frequency

Question
Hi
My son has joined a swim club, which is competitive in nature.
I am confused regarding training frequency by the kids
Some of the more talented one train 6 days a week, twice a day.
These kids are between 12-17 years of age. From my understanding muscle needs time to recover from hard work so it can adapt to stresses placed on it. Doing this many work outs a week, is the body not constantly in a state of fatigue? How much rest should a child this age swimming competitively need a week? I would guess most of these kids get 7 hours sleep a night afer coming home from practice, eating and then doing homework, and then getting to the pool for 6 am practice
Thanks

Answer
Hi John,

In my opinion, six days a week, twice a day is excessive. A more typical scenario would be six days a week (two hours a day) with two or three shorter morning workouts. They would do this for a while and then go back to one a days.

Of course, this depends on the experience and talent of the child. My belief is that it is better to hold back than to push too fast. I will say I'm in the minority on this.

Here are some other things to keep in mind:
1. Is this schedule year round? Most coaches plan heavy periods of work with lighter ones. No one (elite world-class athletes included) swims double workouts all the time.
2. At some point they will taper which means they will do a lot less work so their body recovers (super compensates) so they go fast. Not enough space here to go into tapers but 12 year olds don't need as much as collegiate men. Usually the more muscular, the more rest.
3. Your understanding of the work/rest is correct. As a parent and coach, I think they need at least 8 hours sleep sometimes more. You are also correct about the body needing to recover, though it is good to push it for a bit and then recover.
4. A lot of the workload the kids are doing depends on the distance and intensity. One could put that much pool time in but do mostly stroke technique work and it wouldn't be too demanding.Unlikely that's what they are doing but maybe.
5. Maybe not every kid is making all the workouts. The coach might be offering them but not expecting them all to be made.
5. Not sure how old, fast, or experienced your son is but don't let him get pushed too fast or too hard. In my opinion, I'd rather have a healthy, happy kid who enjoys swimming than one who is super fast, but hates swimming and has a lot of injuries.

Hope this helps,
Ron