Diving and time improvement for 9 yr old

Question
My daughter swims a freestyle at 17.93 (25yr).  She has drastically made improvement in her dive that has lowered her time.  She seems to slow down on the last 10-12 yds.  What can I do to even improve her dive and endurance?  Thanks

Answer
Hi,

For a dive, it is case of strengthening the legs, improving response time to the starter gun and streamlined body thru the water.

If she is only 9 I would NOT suggest weights. If you place an aerobic step (or any kind of solid step surface that is about 6 to 8 inches high) you can get her to jump up to it and back again 4 sets of 15. This will increase leg strength.

The response training will be to just practice starting over and over again and over a period of weeks/months she will get quicker.

For the streamline, make sure she has her head tucked in between her arms when she enters the water and that her arms are as straight as possible and the hands overlapping on top of each other.

Endurance will come with an increase in training and doing more yards/meters in the pools on faster times over the period of her swimming career.

Thanks.