Can a 10 year old over train?

Question
I am the mom of a very determined 10 year old girl.  She begs to take every class, go to every practice, swims laps on her own, and will even dry-land train during every moment of her free time.  She is on a team and I have seen her improve, but I am concerned that her often 6+ hours of hard training nearly every day of the week might be detrimental to her.  I want to support her, but I do not want her love of the sport to cause damage either.  Is there such a thing as over training at 10?

Answer
Seriously, six hours? That's more than Olympic athletes train (well, kinda).

So there are lots of parts to my answer. Let's look at them...

1. Overtraining is usually used in the context of working so hard that your performance goes down. In terms of her performance, she probably is not helping it by doing so much. The body improves when it's resting and recovering from the work it's done.

However, the extra time if spent working on strokes and technique is beneficial...assuming she's doing correctly (probably not). But no ten year old should spend more than 10 to 16 hours a week in the pool and training. My personal belief is that ten year olds should never do more than 12, even for national caliber athletes but I'm probably on the low end of most coaches.

2. There are serious concerns about overuse injuries. Swimming is notoriously bad for shoulders so this would be my biggest concern. Especially if she hasn't put the time in to build the bone and ligament structures to support the muscle development. Muscles develop quickly...ligaments much slower. This is one reason why swimmers should be progressed slowly over a long period of time...not pushed with too much yardage when they are not ready...even if they want it.

3. I'd be sure to talk about the importance of grades and swimming in college. If the grades aren't good she won't swim in college and 99% of swimmers swam in college (Phelps being a very rare exception). I'd be much happier if she is putting in that kind of effort into studying.

4. Most really good athletes do have a strong drive to improve on their own and put extra time and effort into it. And showing that kind of dedication can be a good thing as long as it doesn't becomes an obsession. I think that's something that you'll have to decide.

I would speak to her coach and see if everyone can come up with some goals and a schedule that is realistic and sane. If the coach isn't willing to do that, I can help you and her come up with something that should work.

I am curious how long she's been swimming, what her times are and how she does in other sports. Best of luck...and at least you should get August off!