GoSwim GoldWeight training for those aged 12 and under
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Hi. I am a physical therapist and long time weight trainer. My daughter, who is 11, started swimming a year ago. Her current swim coach does not have our 12 and younger swimmers doing any sort of weight training. I am convinced that weight training, if properly supervised, is safe for adolescents however I am not sure if it provides any advantage in the water. I allow my daughter to weight train with me and she has made significant gains in the weight room. She also has dropped time in the pool although I am not sure it can be attributed to her strength gains from weights. I am curious if any programs across the country have their younger swimmers training with weights? Alex |
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Most weight training expert will advise you to avoid training with weights until later - more like 16-18. Notice that I did not say avoid strength training. For your 11 year old daughter, pull ups, push-ups, squats and squat jumps, and other exercises based on her body weight are supposedly more appropriate and limit risk to joints, ligaments, tendons, etc.. Improved strength is advantageous for swimmers. Good Luck - maybe someone else has more current info. paul |
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weights?
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YES YOU DO! |
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if you visit the USA Swimming site they have a good injury prevention program. My daughter is 8 and I feel comfortable with her on this program. It is basically strengthening the connectors and the core with some stretching. I asked her to go on this program because I heard a lot of stories about shoulder injuries with swimmers in the 11-13 range. Add some more full range of motion strength training. If you google tire flipping, skipping, kettle bells, etc., they have greater merit than weight training at this age. |
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I think actual use of weights at the age below approx 14 is probably not advised due to growth and development. I think the use of a stretching program, with core work as well as suggested, functional exercises( push ups, sit ups etc) that use own body weight, are most suitable and safe. And can be done anywhere.
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Hey what a great question!
"Kids have a very little strength, because of their STILL devolping muscles, so coaches should concentrate more on tech and speed." - Now I agree with that, but anything you teach to your kids in a yound age will give you better resaults later on, right? + if kids' strength rate to their body is fairly small, then even a small addition of strength would increase their performance in the pool? Now here comes the tricky part. Nobody's saying that you should take your team of 6-8 yrs old kids to the gym and start doing max dumbell presses, right? :D Use of brain is alowed :P Teaching them to do the workouts precisely and teaching THE RIGHT FROM WRONG would be probably be a smart thing to do? And if we really dig in deeper into the strength question, it's not about how strong your swimmers are, it's about if they will LEARN TO use the strength in the pool the right way. Kinda like Vectors. Vectors need a direction. And then comes the sweetest part of swimming:tech work to put those small little strong muscles to the right kind of work :) |
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Until a swimmer is about 15 or when they start to grow, i recommend exercising and building muscle limited to what they can do with their own bodies such as push ups pull ups, squats and so on. This will help prevent future injuries that can develop from wight lifting too young. Like above kids should focus on technique and lifting after they develop. |
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