blondeviolin Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 My son is almost seven and swims on a fairly competitive team. For months after we moved here, he had great practices. We saw HUGE leaps in abilities and stroke. He took 15 seconds off his 50 free time after only a few months. I don't need to tell you that's huge! One of his coaches is awesome (M/W coach). She works him hard, he is capable, she teaches technique, etc. He had another coach (T/Th) that worked technique in a different way but had a high bar as well. The old T/Th coach didn't deal well with how stubborn he was, but he worked hard because the expectation was high. Old T/Th coach resigned and new T/Th coach meshes fine with his strong will, but let's him goof off a fair amount and doesn't instruct in technique a lot. It's not uncommon for him to stop swimming in the middle if the lane and bob around or swim the wrong stroke on T/Th. That never flies with M/W coach. Lately, we've been seeing some bad habits revert on M/W. Tonight his coach looked at me and shrugged and mouthed, "I don't know what that is." Then she went and stopped him and told him to swim properly like she's taught. It seems she's having to reteach a few things. Skills that he's already mastered seem to sort of decaying a bit. So... I've got two schools of thought: 1. He's six (nearly seven) so he's still young. Maybe he's over thinking things or in a period of non-development. Or... 2. T/Th coaching allowing him to occasionally goof off and not being as nitpicky about his strokes is having negative consequences on his swimming. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 I think it may be a combination but I lean more towards age and developmental. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 I can't really answer your question, but I did want to point out that it's not uncommon in swimming for the swimmer to make a huge time improvement for a particular stroke when things are starting to click. Then, times drop off much more slowly after that, and may even go up and down a bit as he experiments with different techniques and gets used to working with a taller, heavier, etc. body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 I do not know about swimming, but my son started acting "cute" or what he thought was silly, fun, and cute around that age. I had to tell him multiple times that regardless of what he seemed to think his behavior was obnoxious and disrespectful to the situation. My son did not mean to be difficult, he was just totally misunderstanding what would be socially appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted September 30, 2014 Author Share Posted September 30, 2014 I can't really answer your question, but I did want to point out that it's not uncommon in swimming for the swimmer to make a huge time improvement for a particular stroke when things are starting to click. Then, times drop off much more slowly after that, and may even go up and down a bit as he experiments with different techniques and gets used to working with a taller, heavier, etc. body. This improvement was across the board. He reduced all of his times by at least 10 seconds for each stroke. His improvement was visible to my untrained eye. He still swims much better than a few months ago, but it does not look AS polished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 I do not know about swimming, but he is young. Couple of thoughts. Is he in or just recently grown? DS skates and after every single growth spurt he loses skill. Sometimes it is funny to watch, other times his coach looks at me and mouths "what is going on here?" After he adjusts he is fine. Sometimes it takes longer. My other thought is that maybe his interest is no longer there and he is unable to express it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted September 30, 2014 Author Share Posted September 30, 2014 I do not know about swimming, but he is young. Couple of thoughts. Is he in or just recently grown? DS skates and after every single growth spurt he loses skill. Sometimes it is funny to watch, other times his coach looks at me and mouths "what is going on here?" After he adjusts he is fine. Sometimes it takes longer. My other thought is that maybe his interest is no longer there and he is unable to express it. I don't think he's currently growing. He doesn't grow in spurts like some of my kids. It's just a steady and incremental growth. I wondered if he was losing interest, but he is constantly reminding me he has swim practice and pestering me not to be late. He bugs me about when his next swim meet is. And he is positively glowing when he has a good practice. I think the passion is still there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 He's 7. Two days a week he's getting instruction. Let it go. As he ages he will improve if he really wants it internally. Moving up in practice groups will be behavior base as well as skill based. Improving times will be dependent on HIS effort. All that needs to come from him. Remember that he's 7 and you like that he's participating in a healthy activity. You are not positioning him for college scholarships. If the behavior is too disruptive, I would tell coach that it's ok to make sit out a drill or two. This may happen daily for a little while. When he starts going the whole practice without issue reward him. Whatever reward is appropriate for being more mature. Some of the big teams near me, one with a current Olympic gold medalist, build a little play into the last 5 or 10 minutes occassionally for the younger guys. Does your little guy ever have play time? Are you going to the pool besides practice 4 days a week? Because practice can be drudgery. Swim practice is work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 I don't think he's currently growing. He doesn't grow in spurts like some of my kids. It's just a steady and incremental growth. I wondered if he was losing interest, but he is constantly reminding me he has swim practice and pestering me not to be late. He bugs me about when his next swim meet is. And he is positively glowing when he has a good practice. I think the passion is still there. He may not be in a growth spurt (my son is an steady incremental grower, too), but his muscles may be in a new developmental stage. That can throw a kid off tremendously until it's all sorted out. My son runs and we've noticed that many kids (him included) are having "off" seasons around this age. I attribute it completely to their bodies changing and developing in new ways. He also might be trying out new things--stretching himself in new ways or attempting new tweaks to his strokes. It can look funky for awhile, but it can pay off hugely. My son does this in hockey and a result is that he masters new things quickly, even if it's the expense of other things temporarily. I'd suggest remaining patient and letting him work on whatever it is. He's 6; if he loves it, he will definitely sort it out. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted September 30, 2014 Author Share Posted September 30, 2014 Thanks for the perspective! My goals for him with swim are not huge. I want him to enjoy it, be active, and take instruction from someone else. Those are being met. I do know that when he's just swimming 50s over and over without instruction or direction he gets bored and goofs off. We make sure to arrive at practice 10-15 min early so he can play in the pool. We go swimming as a family once every other week or so. He has a swim meet coming up this weekend and he absolutely loves meets. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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