all-star this year in two events. She loves swim, but isn't ready for it to be her main activity, (mostly I'm not ready). We are looking for a new club and we're scared off by 4x a week with drylands. She also hasn't had much targeted instruction on teqnique outside of private lessons. Previous club team seemed to focus mostly on conditioning, so we're looking for a program with energetic coaches that work on technique and mechanics.

What are the most important things when looking for a club team - specially for the swimmer? She's still so young, and I don't want her to burn out. She only swam 2x a week during the '23-'24 year-round season. 4 times seems like too much.

Thanks!

4 days a week is pretty common. What is worog with dryland? It’s stretching.

Seriously, my 12 year old has done “dryland” for several years and it’s 30 minutes a couple times a week of yoga, stretching, meditation, core work or occasionally they just go outside and play a field game like kickball. People act like they are putting 10 year olds in the gym to do weight training. The training group for 10 year olds where we are doesn’t require 4 practices, they require 3 (and the practices are 1 hour). 3 hours of swimming a week is not excessive for a 10 year old. As your swimmer moves into MS, the time requirements increase (especially if they are fast) and then you will have to decide whether to make more of a commitment.

Different programs vary. We have an aggressive program in town that has the 11/12 year olds lifting weights. Our program has them jog, stretch, do plyometrics (planks, box jumps) and calisthenics. It’s basically like a middle school PE program but more geared towards swimming. The stretching instruction has been great.

DP - the bolded is what matters here. Just as all in the water practices are not of identical intensity or duration, nor are all dryland.

[Anonymous]

The answers to any of the questions people ask are club and sometimes site dependent. So the best thing parents can do is do their due diligence on the clubs/sites/practice groups they are considering and crowdsource with specifics (ask directly about advanced juniors at RMSC Olney or Bronze 1 at NCAP GP).

[Anonymous]

Go to NCAP, or YORK for age group swimming. A 10yr old swims 50m in all strokes but Fly. So your child will need 3 times a week and some technique lessons on the side if your winter meet times do not improve. Coaches will recommend the appropriate level and group for your child's ability & drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At age 10, swimming 2-3x/week is good so that he can have other priorities and do other sports…and not get burnt out. We like makos. From my research and from what I hear from families is that machine and ncap push swimming 5x/week at earlier age, do not encourage or support doing other sports, and they are very “big” teams (multi-site, larger number of swimmers) which we don’t want.

When do swimmers at Makos start going 5 days a week?

My swimmer at Machine is just now being pushed to 5 days and they are 13 and have been a JO qualifier every year since they were 9.

I find it extremely hard to believe that they push kids to 5 days later than Machine considering MAKOs was the one with a 14 year old make Olympic Trials so if anything I’d assume they are actually pushing them to 5x/week earlier than Machine

For 13-14 year olds, there are different groups with varying practice days/times depending on committment and ability. The senior prep gold group (12-14) has 4-5x/week option. The junior gold group (9-12 years) has 3-4-5x/week option. The other groups (not gold) for 13& under have options for 2-3x/week. I think there is more flexibility. There are fast swimmers in the "lower" groups who just don't want to be so committed to swimming for various reasons. Hope this makes sense!

When we research the machine website and practice groups (at least for audrey moore location) we don't see alot of flexibility and options.We also think the practice times are terrible. The NCAP burke website doesn't list practice options for less than 5x/week for 13-14 year olds.