When the whole family is good at swimming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

+1. And most of them will flame out before college.

Genetics is a huge part of becoming elite or even just a college athlete. Training helps, but it won't make an unathletic kid an elite athlete or a short kid tall enough to make it in Olympic freestyle sprints.

The way that I look at it is that for most sports, training and dedication can help you keep playing for high school. Beyond that genetics trump everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think genetics has a lot to do with it, but also the ability to support 3+ kids in a high-level sport. I don't mean financially necessarily, I mean with time, although the money helps! There was a family with 3 daughters on DS' club team. They all swam D1 and 1 went to the Olympics. The mom has said there is no way it would have happened if she hadn't been able to make their swimming training coordination basically her full time job.

Huge difference between a family with an Olympian and D1 swimmers and kids doing well at A meets. 99% of the kids at A meets will never be good enough to swim D1. That’s is just a whole other level.

[Anonymous]

Nurture+Nature working together. Kids are likely to be good at what their parents are good at. I know a family where the mom was D1 college swimmer and the dad is 6’4”. Their kids are crazy tall for their ages and great swimmers already in 10&U. They purposely bought a house that would transfer a NVSL D1/2/3 pool membership and they had their kids in the mini/juniors program from the youngest age possible and year-round swim by 1st grade.

For families with 2-4 kids, the younger ones benefit greatly from having an older sibling excel in a sport. You may not have had your oldest in year round swim or stroke&turn clinics until 4th grade, but once you’re at the pool 3-5x a week with older kids, you might as well get the younger ones in the pool early. You know how to coach your younger kids for time trials, how to strategize B meet events, etc. Since kids swim off the ladder, more swims = more chances to get better times = more swims . . . Having the right support to get a taste of success early in the 8&U years can make a big difference.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the event in swimming too. Sprinters, especially sprint freestyle swimmers, can be pure athletes and don't require nearly as must practice or history in the sport. My spouse didn't even swim for a club until before senior year of high school and then ended up a conference champion in college.

[Anonymous]

My 7 year old daughter is dominating the 8 and unders this summer and is at the top for her team and in the league in most strokes. It’s 100% because of swimming 4-5 days a week this past year. She will swim 4 days a week this next year before summer swim and I expect the same will happen next summer. It’s all about those who can pay and take them to club swimming. She does have heart and focus for it, but very little physical prowess. Club swimmers will almost always win. We have an exceptional swimmer on our summer team that is physically gifted in all sports and wins first in all his races and doesn’t do year round swim. But he is the exception for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7 year old daughter is dominating the 8 and unders this summer and is at the top for her team and in the league in most strokes. It’s 100% because of swimming 4-5 days a week this past year. She will swim 4 days a week this next year before summer swim and I expect the same will happen next summer. It’s all about those who can pay and take them to club swimming. She does have heart and focus for it, but very little physical prowess. Club swimmers will almost always win. We have an exceptional swimmer on our summer team that is physically gifted in all sports and wins first in all his races and doesn’t do year round swim. But he is the exception for sure.

That is somewhat true but post-puberty the genetic factor and an athlete's ceiling, even with good training, really come into play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

Genetics give you a head start, but swimming, like distance running, is a sport that responds well to good coaching, quality equipment and facilities, and sustained effort from the athlete. It’s also a sport where improvement is measured in tenths of seconds, against the athlete’s own times. Other sports are subject to teammates and the competition - variables outside of the athlete’s control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

Genetics give you a head start, but swimming, like distance running, is a sport that responds well to good coaching, quality equipment and facilities, and sustained effort from the athlete. It’s also a sport where improvement is measured in tenths of seconds, against the athlete’s own times. Other sports are subject to teammates and the competition - variables outside of the athlete’s control.

I disagree with the improvement being just against an athlete's own times. For example, especially around puberty, different swimmers will significantly improve quickly. There have been a few threads about how tough that is on late bloomers who continue to improve incrementally but who are suddenly getting smoked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7 year old daughter is dominating the 8 and unders this summer and is at the top for her team and in the league in most strokes. It’s 100% because of swimming 4-5 days a week this past year. She will swim 4 days a week this next year before summer swim and I expect the same will happen next summer. It’s all about those who can pay and take them to club swimming. She does have heart and focus for it, but very little physical prowess. Club swimmers will almost always win. We have an exceptional swimmer on our summer team that is physically gifted in all sports and wins first in all his races and doesn’t do year round swim. But he is the exception for sure.

Be careful with burnout and overuse injuries with putting a 7 year old in swim 4-5x per week. I’m a former D1 swimmer and my kids and a bunch of teammates’ kids are now starting swim. Almost all of us are limiting our kids to twice per week as long as possible. We all agree it’s better for them to do multiple sports early and develop different muscle groups and overall body awareness/athleticism. A 7 year old who swims a lot will get passed by kids who started out not swimming much and ramp up later at age 9-10. That can be hard on the kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7 year old daughter is dominating the 8 and unders this summer and is at the top for her team and in the league in most strokes. It’s 100% because of swimming 4-5 days a week this past year. She will swim 4 days a week this next year before summer swim and I expect the same will happen next summer. It’s all about those who can pay and take them to club swimming. She does have heart and focus for it, but very little physical prowess. Club swimmers will almost always win. We have an exceptional swimmer on our summer team that is physically gifted in all sports and wins first in all his races and doesn’t do year round swim. But he is the exception for sure.

Be careful with burnout and overuse injuries with putting a 7 year old in swim 4-5x per week. I’m a former D1 swimmer and my kids and a bunch of teammates’ kids are now starting swim. Almost all of us are limiting our kids to twice per week as long as possible. We all agree it’s better for them to do multiple sports early and develop different muscle groups and overall body awareness/athleticism. A 7 year old who swims a lot will get passed by kids who started out not swimming much and ramp up later at age 9-10. That can be hard on the kid.

+1
My college roommate, also a college swimmer, feels pretty strongly about this with their 2 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

I agree with this, for most of these swimmers it's more about $$$ spent and length/amount of time practiced than genetics. Go to enough swim meets and you gain perspective on this.

To me genetics come into play when someone who doesn't swim much is able to keep up with more seasoned swimmers or when a swimmer is absolutely dominating the competition at every meet.

Agree. DH and his siblings are strong swimmers. They took tons of lessons when they were growing up. None of them have any other standout athletic abilities to say it’s genetic.

That’s not entirely fair either though. Most great swimmers don’t have other standout athletic abilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Phelps could barely throw a ball or would look incredibly awkward running 100m.

What? I don’t think you know much about swimming.

Caeleb dressel has a 43” vertical jump. The average nba player has a 28” vertical jump.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/athletics/news/us-swimmer-caeleb-dressel-vertical-leap-nba/11j6llogcmqlz1ahelzfakobgp

Tim Duncan and Kris humphries are former standout swimmers who chose bball over swimming.

I think you are conflating the fact that many kids who are not considered athletic in other sports find their way to swimming. But the top swimmers are definitely athletes.

Kyle Chalmers might take up Aussie football after the next Olympics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

This. Its common in sports - the whole family plays and excels at the same sport. Its just money and knowing what to pay for and sign up for and when.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

I agree with this, for most of these swimmers it's more about $$$ spent and length/amount of time practiced than genetics. Go to enough swim meets and you gain perspective on this.

To me genetics come into play when someone who doesn't swim much is able to keep up with more seasoned swimmers or when a swimmer is absolutely dominating the competition at every meet.

Agree. DH and his siblings are strong swimmers. They took tons of lessons when they were growing up. None of them have any other standout athletic abilities to say it’s genetic.

That’s not entirely fair either though. Most great swimmers don’t have other standout athletic abilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Phelps could barely throw a ball or would look incredibly awkward running 100m.

Singling out one swimmer does nothing to prove your point.

What? I don’t think you know much about swimming.

Caeleb dressel has a 43” vertical jump. The average nba player has a 28” vertical jump.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/athletics/news/us-swimmer-caeleb-dressel-vertical-leap-nba/11j6llogcmqlz1ahelzfakobgp

Tim Duncan and Kris humphries are former standout swimmers who chose bball over swimming.

I think you are conflating the fact that many kids who are not considered athletic in other sports find their way to swimming. But the top swimmers are definitely athletes.

Kyle Chalmers might take up Aussie football after the next Olympics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

I agree with this, for most of these swimmers it's more about $$$ spent and length/amount of time practiced than genetics. Go to enough swim meets and you gain perspective on this.

To me genetics come into play when someone who doesn't swim much is able to keep up with more seasoned swimmers or when a swimmer is absolutely dominating the competition at every meet.

Agree. DH and his siblings are strong swimmers. They took tons of lessons when they were growing up. None of them have any other standout athletic abilities to say it’s genetic.

This

[Anonymous]

Swimming is whrrr unathletic dorks go