Anonymous wrote:My DH is a former elite swimmer and people are forgetting a couple of aspects (aside from genetics and talent):

When kids are young, motivation definitely counts. Some natural competitiveness and likely younger siblings wanting to do what their older siblings are doing. I don't know about other people, but if my kids aren't interested and motivated, it doesn't matter whether they have the right genetics.

Once you reach high school and college, you are surrounded by kids with good genetics and talent. But the truly great swimmers also have a strong work ethic--a commitment to hours and hours of practice and training (often to the exclusion of many other things!)

I agree with this. My son has the perfect build for swimming and is a good athlete but doesn't really care beyond it being fun enough and it shows. He keeps up swimming in the winter (1-2x a week and misses weeks) but does other things and it's not at all his priority. He competes near the top of our summer team but could be way better and never will be and who cares. He will sometimes get beat by a small, chubby scrappy kid. And there are kids who are on his summer team who just work harder than him and want it more with less physical attributes on their side.

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1. And most of them will flame out before college.

Genetics is a huge part of becoming elite or even just a college athlete. Training helps, but it won't make an unathletic kid an elite athlete or a short kid tall enough to make it in Olympic freestyle sprints.

We have a couple of very good swimmers in my family. Honestly, it is partially that not nearly as many truly athletic kids swim. For example, in one portion of the family both parents are above average in height (6-6, 5-11) and played more competitive sports in college (one D1 and one very high-academic D3). Their daughter will almost certainly swim at a very high-level D1.

It is kind of like boys soccer in the US in that regard. A Sounders first round pick in the last decade had brothers who played Patriot League football and high-level D3 basketball. The basketball player was regarded by the family as pretty clearly the best overall athlete (strength, speed, size, and coordination combination) of the bunch.

Anonymous wrote:I think genetics has a lot to do with it, but also the ability to support 3+ kids in a high-level sport. I don't mean financially necessarily, I mean with time, although the money helps! There was a family with 3 daughters on DS' club team. They all swam D1 and 1 went to the Olympics. The mom has said there is no way it would have happened if she hadn't been able to make their swimming training coordination basically her full time job.

Olympics is really unusual

I think genetics has a lot to do with it, but also the ability to support 3+ kids in a high-level sport. I don't mean financially necessarily, I mean with time, although the money helps! There was a family with 3 daughters on DS' club team. They all swam D1 and 1 went to the Olympics. The mom has said there is no way it would have happened if she hadn't been able to make their swimming training coordination basically her full time job.

It's the family's 'thing'. We are a soccer family with multiple D1 players and a few professional players. The whole family takes an interest in it and since I played and I was around the kids (WAH) more than husband (a non-soccer person), when we played at the park I kicked the soccer ball with them and 'monkey in the middle' with the soccer ball from the youngest of ages. Some kids are throwing the baseball with dad every night.

And, then- yes add in a 'body type' and some genetics in addition to the interest in the particular sport and it often runs in families. Look at the Manning family and football. Granddad down to grandson--amazing players. Brady's kid is supposedly very good as well.

My DD swims “year round” but maybe only made it to practice once per week on average during the school year. She is 12 and doing great in summer swim in spite of not practicing rigorously. She definitely does have genetics in her favor.

My DH is a former elite swimmer and people are forgetting a couple of aspects (aside from genetics and talent):

When kids are young, motivation definitely counts. Some natural competitiveness and likely younger siblings wanting to do what their older siblings are doing. I don't know about other people, but if my kids aren't interested and motivated, it doesn't matter whether they have the right genetics.

Once you reach high school and college, you are surrounded by kids with good genetics and talent. But the truly great swimmers also have a strong work ethic--a commitment to hours and hours of practice and training (often to the exclusion of many other things!)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

+100

Lots of cope from parents with short, chubby kids who play video games all day and are for some strange reason bad at sports.

It’s true until the kids are 15-16

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Not true. My kids only got non-intensive training at 12 onwards. They will likely swim in college.

Shut up

They teach them young and they teach them the right way to do it.

Anonymous wrote:

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

+100

Lots of cope from parents with short, chubby kids who play video games all day and are for some strange reason bad at sports.

Anonymous wrote:

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

+100

-100

Some people do have an innately good feel for the water, a frame that helps them move powerfully through water, and/or big hands and feet. All of this can run in families. My sister and I didn’t do anything other than summer swim lessons and playing in the pool before starting summer swim team at ages 8 and 9. We were both natural breaststrokers who were quickly the fastest in our age group on the team even when we were at the bottom of the age group.

One family we grew up with had 7 kids and they were all amazing swimmers. The ones who trained the most were nationally ranked as age groupers and ended up at top 10 D1 programs. But even the less committed ones were at the top of our summer league all stars and high school state meet even if they didn’t swim year round. They were better at sprints whereas their siblings who trained were great at 200 fly/ 500 free/ 400 IM etc.

Anonymous wrote:It’s entirely possible to do year-round swimming for a decade and not get a times. Genetics aren’t sufficient, but they are sure necessary.

Genetics are definitely part of it. My kids are A meet swimmers despite not doing club. The best thing I did for their swimming was marrying a man who is 6’4”. The length of their arms is key!