Coaching Age Group Swimmers

Last Updated on April 10, 2024 by admin

Age group swimmers pool training — **Age group swimmers undergo significant physical, technical and psychological development.**

In this article, we will provide advice, hacks and tips on the special considerations that should be given when coaching age group swimmers.

A child’s growth and development

Between the approximate ages of 2 to 10 years, most children will grow and develop at a consistent rate.

As most children start puberty, somewhere between the approximate ages of 9 to 15 years, they undergo a significant growth and development spurt.

What are age group swimmers?

Although the age guide for age group swimmers can vary from country to country, in the UK it is typically from the ages of 9 to 14 years.

During this period in a swimmer’s life, they undergo significant physical, technical and psychological development.
Therefore, special consideration should be given to younger age group swimmers (pre-puberty) and young teens (puberty)

Younger age group swimmers (pre-puberty)

Typically – boys aged 9 to12 years and girls aged 8 to 11 years

Please note: Girls tend to mature quicker than boys.

For younger age group swimmers, the following considerations should be observed

Physical changes

During this period many swimmers will experience a significant growth spurt
With some beginning puberty.
Late developers/late bloomers will stay longer in this group,
- This may cause them to become frustrated and/or demotivated.
- As they find themselves trailing the more mature, faster and stronger swimmers,
- Who quite often do not have a great stroke technique.
- During this period coaches should encourage late developers,
- Highlighting that their late development allows them the opportunity to improve their technical ability even further.

Training considerations

When coaching age group swimmers during this period the training programme should have an individual medley base,
With the 200m Individual Medley being the major training and competition event.
This can provide several significant benefits, including,
- The acquisition of a broad range of strokes and competitive techniques, including starts, turns and finishes.
- It can help to develop a base endurance
- The individual medley can also help to develop overall muscular conditioning and flexibility.
- It can also add variety and an extra stimulus during training.
- The rotation of the competitive strokes can help prevent overuse injuries such as swimmer’s shoulder

Other considerations

Swimmers in this group should start to take responsibility for aspects of their training, for example,
- Packing their kit for training or taking the responsibility for getting their parents up for morning training
They should also start to develop psychological techniques to be able to cope with the pressures of competition or when inevitably things don’t go as well as planned.

Young teenage swimmers (puberty)

Typically – boys aged 12 to 16 years and girls aged 11 to 15 years

Physical changes

All swimmers during this period should significantly develop their strength, particularly their skeletal and muscle mass.

This can result in swimmers sometimes experiencing muscle pains.
- Therefore, they must maintain their flexibility and mobility
- To help alleviate the situation, the coach may need to reduce the swimmer’s workload.
- They may also need to introduce more recovery sets both in the water and as a part of their land training programme

Training considerations

When coaching age group swimmers during this period the training programme should continue to have an individual medley base,

With an increase and focus on aerobic training
While continuing to maintain and develop their stroke technique and competitive skills
With the 400m individual medley now being the major training and competition event.

Other considerations

Swimmers during this period will begin to develop psychologically.

With an increase in the ability to problem-solve and think logically

The importance of nutrition

To help support a child’s growth and development, they should be provided with a wide range of ever-increasing healthy nutrition.

Ideally, swimmers should get into the habit of eating healthily from an early age.
The necessity to increase their nutritional intake most often occurs during the growth spurt at the beginning of puberty
However, it’s common for the required nutritional intake to differ for each child.

Diet

A poor diet often affects a swimmer’s ability to focus and concentrate, both in the water and at school.

A poor diet can also make a child more vulnerable to sickness and disease.
The key to a day of good nutrition is breakfast.
This should be packed with a range of good healthy foods to help energise and sustain them throughout the first part of their day.