Reply to Explain to me your thought process (parents) with being highly competitive with your swimmer

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thanks for this.  I keep thinking she’s 10 so she has 8 more years to develop since she’s on younger side.  But swim is such a tough sport.  Older kids play soccer, volleyball, team sports.  It’s very different when it all falls on you.[/quote]

Be slow.  I think when they are young it is so tough to see all the things that they can do better.  I always told mine, that is great.  It means you can learn (X.Y. or Z) and you will drop time.  And you know what?  The take it slow approach pays off.  My kids are in their teens and dropping time every year.  When they were 11-13 and barely keeping up with the superfast kids, and now those kids have plateaued.  
 
So now there are two scenarios - plateaued swimmers will keep having to wake up early and grind it out.  They might not have their next drops this year, or next, but have to keep working.  That is VERY hard to do mentally.  And the longer you can prolong that the better.

Less pushy or coming to the sport a bit later.  Keep making time drops as they improve.  Less time/chance of plateauing and feeling that frustration.  So breaks for vacations are great. Take a day off to do fun stuff or be with friends every once in a while.

Swim is a mental long game and your swimmer will have bad seasons or flat seasons.  So they need to love it and want to be there, even if they are not having success. [/quote]

This story of mediocre swimmers suddenly rising to the top and passing all the elite age group swimmers just doesn’t happen often. It’s exceedingly rare, although it is a common fantasy of the parents of 12 year old B swimmers. In reality, the very best elite swimmers generally were always good. There are some who maybe got a late start in the sport, but had they started swimming at 8, they also would have been good all along. Very rarely do you have a kid who plugs along for years barely getting B times, and suddenly at 15 becomes elite. Sorry, that’s reality.

Now, there are some ups and downs during the puberty years as some kids (especially boys) gain size/strength earlier or later than others. But generally the cream will rise. [/quote]

Torrid Huske might be the best example of a mediocre/good swimmer becoming the ultra elite. [/quote]

Uh, she had AAA times at 12. [/quote]

Which was when she hit puberty.  She started swimming at 6 and was not a phenom at a young age by any stretch.  In fact, she went pretty unnoticed until 11-12.[/quote]

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