Long-term development in swimming is my goal as both a parent and swim coach.
My objective isn’t to get my own children or the kids I coach to be as fast as possible as soon as possible.
A full scholarship at the best possible college program is not the goal.
Longevity is.
The potential for burnout in swimming is high when the focus is purely on results, cuts, and winning. That leads to overtraining, overuse, injury, anxiety, and falling out of love with a sport that has so many potential benefits over the course of your life.
There is only so much discomfort humans can take. So it’s important to raise that bar naturally.
My kids don’t attend the maximum number of practices offered until junior year in high school, and they don’t start swimming 6 days/week until 9th grade.
We have generally followed this progression:
6th-7th grade: 3-5 practices/week
8th grade: 5 practices/week
9th grade: 6 practices/week
10th grade: 7-8 practices/week
11th grade: 8-9 practices/week
This allows them to adjust to an increased practice volume each season, it makes the transition from year to year very manageable, and it prepares them for the college training load without overtraining or surpassing the amount of practice time in most college programs.
They improve fairly easily because we leave plenty of room to naturally raise the training bar from year to year.
For kids to develop a lifelong love of the sport, the long game is the only game.
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