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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son is 13 and is a solid club swimmer. He really enjoys summer swimming because he gets to focus on racing and going fast in the shorter events. He would like to continue to develop in the 50s and 100s but his coach insists that distance is the way to go for all kids. 500/1000 free, 200 fly, 400IM are the events he says are king. He really wants to put up big numbers at IMX. I’d love input from other swim parents [/quote]

Distance swimming is 1650 and 1000.  Even the 500 is not truly a distance event, and certainly not a 200 at age 13.  The coach may think those events are "king" because they are the events you swim in college. The only 50 you can swim in a college championship meet is the 50 freestyle. My hunch is that your coach is focused on getting kids to try the 200 and 400s, hence the focus on the IMX events.  And, IMs are often the way a coach keeps kids swimming all 4 strokes so I don't think that they are pushing specialization.

Candidly, a lot of kids think the 200 fly and 400 IM are brutal, so those willing to race them can often use that to their advantage.  Finally, is your kid of average height?  I have def seen coaches push the kids on the shorter side to do those events bc the height advantage in the 50 free is so significant and much less so in the 200 fly or 400 IM.

Everyone is saying that the 100 and 200 of a stroke require different skills, but my swimmer's 100 time always got faster when something clicked in a 200.  I think it was the cardio endurance and the ability to hold an underwater.  My kid's coach also thinks they get a lot of sprint practice in summer, so uses the winter to train differently.[/quote]

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