In my previous post, we’ve seen how kids improve year-by-year in swimming. Certainly kids get stronger and faster as they grow. But how much impact does practice and coaching have? As I mentioned in my previous post, coaches do not keep a record of attendance during practice. There are daily hour long practice sessions during the summers. But even though it isn’t known how regular the kids are in attending practice, the number of meets that a kid participates in during the season, can be a good proxy.
This past summer, my daughter joined a swim team. Her team is among several teams that are part of an area league. All summer long, developmental and competitive meets are organized where teams compete on a one-to-one basis. All kids in a team swim in developmental meets. For competitive meets, top 3 or 4 kids are chosen by age groups. Meets are organized in community pools that are either 25 meters or 25 yards in length.