Swimming Plateau?

Question
My daughter is 10 years old and has been swimming competetively since she was 6. For the first 3 years, due to our location, she swam for a small team where she was very succesful and considered a "star" on her team. Last fall we moved to a larger city, with a larger swim team. On this team she found there was one girl her age significantly faster than herself. My daughter's first two meets went ok, then the next two went well with dropped times - but then the remaining four meets found her actually gaining time.  She has now fallen to the point where she has been passed by 4 or 5 other girls in time, and finds herself dropped from 2nd fastest to 6th fastest 9-10 year old girl on her team.
The sad part is many times she can hit the times she needs in practice, but can't seem to get them in a race when it counts. I spoke to her coach, and she says my daughter is not pushing herself hard in practice - but I've been watching practices and it looks like she's working hard to me. I get the feeling her coach is exasperated and has written her off. I have the sense that it's a mental/confidence issue. When I talk to my daughter about the problem, she just says she doesn't know what's happening and that she just gets nervous before meets. This is the only age-group coach and team without making a 2 hour round trip drive - only other option is a less competetive small Ymca team. By the way, she trains 4 days a week for 2 hours.
I'm at a loss for what's happening - any ideas would be appreciated - thanks!

Answer
Sherrie--
From what you say a couple things could be happening.  
First of all, a change of coach and coaching techniques tends to be quite an adjustment.  Let your daughter know to keep pushing herself and doing what is asked during practices.
As for the confidence thing, she may be ready to go but her nerves may be getting the best of her.  It's ok to be nervous, but if she is trying to hard or letting her nervousness get overwhelming it may be preventing her from doing her best.  
As an athlete, I would get so uptight worrying about doing well for my parents and coaches, I would barely be able to finish a race.  It took one coach to tell me that I needed to be there for myself and not worry how anyone else judged my performance, I needed to learn to have fun when I competed.  When I understood that, I was able to perform better than ever and I was able to put any nervous energy to good use during my events rather than worrying about disappointing anyone.
Let your daughter know that she needs to be out there having fun and enjoying the sport.  If she can't enjoy it, it's not worth doing.  At 10 there is too much stuff  to get nervous and worry about with out worrying about activities that are supposed to be fun.
She is also getting to that age of puberty and that can mess with a kid, especially young girls, which can cause some worries also.

Most of all, just let her RELAX and have fun, life is to short to be stressed out at 10 years old.
Hope this helps a little,
George