The point is to get exercise, not to become the next Katie Ledecky. Or at least, that should be the point. Lighten up and just focus on this being an enjoyable exercise that she enjoys.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fastest kids at 8 or 9 are rarely ever the fastest after puberty, effort and technique kick in. In fact the kids who get fast at 8 or 9 often times are the least technical or hardest working kids.

Relax. Your kid is 9.

At our NCAP site, this isn’t playing out. You can look back at the fastest age 7 swimmers’ times and they were already BB (with one or two A times at 7), then look at their current age 13-14 times and they are AA-AAAA. We honestly have not seen any of the fastest kids fall off.

There are no 8&U motivational time standards, so you're claiming there are 7 year olds with 10&U A times?

Correct. Two 7 year old swimmers (to be fair, they were turning 8 almost immediately) snagged an A time. They are unsurprisingly still very fast, which is the point I was making. This is not uncommon. If you look up the current fastest professional swimmers’ 8U times, you won’t be shocked to see they were always fast (source, Florida Swimming, I think):

Ryan Murphy (8) SC
50 Back - 34.08 AAA
100 Back - 1:14.58 AA
100 Free - 1:04.26 AAA
100 IM - 1:14.19 AAA
200 IM - 2:43.27 AA
50 Fly - 34.00 AA

Ryan Murphy (9) SC
50 Free - 27.02 AAA
100 Free - 58.78 AAA
200 Free - 2:06.82 AAA
50 Back - 31.27 AAAA
100 Back - 1:06.78 AAAA
50 Breast - 38.81
100 Breast - 1:25.98
50 Fly - 30.02 AAA
100 Fly - 1:09.89 AAA
100 IM - 1:09.71 AAA

Dressel (8) SC
50 Free - 31.94 A

Dressel (9) SC
50 Free - 28.12 AAA
100 Free - 1:03.12 A
200 Free - 2:19.49
50 Back - 33.43 AAA
100 Back - 1:13.51
50 Breast - 39.18 A
100 Breast - 1:27.07 A
50 Fly - 30.48 AAA
100 IM - 1:12.31 A

Dressel (9) LC
50 Free - 30.09 AAAA
100 Free - 1:06.82 AAAA
200 Free - 2:27.05 AAAA
100 Back - 1:21.61 AAA
50 Breast - 41.10 AAA
50 Fly - 33.15 AAAA
200 IM - 2:52.64 AAAA

(I failed to get the source for this, but I believe Florida Swimming put it together)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fastest kids at 8 or 9 are rarely ever the fastest after puberty, effort and technique kick in. In fact the kids who get fast at 8 or 9 often times are the least technical or hardest working kids.

Relax. Your kid is 9.

At our NCAP site, this isn’t playing out. You can look back at the fastest age 7 swimmers’ times and they were already BB (with one or two A times at 7), then look at their current age 13-14 times and they are AA-AAAA. We honestly have not seen any of the fastest kids fall off.

There are no 8&U motivational time standards, so you're claiming there are 7 year olds with 10&U A times?

My eventually AAA high school kid might have made 1 B time as a 9 year old. Maybe.

And it doesn't matter anyway, the fitness and personal enjoyment of the process are much more important than this or that time standard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fastest kids at 8 or 9 are rarely ever the fastest after puberty, effort and technique kick in. In fact the kids who get fast at 8 or 9 often times are the least technical or hardest working kids.

Relax. Your kid is 9.

At our NCAP site, this isn’t playing out. You can look back at the fastest age 7 swimmers’ times and they were already BB (with one or two A times at 7), then look at their current age 13-14 times and they are AA-AAAA. We honestly have not seen any of the fastest kids fall off.

The point is statically on average that it IS the case; countless of studies have looked at the trajectory of high-performing athletes and how they performed as adolescents so no need to regurgitate that. The fact is in this area, these sub-sample populations of clubs like NCAP and the families/kid swimmers it attracts, are not average.

Anonymous wrote:Fastest kids at 8 or 9 are rarely ever the fastest after puberty, effort and technique kick in. In fact the kids who get fast at 8 or 9 often times are the least technical or hardest working kids.

Relax. Your kid is 9.

At our NCAP site, this isn’t playing out. You can look back at the fastest age 7 swimmers’ times and they were already BB (with one or two A times at 7), then look at their current age 13-14 times and they are AA-AAAA. We honestly have not seen any of the fastest kids fall off.

Fastest kids at 8 or 9 are rarely ever the fastest after puberty, effort and technique kick in. In fact the kids who get fast at 8 or 9 often times are the least technical or hardest working kids.

Relax. Your kid is 9.

Mine's never made anything. But she keeps cutting time, loves it, and it's good exercise. Leave it alone.

If the child is enjoying it, just keep rolling with it. My kids’ age group coach said it take 1.5-2.5 years for kids to start hitting their level, as there is so much technique to learn at first. And both my kids started swimming at 10 and 9, respectively. He was right; the older one now has a few sectionals cuts heading into HS, and the younger one has a few Zones cuts. The trick? They just like going to practice and being with their friends at meets. If they love it, just keep sending them and it’ll all work itself out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid doesn't even have BB times. He's having fun and learning to be a better swimmer. It's fine! You just need a club that coaches the slow kids too.

+1
At all clubs, the slower swimmers subsidize the faster swimmers, but different clubs treat that base of the pyramid differently. I have one slower swimmer and one faster swimmer. At our old club, it was clear that the coaches and leadership couldn’t have cared less about the slower swimmer improving. They felt like a second class citizen. We changed clubs and it’s totally different. The coaches are attentive toward all the swimmers and my DC enjoys it so much more because they get feedback and feel like the coaches care about their improvement, even if it’s moderate.

Curious what team you're at now (if you're in PVS). I have one kid who is a moderately fast swimmer and one slower swimmer and we definitely feel like the club only cares about the fastest.

Poster with the kid who doesn't have BB times here. My kid is in Patuxent Aquatics Club but if you aren't near Machine you probably aren't near PAC either. 😆

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid doesn't even have BB times. He's having fun and learning to be a better swimmer. It's fine! You just need a club that coaches the slow kids too.

+1
At all clubs, the slower swimmers subsidize the faster swimmers, but different clubs treat that base of the pyramid differently. I have one slower swimmer and one faster swimmer. At our old club, it was clear that the coaches and leadership couldn’t have cared less about the slower swimmer improving. They felt like a second class citizen. We changed clubs and it’s totally different. The coaches are attentive toward all the swimmers and my DC enjoys it so much more because they get feedback and feel like the coaches care about their improvement, even if it’s moderate.

Curious what team you're at now (if you're in PVS). I have one kid who is a moderately fast swimmer and one slower swimmer and we definitely feel like the club only cares about the fastest.

Machine

Ah thank you! I wish we lived closer to a Machine site - I've heard great things!

You should be worried about yourself and your mental health if you're taking swim this seriously when your kid is just 9. Poor kid to have to deal with the pressure that's about to come their way. Burn out city.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid doesn't even have BB times. He's having fun and learning to be a better swimmer. It's fine! You just need a club that coaches the slow kids too.

+1
At all clubs, the slower swimmers subsidize the faster swimmers, but different clubs treat that base of the pyramid differently. I have one slower swimmer and one faster swimmer. At our old club, it was clear that the coaches and leadership couldn’t have cared less about the slower swimmer improving. They felt like a second class citizen. We changed clubs and it’s totally different. The coaches are attentive toward all the swimmers and my DC enjoys it so much more because they get feedback and feel like the coaches care about their improvement, even if it’s moderate.

Curious what team you're at now (if you're in PVS). I have one kid who is a moderately fast swimmer and one slower swimmer and we definitely feel like the club only cares about the fastest.

Machine

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid doesn't even have BB times. He's having fun and learning to be a better swimmer. It's fine! You just need a club that coaches the slow kids too.

+1
At all clubs, the slower swimmers subsidize the faster swimmers, but different clubs treat that base of the pyramid differently. I have one slower swimmer and one faster swimmer. At our old club, it was clear that the coaches and leadership couldn’t have cared less about the slower swimmer improving. They felt like a second class citizen. We changed clubs and it’s totally different. The coaches are attentive toward all the swimmers and my DC enjoys it so much more because they get feedback and feel like the coaches care about their improvement, even if it’s moderate.

Curious what team you're at now (if you're in PVS). I have one kid who is a moderately fast swimmer and one slower swimmer and we definitely feel like the club only cares about the fastest.

Anonymous wrote:My kid doesn't even have BB times. He's having fun and learning to be a better swimmer. It's fine! You just need a club that coaches the slow kids too.

+1
At all clubs, the slower swimmers subsidize the faster swimmers, but different clubs treat that base of the pyramid differently. I have one slower swimmer and one faster swimmer. At our old club, it was clear that the coaches and leadership couldn’t have cared less about the slower swimmer improving. They felt like a second class citizen. We changed clubs and it’s totally different. The coaches are attentive toward all the swimmers and my DC enjoys it so much more because they get feedback and feel like the coaches care about their improvement, even if it’s moderate.