Is swimming good for running?

OP wrote:

Specificity. Swimming is good for swimming. Running is good for running.

I would have said the same being a student of Kinesiology from the 80's. I have changed my tune over the last 3 decades. Multisport athletes have a huge advantage over sport specific athletes these days. Maybe, not in one season but over long duration I like the over-all development that swimming brings. The benifits of developing the entire body in multiplanes along with nueromuscular development throughout the kinetic chain are remarkable. The strengthening of heart and low impact on the body when working with young adults is also extremely benificial in long term development. I'm convinced.

I started swimming last summer when I was injured - swam a ton. It really helped my "swimming" but I think the elliptical machine is a much better running-specific substitute for running.

onceafastcat wrote:

OP wrote:

Specificity. Swimming is good for swimming. Running is good for running.

I would have said the same being a student of Kinesiology from the 80's. I have changed my tune over the last 3 decades. Multisport athletes have a huge advantage over sport specific athletes these days. Maybe, not in one season but over long duration I like the over-all development that swimming brings. The benifits of developing the entire body in multiplanes along with nueromuscular development throughout the kinetic chain are remarkable. The strengthening of heart and low impact on the body when working with young adults is also extremely benificial in long term development. I'm convinced.

Training tends to be sport specific, particularly if one wants to compete at a high level in a specific sport............track for example. Certainly cross training is great for overall fitness and if one wants to compete in the triathlon or other multi sport event. But if you want to compete as a high level runner in any event, you have to run.

I think your daughter's situation Is perfect! 3 days per week is great if you can keep it at that. It's hard not to get wrapped up in the "competitive swimming life" I'd stay with that team.

My daughter moved up to an ultra competitive group this year. She swam and did dry land workouts m-f (dry Land for 30 min and swimming for 2 hrs) and Saturday long swim workouts. It was excessive but she was handling it until xc started this year.....she'd miss swimming practice on the days she played soccer.

In swimming, or at our club most kids quit other sports at 7th or 8th grade to focus just on swimming. It's crazy bc at 7th grade she could finally play sports for her school. Anyway, she agonized over leaving swimming and all her swim friends But finally made the decision on her own. To her swimming was all or nothing. Plus that much swimming was getting exhausting and running at this age seemed much easier and enjoyable compared to the swimming. And in her opinion she is a more talented runner. I think she's right.

If you can keep your daughter in a low key swim program and just keep her at 3 days a week she will probably be able to do both when she gets older. You don't need to do more in my opinion unless she decided she wants to swim in college. I wish mine would go back down to a less competitive swim group but its hard to do that for middle schooler after all your friends have moved up.

Sorry for the "book" this was just our experience!

Local burn out wrote:

Is swimming good conditioning for, ultimately, "would be" runners in high school or is it merely just good for swimming?

Depends on how else you'd spend the time. If you could run instead *without* injury or overtraining, then you should run.

If you're at the limit of what you can run without getting injured/overtrained then a bit of swimming is probably better than sitting on the couch.

At the end of my road racing career I was so beat up from running competitively for so long I spent 1/2 my time in the pool do workouts. Surprisingly, I ran just as well all things being considered as when I ran high mileage in the collegiate system and for my sponsor years after. Fast-forward 30 years, my son swims during the indoor season but runs before as supplemental cross training. He ran 4:08 as a 16 year old last year. I've had many conversations about this with people who worked with Alan Webb and he (Alan) firmly believes that development or strengthening of the heart really helped him out from swimming. I have to agree because I've seen it myself and with multiple athletes. Not saying it would benefit everyone and I'm not telling coaches to stop there Winter running programs but for long term development it's hard to argue with from my viewpoint.

Local burn out wrote:

which is why I wonder if allowing her to run one day per week and doing seasonal 5ks would mitigate the potential for this problem

As opposed to "not" allowing her to run one day a week?

Good grief. If she wants to run, let her run, or swim or whatever she likes.

Coach and dad of HS runners here.

Swimming is great for running in most cases. I no longer coach my daughter's track team since she graduated, but there is a girl there now that is outstanding and comes from a swimming background. She is very fragile from running, so much of here training can be accomplished by swimming and keeps her healthy and fresh.

Three different sports simultaneously with no coordination between coaches is crazy. She's likely to get injured and/or burned out, and there will be a tug of war over her abilities. I've been caught up in that game as a coach. I'd focus on just one sport a season, but not specialize year round until perhaps her junior or senior year. Which is her passion?

Mine played soccer and turned to running as well. As soccer became more and more a game of political BS, she saw through it and wanted to run, as the stopwatch is not subjective like soccer coaches, nor does it lie(she could have been an outstanding soccer player!). I assume XC and swimming are the same HS season when she gets there? So she would have to choose when the time comes. The girl mentioned above still swims competitively in the summer with a club.

On a side note, my daughter stress fractured one season and aqua-ran (I know, not swimming). She still PR'd for the season running well under 2:20. She literally ran only about 25-30 miles for the last 2 months of the season total! The rest was in the pool. If they have a good motor on them, the running will fall into place.

Try Erging bro!

Mad good for your health, and low stress!

Yes especially when injured plus I know a guy who has run 100 marathons+ he's about 60 swims regularly and is rarely injured. Wish I had his dedication.

Swim coach told me good for breathing as breathing out into water much harder than into air so strengthening for lungs. Great to do on a rest day as a leg loosener as well.

Local burn out wrote:

I'm not going to push the running at this age, because I believe parents who do that are "buying problems" later in the child's life, hence the limiting it to one or maybe two days per week. Not really sure what else to do, but that seems like plenty.

So you're "allowing" her to swim twice a day, but "limiting" her from running more than two times in a week. You have no clue what you're doing.

Duh ` wrote:

Local burn out wrote:

I'm not going to push the running at this age, because I believe parents who do that are "buying problems" later in the child's life, hence the limiting it to one or maybe two days per week. Not really sure what else to do, but that seems like plenty.

So you're "allowing" her to swim twice a day, but "limiting" her from running more than two times in a week. You have no clue what you're doing.

She's not swimming "twice per day." Did you even bother to read? I just don't believe in pushing the running before age 14. Most of those girls will be fried.

Actually don't believe in pushing the running at all. They have to "want it," and then it is the coach's and parent's job to rein in excessive training, as well as make sure they are eating well and getting adequate sleep.

Up to three days per week of swimming hardly seems excessive though.

One last question for those of you who have had kids in competitive swimming around 5th grade. Did your clubs provide your kids the opportunity to compete in the longer distances, or was it all 25-50 meter races? I know my daughter is not built to be a sprinter, even if it wouldn't kill her to work on it. Thanks.

Local burnout wrote:

One last question for those of you who have had kids in competitive swimming around 5th grade. Did your clubs provide your kids the opportunity to compete in the longer distances, or was it all 25-50 meter races? I know my daughter is not built to be a sprinter, even if it wouldn't kill her to work on it. Thanks.

I swim with several swim parents whose daughters are entered in a meet next weekend with races of 500 and 1000. The kids are 11 and 13. I don't think they race these distances in the rec season but in the winter, it seems that meets offer longer distances.

But something i've noticed training kid swimmers is that the focus is on short stuff since it's all about making their stroke as perfect as possible. If they try to swim too far, their stroke falls apart. This pefecting of the stroke is why fit people who learn to swim as adults will always be beaten by an out of shape person who swam as a kid.

So if you aren't in a big swimming mecca, it's possible that they don't have enough coaches who encourage longer distance races to have meets to include them.

Pictures wrote:

[quote]Local burnout wrote:

One last question for those of you who have had kids in competitive swimming around 5th grade. Did your clubs provide your kids the opportunity to compete in the longer distances, or was it all 25-50 meter races? I know my daughter is not built to be a sprinter, even if it wouldn't kill her to work on it. Thanks.

yes. Starting in March or April the Long Course season starts and meets are held in 50 meter long course pools. So the shortest distance is 50 meters. My daughter regularly swam 100 - 400 meter events. She is pretty small so it was harder for her to be competitive in the 25 meter events. But even in short course 5th graders swam longer distances. I think at 11 years old they could swim 500's or longer but the age limit is usually decided by each individual meet director. Some meets let younger kids swim those distances. By the time they turn 12 or 13 they stopped offering 25 meter events at most of the meets we swam in. Except for freestyle.

I like that swimming coaches make kids swim well with great form in shorter distances before young swimmers compete in other events. I know 33 seconds for fifty yard freestyle isn't great, but I find it interesting that my daughter's swim coach won't consider a girl for varsity in other events until a girl can swim sub- 33 seconds for 50 yard freestyle. I'd like to see that in track & field. Get all girls, sub-33 for 200 metres before T&F female athlete is considered for varsity in other events.

Local burn out wrote:

Actually don't believe in pushing the running at all. They have to "want it," and then it is the coach's and parent's job to rein in excessive training, as well as make sure they are eating well and getting adequate sleep.

Up to three days per week of swimming hardly seems excessive though.

Don't dump your weak minded lifelong insecurities on your daughter.

Let her do all the positive things she wants to do and enjoy them.

Otherwise she'll pick negative things and do those.

Put the kid in swimming.

At the ages 5-15, and probably into high school and college, the volume and intensity of swimming training is MUCH greater than running, and especially the discipline.

Runners aren't doing legitimate two-a-days at 13, nor are they doing serious volume lest they get injured. Anoxic training (no-breath 25s, one-breath 50s) and swimming training generally gives lactate tolerance training that youth/school track doesn't come close to until later.

If I wanted my kid to be great in track at 16, I'd put him in swimming and soccer (or another team running sport that builds real athleticism on land, not track), NOT track at 5-10.

Most kids and parents aren't up for real swimming training (8-11 sessions per week), though, but when they move to an "easier" sport like XC skiing or track they have a base and tolerance for training far beyond their peers.