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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Her daughter turns 10 in the fall. At 10, yardage starts increasing, especially for girls. Only a warmup should be at least 600 (ideally a 1000), to prevent injury. Total yardage of 2500 per session would be completely adequate. 10-12 yo is where the heart capacity increases significantly, as well as height, body mass. Withoout adequate training a swimmer won’t be able to sustain added events as she gets older. Going to meets unprepared also carries trauma risk. At 10 it’s time to try 200s, and to prepare for a 200 you must swim at least 2000 of that stroke in training regularly, without much rest. 
How do you have technique settle down without yardage? All sports are based on repetitive motion learning. There must be both aerobic and technique sessions offered in a good program. [/quote]

I would agree with some of this, but some of it is outdated in approach.  I think a warm-up of 600-800 is appropriate, but it should be varied and not a straight 600 free.  I think 2500 yards at 9-10 is a reasonable volume, but I would also not be worried if some days the practice is more in the range of 1600-1800 if it is focused on technique.  10 year-olds only compete in 200 IM and 200 Free.  200 Back, Fly and Breast are 11-12 events.  I think the notion that one should be swimming a 2000 to prepare for a 200 has been roundly disproved, especially at the younger levels.  If my kid's coach were having my kid do 10 x 200 fly or 10 x 200 IM, I would be looking at other programs.

You build technique by drills, repetition and reinforcement.  In order to do that you have to have coaches that are explaining why drills are done, correcting form errors, and watching swimmers closely.  Piling on a bunch of yards most often results in kids swimming with poor form (either from fatigue or because they still haven't learned the correct form) which then results in injury and/or cementing improper form.  You can take most kids -- assuming they have the proper mental mindset -- and pile mega-yardage on them.  Many will get really fast, but they will then plateau or get injured.  They plateau because there is a limit to how much you can muscle strokes, and if they have improper technique they will strain shoulders, etc.  If your kid was running on her heels and swinging her arms wildly across her body, you wouldn't correct her form by telling her to run 20 800s, you would do a lot of drills to promote forefoot striking and running tall without crossing the body.  Swimming has even more technique to than running given the multiple strokes, so it is all the more important to learn the right technique early.

I do agree that workouts should be varied and there should be interval-based training (shorter than 200, for sure), as well as some base aerobic work, but the emphasis at this age should be first and foremost on technique.

I do not think a parent volunteer is an acceptable stand-in coach.  I am ASCA member and have been a swimmer all my life, but if my club asked me to pitch in and run workouts, I would be looking for a new club....[/quote]

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