A Taste of Everything: Why Younger Swimmers Should Race Every Event
In swimming, the topic of specialization of young athletes is often contentious and controversial. At the beginning of my career, I was extremely fortunate to grow up and participate in a program that put an emphasis on doing all different types of events.
Here are a few reasons why young athletes should swim a broad spectrum of events:
1. Helps Build a Training Base
When younger swimmers swim longer and more challenging events, it gives them the experience and the confidence to train harder and get faster. It is often said that you can build a sprinter off a distance swimmer. This is because every event requires some sort of aerobic base. This base helps a swimmer strongly finish any distance.
By not specializing at an early age, swimmers are able to build a well-rounded base for every stroke. One of my greatest swimming memories is one day after practice when I came home and told my parents that I was to swim the 500 freestyle at my next meet. After I swam it, I took some of the basic aspects of the race like pacing and maintaining technique into practice which allowed me to get faster in all of my strokes. Also, this well-rounded base allows the athlete to train multiple muscle groups leading to a reduced chance of injury. Giving young athletes the ability to develop all muscle groups instead of overloading only certain groups, allows the athlete to specialize as they mature with a lower risk of injury.
2. Character Building
Swimming a wide range of events builds character. I specifically remember many times earlier in my swimming career when I was forced to swim several difficult events over the course of a meet session or weekend. At the time, I did not necessarily love swimming my non-dominant strokes and events, but eventually it paid dividends.
For many young swimmers, competing in new events is a terrifying experience. Some seem so long– they cannot be humanly possible to complete. But once the race is over, many young swimmers feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. For example, the 200 butterfly is an event many young athletes shy away from because of it’s a high endurance and strength race. Swimming different length races puts each race in perspective. If someone swims a 1650 yard freestyle, they realize that the 200 yard freestyle is not as long as they once thought. When I was 12 years old, I swam the 1000 yard freestyle on the first day of a meet. The next day, I swam the 200 yard freestyle and I said to myself, “Wow, that was insanely short!” From that day on, I did not really think of a 200 freestyle as long.
3. Reduces Burnout
Over the course of my swimming career, I have experienced times where I have plateaued in certain events and excelled in others. Many times, I would be dropping time in one stroke discipline and then I would go through a period of time where I did not drop any time. I distinctly remember when I moved out of the 11-12 age group and moved into the 13-14 age group. At the time, I was strictly a backstroker and I did not really think about anything else. When I aged up, the times got so much faster and I stopped progressing in my backstroke events. However, because I had been forced to swim other types of events at a younger age, I found it easier to stay motivated and still drop time in other events until my backstroke came around again.
4. Evaluate Strengths and Weaknesses
Let’s be honest, not every swimmer is going to be the best ever at the 50 freestyle or the 100 backstroke. However, when a swimmer gets to swim a wide range of events, it gives them an opportunity to experiment and determine what races fit them. I fell in love with distance swimming in my early teenage years. I was amazed with the stroke efficiency, the even pacing of many of the top distance swimmers, and trying to emulate them day after day in practice. Then there were the struggles that came with sprinting. Without my background in racing several events, it would have been extremely difficult to determine where my natural talent was.
So they fall asleep in the car on the way home from practice?
??
Katie Ifkowitz Shireman
Isabella Cesareo
Danielle Donovan yes!!!??
Mitch Brown
Madison Underwood
In the era my daughter was competing everybody swum every event they qualified at especially at district level for club point scores.
Allyn Kalaiwaa could be useful when justifying to a kid why they’re swimming whatever event
My kids swam from a young age. On the advice from a good friend my kids always swam the IM . Best advice ever!
Edwina Ed….Edrin Rafael Walcott
On my club team as a kid you got to earn to be on the BRUTE SQUAD once you swam the Mile, 400 IM, 200 Fly and I think the 500 free in a meet. I was a sprinter but took on the challenge just for a shirt! Interesting that according to this article that did more than earn me a shirt!!! #missmasters Morgan EmpeyChing ChiaTodd ConradAlan BaumgardnerNaomi Kubo Peters
Valerie Delia Thier, Elizabeth Powell Krall – Perhaps this is why Joe made this sprinter swim the 200 fly and 400 IM LCM at those 3-day USS meets! Though one could argue that it was already well established that they would not fall under my ‘strengths’ category. Perhaps he just wanted more rest time for the other swimmers between events 😉
Or when I swam the 1500!!! I think he only made me do it once ?
Painful. I hated even counting for the mile lol.
I just had a dream about swimming last night, so your comment is timed so perfectly!
Haley will be swimming the mile this weekend at Penn State ?
That was THE BEST MEET! Good luck to her!
LOL! Hates it! Loves the 50 ?
Jasson Velez
Swimming a variety of different events such as the 200 fly and 400 IM helped me out of my plateau. I was mainly a breaststroker and had a difficult time adjusting to my strok after I began growing. Experimenting with longer events, something I had been exposed to during my younger swimming years, helped me not only recover, but thrive in the past two years.
Great article!
Michael Adelia Carpenter thank you for encouraging IM from the start!
Should be REQUIRED!
Yes!! IM for all.
I agree as a coach, but looking back I don’t think I feel bad about never swimming the 200 back or 200 breast, I really didn’t want to have the meet go into darkness
100%
Lisa Ferguson ?
like our conversation the other day
IM’er here. Best part? There’s always something to work on! And you become stronger all the way around!
Disagree from a developmental approach. first, young swimmers must be good enough to perform in all 4 strokes and the IM as too many are entered in every event *meets too long for a weekend and is one of the causes of sports dropout. secondly, be good enough o swim each stroke correctly because Dqs have emotionally destroyed many young swimmers who feel embarrassed in front of parents and friends. We talk about empowerment… that is not the way to build character. the BS about Character building has been a myth for decades. Character is being modelled by coaches and taught through training with given activities. Read the sociology and psychology of sports research and discover the facts. Coach Development is my domain, and the trend of burnout and overtraining is not good for developmental swimmers. I have suggested breaking up the long weekend meets for years and having swimmers perform in 2 strokes (Free and Fly and BR and BK and 100 IMS). Concentrate on the technique, not the number of events. Swimming is losing out to soccer because those team events are done in 45 or 90 minutes, and families still have a weekend ( Reaerch).
Case point, kid who was shocking at breaststroke up until he was 16 (and I mean really bad) signed up to have a go again every 6 months or so and now the proud owner of a club record just two years later. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.