Reply to Competitive (Club) Swimming -- At what point is it fine for a child to leave a longtime sport?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have read the entire thread with interest, and thought some about why swim families invest so many years and so much money to this activity as opposed to others.

Competitive swimming is a sport that gears up in intensity fairly quickly (perhaps too quickly).  It is not uncommon for 9- and 10-year olds in area year-round swim clubs to practice at least 11.5 hours/week.

Think about that and ask yourself what other activity, outside of school, your child or any child practices for 11.5 hours a week by age 9.  Moreover, that practice time is spent with experienced and trained coaches, as opposed to parent volunteers in many other area sports.

That much practice early on, with good coaches, leads to many gains and accomplishments early in a swimmer's career.  Everyone appreciates these time drops because everyone wants to see demonstrable progress in their sport, especially one which they practice 11.5 hours/week.

But this much swimming can also skew your perceived advantage in swimming versus other activities, thus making a child decide to "specialize" in swimming to the exclusion of other activities earlier than they should.

Let's say that you are a gifted baseball player, participating in an area league, coached by volunteer parents, and practicing for only 4 hours a week.  Your baseball is perhaps not going to progress as fast as your swimming; not because you may not ultimately be a better ball player, but rather because you are investing more time in swimming with a better level of coaching.

I grew up in southern California in the 70s/80s, a swimming hot bed at that time.  Even back when Mission Viejo was king, my club swim friends and I participated in multiple sports until we reached high school perhaps.  We played baseball, surfed, soccer, football, or gymnastics with the same intensity that we swam.  In fact, swimmers would drop in and out of the sport depending on the season.  If it was baseball season, you might miss 3 months of consistent swim practice.

Do you know that NBA player Kris Humphries (of Kim Kardashian fame) held National Age Group records in swimming until recently?  He was apparently one of the nation's best 9-11 year old swimmers -- up there with Michael Phelps -- until he left to specialize in basketball at around age 12/13.  What if his parents had him specialize only in swimming by age 9, he certainly merited it?  What of his future NBA career?

So why do so many of the younger, 9-10-year old club swimmers in this area spend 11.5 hours a week in the pool, but at most 4-5 hours/week on any other activity?

First there is the matter of time for swimmers and their parents.  There are only so many hours in a day, especially during the school year, so how can you swim both 2 hours a day, and engage in any other activity to the same extent.  It is a perhaps a detriment to young swimmers in the long run that the area clubs have them practice so intensely so young, if only because it shifts the athlete's focus almost exclusively to swimming.

Second, we like progress, and swimming shows us lots of that progress and accomplishment early on, as discussed above.  Add to this the advantage that swimming does not differentiate too much between young swimmers.  The big goal at the youngest age groups is JOs, and that is not too much of a stretch for most young swimmers, especially at 12 hours/week of practice.  (Note that many young swimmers, who go on to great success, may not make their first JOs until age 10.  So do not have your child leave
swimming just because they do not make JOs at age 8 or 9).

Club soccer or club basketball, on the other hand, are forced at earlier stages of player development to choose and differentiate between A-, B-, C- and D- team players because there is simply no room on their rosters or on their fields to carry 2,000-3,000 athletes, as the swim clubs can do.

When we talk about teaching our children to stick with a sport even when they are not the best at it, I think of club soccer.  So many children and their families leave club soccer very early on just because their athlete did not make the premiere squad in the first few years.  Some of the best soccer players develop as they age, rising from C-team players to nationally-ranked ones.  Families in this area do not like being labeled B- or C-team players though, and are often unwilling to stick it out for that reason.

That is why swimming has another advantage, because the coaches do not have to label their swimmers as high-potential or average-potential anywhere early in the process.  (And in fact they should not label swimmers until perhaps high school as so many factors can come into play as a swimmer develops and ages.)

With so many area club teams using many large pools, staggered practice times, and big coaching staff, swim clubs do not have to make the difficult assessments or cuts to their athlete base that the other sports are forced to make due to limited rosters and practice space.

It is not until a swimmer reaches perhaps the 15-16 age group that it becomes apparent to many families that their swimmer is not going to have what it takes to make sectionals cuts, jr. nationals cuts, or nationals cuts.  These good swimmers may top out at senior JOs and that is it.  It is also at this age that the clubs finally have to decide who to invite into their nationals groups -- and for the first time ever perhaps, not every swimmer of the same age, who has progressed along together for so many years, will make the cut.

At this point (15-16 years of age), you as a swimmer may have invested 11-21 hours practice a week for the last 6 years.  You and your family have invested a substantial amount of time and money by the point that you realize that you will not reach some of your goals, and that can ultimately be a discouraging if valuable ($$) life lesson.[/quote]

PP's comments above touch at the heart of the questions, regrets, and worries that I have about a decision DC and I made recently regarding DC's swimming and music.

DC auditioned for a well-respected, highly-competitive, local youth orchestra and was selected to participate next year.  The orchestra required DC to attend two, one-and-a-half hour rehearsals twice a week, and performances on a weekend afternoon/evening once every two or three months.  The rehearsals conflicted with swim practices.

DC is also a good local swimmer, not among the very best, but good nonetheless.  DC very much enjoys swimming and his/her friendships on the team.  S/he practices approximately 15.5 hours per week with the swim team, and has weekend-long swim meets about every third week.

I approached DC's swim coach about the conflict and how it might affect DC's swimming, and this is what the coach had to say:

"To address the first question. We do not allow swimmers to workout with another group because of scheduling conflicts. It is in fact exactly that choice we are trying to get the swimmers to make. This group is set up to encourage a mentality of high end swimming, even if, at the current moment, the swimmer is only just [X years old]. Every so often we will allow a swimmer to train with another group in a one-off situation but that is infrequent at best. So ultimately [X] is not able to swim with another group during [her/his] nights of practice for the Symphony.

As far as [her/his] swimming is concerned I must say that [s/he] has made huge changes to [her/his] swimming over the last year. I am trying to deal with habits [s/he] has had since the beginning of [her/his] swimming career and [s/he] has done a very good job of making the changes I want. As I am sure you know, changing any habit is simply hard to do, especially when those habits have brought such positive results in the past. The stroke changes [X] needs to make remain large and [s/he] and I are working daily to make them. I am sure [s/he] can tell you about that.

The part about keeping [her/him] involved in other things because you think [s/he] might not end up swimming is a very tough thing to address. I feel strongly about a few things as it relates to swimming. Sectionals is a meet that I think most swimmers can make. That said it does require various amounts of work to accomplish that level. I encourage a long-term commitment in order to reach the goal of sectionals or better. Any inconsistency in the process, allowing for a day or two off a week, has an impact on the swimmer's ability to reach their goals. I realize that is obvious.

Keeping [her/him] involved in activities that have [her/him] away from the pool regularly will eventually hurt [her/his] ability to improve, and eventually prevent [her/him] from reaching [her/his] goals. As a general example, the national group is fast not because they were made that way, they are fast because they have been in the water training for years with great consistency. They don't miss workouts. It can become a self fulfilling prophecy: worried about [her/his] ability, you encourage multiple activities, [s/he] is away from the pool, which leads to less work and possibly less result.

Please understand I am not suggesting this is what is happening now, it is more my thought process about the question. I think the best thing to do is to sit down and talk with you and [X] about what [s/he] wants from [her/his] swimming, and make some choices from there.

I feel that [s/he] has a lot of swimming to do, can go much faster, and yes, has some work to do on [her/his] strokes technically. The age up to [x years] is very hard and it does get harder with each age up. Technique is my focus with [her/him]. I am currently content with the results but very happy to sit down and chat about [X] and [her/his] swimming.

The questions you bring up are very worth discussing further."

In the end DC and I made the decision to have DC decline the invitation to participate in the local youth orchestra so that s/he could keep up with their swimming.  I agree with PP that swimming requires so much of a commitment that it is hard to take on other extracurriculars in an equally meaningful way.  I worry that DC may one day regret her/his decision not to pursue this music opportunity.[/quote]

If it makes you feel better, I have kids involved in the orchestra, too.   I recently googled The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and saw that the (very well educated) competition to get a spot on that particular orchestra comes from all over the country - even from all over the world.  We're talking Roanoke, not NYC, not DC - Roanoke.

This is not to say that orchestra is not a worthwhile pursuit but, as with swimming, the competition is extraordinarily high. That's why it's so important to factor in a child's enjoyment of any given pursuit.   [/quote]

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