Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 20:08     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
she definitely needs to be doing dryland/streng training at least two to three days a week.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 14:26     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!


She doesn’t really have pain she is dealing with. More under performance that we cannot figure out what is going on given training is the same or more than last year with worse results for months now.

- OP

The difference seems to be she’s not doing dry land at the moment. It makes a huge difference - I’d put time into squeezing that in bf I chase down a dr when you don’t have a medical problem.


She has never done dryland though - she didn't last year either and all year she's been trying to just get back to her last year times even (still not there). Not pushing back on that becasue i disagree it would be useful, just the team's dryland is not possible for her to get to (happens when she is in school still) and i think a doctor or PT "prescription" of certain exercises - if that's what she does need - is probably more likely to get done vs her coach's general advise about it.

- OP


Has her body changed much from last year? Boobs and hips slow females down in the water. Add not strength training and not getting the nutrition and sleep to the mix, could be the answer.

Our gold group (senior) had a few girls that this happened to, their bodies got curvier with more boobs and butt and their times slowed. I don't know of any of them that were able to recover from their genetic predispositions with regard to swim times.


Not really. Boobs about the same. Hips maybe SLIGHTLY more but she's wearing same shorts as last year still I think so nothing that's a big shift.
- OP


It is what the other PP said. After puberty is done she needs to work harder. She probably has more body fat than you think particularly if she is not lifting.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 13:47     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!


She doesn’t really have pain she is dealing with. More under performance that we cannot figure out what is going on given training is the same or more than last year with worse results for months now.

- OP

The difference seems to be she’s not doing dry land at the moment. It makes a huge difference - I’d put time into squeezing that in bf I chase down a dr when you don’t have a medical problem.


She has never done dryland though - she didn't last year either and all year she's been trying to just get back to her last year times even (still not there). Not pushing back on that becasue i disagree it would be useful, just the team's dryland is not possible for her to get to (happens when she is in school still) and i think a doctor or PT "prescription" of certain exercises - if that's what she does need - is probably more likely to get done vs her coach's general advise about it.

- OP

I posted that she should be doing dryland. No reason she has to do it w/ her team - she should do it on her own. Also she’s at the exact age where a lot of girls notice a peak in their times. It’s frustrating but as their body shape changes, so do their times. A lot of girls slow down around 15-18 as they develop hips, chest, etc. They’re suddenly swimming with a new body shape, so of course it feels off. As a parent of boy and girl swimmers, it has always seemed unfair to the girls.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 11:15     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:Go to the pediatrician and get blood work to rule out anemia or something along those lines, but I agree that she probably needs to change up her training if she truly wants to see improvements. At 17 females are not just going to drop time from continued hard training in fact, you can work against yourself with over training. It’s the whole work smarter not harder thing. She needs to get in the weight room and do plyometrics to work on explosiveness. Those will make her starts and turns faster. Putting on lean muscle and maybe dropping a little bit of body fat can make a huge difference. When I was around that age, I had a surprisingly high amount of body fat despite all the swimming and being nowhere near overweight. When I started taking weight training and dryland seriously I transformed my body and dropped time in every event. You have to train differently post puberty than before ans during.


DH will love it if dryland is the answer. He's been saying that all year. (Junior year schedule is just brutal though and so finding the time for it has felt impossible to DD). We see the ped end of this week though as a starting point and are also doing a sit down the day before with her coach (without DD).

- OP
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 11:14     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!


She doesn’t really have pain she is dealing with. More under performance that we cannot figure out what is going on given training is the same or more than last year with worse results for months now.

- OP

The difference seems to be she’s not doing dry land at the moment. It makes a huge difference - I’d put time into squeezing that in bf I chase down a dr when you don’t have a medical problem.


She has never done dryland though - she didn't last year either and all year she's been trying to just get back to her last year times even (still not there). Not pushing back on that becasue i disagree it would be useful, just the team's dryland is not possible for her to get to (happens when she is in school still) and i think a doctor or PT "prescription" of certain exercises - if that's what she does need - is probably more likely to get done vs her coach's general advise about it.

- OP


Has her body changed much from last year? Boobs and hips slow females down in the water. Add not strength training and not getting the nutrition and sleep to the mix, could be the answer.

Our gold group (senior) had a few girls that this happened to, their bodies got curvier with more boobs and butt and their times slowed. I don't know of any of them that were able to recover from their genetic predispositions with regard to swim times.


Not really. Boobs about the same. Hips maybe SLIGHTLY more but she's wearing same shorts as last year still I think so nothing that's a big shift.
- OP
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 10:55     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Go to the pediatrician and get blood work to rule out anemia or something along those lines, but I agree that she probably needs to change up her training if she truly wants to see improvements. At 17 females are not just going to drop time from continued hard training in fact, you can work against yourself with over training. It’s the whole work smarter not harder thing. She needs to get in the weight room and do plyometrics to work on explosiveness. Those will make her starts and turns faster. Putting on lean muscle and maybe dropping a little bit of body fat can make a huge difference. When I was around that age, I had a surprisingly high amount of body fat despite all the swimming and being nowhere near overweight. When I started taking weight training and dryland seriously I transformed my body and dropped time in every event. You have to train differently post puberty than before ans during.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 09:43     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!


She doesn’t really have pain she is dealing with. More under performance that we cannot figure out what is going on given training is the same or more than last year with worse results for months now.

- OP

The difference seems to be she’s not doing dry land at the moment. It makes a huge difference - I’d put time into squeezing that in bf I chase down a dr when you don’t have a medical problem.


She has never done dryland though - she didn't last year either and all year she's been trying to just get back to her last year times even (still not there). Not pushing back on that becasue i disagree it would be useful, just the team's dryland is not possible for her to get to (happens when she is in school still) and i think a doctor or PT "prescription" of certain exercises - if that's what she does need - is probably more likely to get done vs her coach's general advise about it.

- OP


Has her body changed much from last year? Boobs and hips slow females down in the water. Add not strength training and not getting the nutrition and sleep to the mix, could be the answer.

Our gold group (senior) had a few girls that this happened to, their bodies got curvier with more boobs and butt and their times slowed. I don't know of any of them that were able to recover from their genetic predispositions with regard to swim times.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 08:51     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Thanks, all!
I appreciate the suggestions. Scheduled a work up with her ped for later this week. I'll check out Healthy Baller.
If anyone has a sports pysch suggestion, I'd love that - especially if they do virtual sessions (in which case locaiton doesn't matter)!

- OP
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 08:48     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!


She doesn’t really have pain she is dealing with. More under performance that we cannot figure out what is going on given training is the same or more than last year with worse results for months now.

- OP

The difference seems to be she’s not doing dry land at the moment. It makes a huge difference - I’d put time into squeezing that in bf I chase down a dr when you don’t have a medical problem.


She has never done dryland though - she didn't last year either and all year she's been trying to just get back to her last year times even (still not there). Not pushing back on that becasue i disagree it would be useful, just the team's dryland is not possible for her to get to (happens when she is in school still) and i think a doctor or PT "prescription" of certain exercises - if that's what she does need - is probably more likely to get done vs her coach's general advise about it.

- OP
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 08:46     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:I also vote pediatrician for a work up.

Also it may be as simple as she just isn’t getting enough sleep. It might have been enough last year but it isn’t now. Make sure she doesn’t have a screen in her room and all the other good sleep hygiene things.

Hydration and good nutrition are super important. What’s her caffeine intake?


No caffeine.
- OP
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 08:46     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:Sports psych? Underperformance in swimming is often a mental block.


would welcome a suggestion of someone in this space too. She does see a therapist weekly (for more general anxiety issues) but that person isn't sports related and isn't helpful when DD raises swim frustrations in that context usually.
- OP
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 08:44     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:agree that a sports medicine MD is going to be fairly useless here.

Bloodwork with Ped first to check thyroid/iron/etc, then you could try a performance place like Healthy Baller at Inova or some other ones that have nutritionists on staff.



Thanks. Appreciate the specific suggestion of a spot to try.
- OP
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 08:41     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!


She doesn’t really have pain she is dealing with. More under performance that we cannot figure out what is going on given training is the same or more than last year with worse results for months now.

- OP

The difference seems to be she’s not doing dry land at the moment. It makes a huge difference - I’d put time into squeezing that in bf I chase down a dr when you don’t have a medical problem.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 08:34     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!


She doesn’t really have pain she is dealing with. More under performance that we cannot figure out what is going on given training is the same or more than last year with worse results for months now.

- OP


I’m PP. My DD swimmer did not experience pain either. She would say a body part was tired and weak more than she thought it should be. Turned out to be strength and stability issues.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2025 07:14     Subject: Sports Medicine Dr
I also vote pediatrician for a work up.

Also it may be as simple as she just isn’t getting enough sleep. It might have been enough last year but it isn’t now. Make sure she doesn’t have a screen in her room and all the other good sleep hygiene things.

Hydration and good nutrition are super important. What’s her caffeine intake?