Your coaches or instructors will work with you to develop the essential techniques for each stroke. Listen carefully, and plan to swim lots of laps!
To maximize your efficiency, you’ll have to work on keeping your body in alignment, you head down, your feet flexible, and other key techniques. Work with your coaches or instructors to improve these skills.
Olympic level swimmers may train all year long, 6 days a week, for up to 6 hours per day—with part of that time in the pool, and part of it doing strength training and flexibility exercises out of the pool. You may not need to embrace this level of dedication, depending on your goals, but a 6-day-per-week schedule for at least 1-2 hours per day is reasonable for a competitive swimmer. [3] X Research source
In England, for instance, you must be a member of a Swim England-affiliated club in order to enter sanctioned competitions. Or, you can join Swim England directly for an annual fee and take part in entry-level competitions. Check with local schools, YMCAs, or other organizations that have competition-style swimming pools in your area. There’s a good chance they’ll have affiliated swimming clubs.
Be clear with yourself and your coaches what your goals are. If you overwork yourself based on your goals, you’ll probably burn out and won’t have any fun. If you underwork your goals, you’ll never achieve them. Competitive swimmers often face early morning training sessions, 12-hour long meets, lots of travel, and limited time for non-swimming activities. To be a true competitor in the pool, you have to be able to embrace and thrive in this reality.
Your swimming club will be able to provide you with the timing standards required to enter competitions.
You may even want to shave your body hair to help you glide through the water just a tiny bit faster.
Make sure you drink lots of water before, during, and after practices and competitions as well. The best gauge of adequate hydration is that your urine is light in color. Aim for around 8 hours of solid sleep per night as well.
Even among the greatest swimmers in history, no one is undefeated. After a defeat, think about things you can improve upon, but keep your main focus on the next event.
“Bridge” programs introduce some of the training aspects of competitive swimming, but reduce the emphasis on winning and losing. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends starting formal swimming lessons at age 4. “Parent and child” water classes or other less structured swimming sessions might be suitable for younger children, though.
If a child starts making excuses about why they don’t want to go to practices or meets, or just seems generally unhappy about swimming, they may be dealing with burnout. The child might need to take a break from competitive swimming, or find a program that places less emphasis on competition.
Make sure child swimmers eat a healthy diet full of healthy carbs, lean proteins, and lots of fruits and veggies, and that they drink water regularly.
Swimming competitively can teach lifelong lessons about the importance of dedication, focus, and fitness. But these lessons won’t be learned if a child comes to despise being in the pool.
