Some of the strokes it's things like shoulder and ankle flexibility, which is possibly genetic.

At our pool it's really kids getting proper technique and racing skills down early and then a lot of practice. These swim families are not swimming 1-2x a week in the winter.

The ones who end up legitimately short top out before 15-18. Plenty of average height males/females can still be really competitive locally 15-18. Any D1 college swimmer is going to be above 6 feet (for males) and likely well above 6 feet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

I agree with this, for most of these swimmers it's more about $$$ spent and length/amount of time practiced than genetics. Go to enough swim meets and you gain perspective on this.

To me genetics come into play when someone who doesn't swim much is able to keep up with more seasoned swimmers or when a swimmer is absolutely dominating the competition at every meet.

DC's summer swim team has year round swimmers who can't make A meets because they are stuck behind better athletes. Those athletes may not dominate because swim also has athletes who swim year round, but they are beating out the un-athletic kids who are doing the 4:00 am practices

There are plenty of kids who swim year round who still aren’t very fast. So it’s fair to say genetics/talent definitely play a roll.

I think it’s a combination of both: early starts (these kids will start club by the time they are 6), height and hyper mobility.

My kids are strong swimmers. For one, his success is mostly because of time spent in the pool (and some innate breaststroke ability, which seems to be a niche thing). She tried out for RMSC early (7) because her older sibling wanted to try out, got in, and had been at it ever since. Is not a total stand out but consistently places first or second on our big summer team and is in an advanced practice group. Older sibling did not get in but continued less intense year round swim for years (a couple lessons/practices a week) to stay competitive. Then he hit puberty and some genetics kicked in (tall and broad shouldered) and he got really good. For them, and others I know, seems a combination of consistent swimming and, at older ages especially, having the right build for it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

I agree with this, for most of these swimmers it's more about $$$ spent and length/amount of time practiced than genetics. Go to enough swim meets and you gain perspective on this.

To me genetics come into play when someone who doesn't swim much is able to keep up with more seasoned swimmers or when a swimmer is absolutely dominating the competition at every meet.

Agree. DH and his siblings are strong swimmers. They took tons of lessons when they were growing up. None of them have any other standout athletic abilities to say it’s genetic.

That’s not entirely fair either though. Most great swimmers don’t have other standout athletic abilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Phelps could barely throw a ball or would look incredibly awkward running 100m.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

I agree with this, for most of these swimmers it's more about $$$ spent and length/amount of time practiced than genetics. Go to enough swim meets and you gain perspective on this.

To me genetics come into play when someone who doesn't swim much is able to keep up with more seasoned swimmers or when a swimmer is absolutely dominating the competition at every meet.

Agree. DH and his siblings are strong swimmers. They took tons of lessons when they were growing up. None of them have any other standout athletic abilities to say it’s genetic.

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

I agree with this, for most of these swimmers it's more about $$$ spent and length/amount of time practiced than genetics. Go to enough swim meets and you gain perspective on this.

To me genetics come into play when someone who doesn't swim much is able to keep up with more seasoned swimmers or when a swimmer is absolutely dominating the competition at every meet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

Maybe when they are young, but by high school, genetics wins

Fair, but without intensive coaching at a young age, the genetics would never be enough.

It’s actually both $ and time for practices and genetics.

Anonymous wrote:Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

Maybe when they are young, but by high school, genetics wins

And often the youngest swimmer has the most early success as they go into swimming at even younger ages to emulate their older siblings.

If they are standouts through age 12 it’s usually mostly the early intense training. If they are all still standouts 15-18 it is also genetics.

Agree with the above. The kids swim intensively from the time they are young.

Money and willingness to pay $$ for year round teams and private lessons. Not genetics.

We are at a nice community pool with a big swim team. We have had a few families where all 3 kids are amazing swimmers. What about their genetics makes that happen?