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

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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]I want to thank all who have contributed to this thread. Interesting reading. DD (age 8) loves to swim and had an instructor at camp say she should join a team. But practices 5-6 days a week? For a kid who isn't even in high school yet????? And what do families with two working parents do?

Something that hasn't been brought up, but concerns me: injuries. Kids need "cross-training". It isn't good for their growing bodies to specialize in one sport so young. How many of your club swimmers will have shoulder surgery before they graduate high school? [/quote]

It is possible to do swim team without practice 5-6 days/week.  Not on the highest level.  But still on a level where the child is progressing, and no reason to believe that the child would not be high school swimming material when the time comes.  There are teams, including in the DC area, with a more relaxed, lower pressure vibe - my child will start her 2nd year swimming on such a team in the fall.  She is 9.  She is a good, solid, but not (yet) spectacular swimmer.  She swims 2X per week. She does other activities as well (not all sports).

I agree with risk of injuries.  When I was 14 years old (I was a competitive swimmer on a team with moderate intensity), I had terrible knee pain/problems.  When I saw a specialist, he said: how good are you?  because unless you aiming for a sports scholarship or Olympics, my advice to you is to let up on the breaststroke (that was my stroke).  From that moment forward, I stopped training in breaststroke (continued to compete in it all through high school).  My knees recuperated (I'm 42 and have yet to have any surgery - have made it this far on my own knees with PT).[/quote]

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