USA Swimming Mailbag: Plateau at 14
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Mike's Mailbag: Plateau at 14
3/31/2014
By Mike Gustafson//Correspondent
Every Monday I answer questions from swimmers around the country. If you have a question please email me at
[email protected]
.
Dear Mike Gustafson,
When I was 12, I was one of the fastest people in my age group. Now I'm 14, and everybody has passed me up. It just utterly amazes me that all my teammates and friends on other teams are dropping these huge amounts of time, and I can't even get close to a time I went two years ago. All of a sudden, everybody just got so fast, and now I can't keep up with them. I don't know why it bothers me so much. I know I shouldn't compare myself to other swimmers. I know that every swimmer supposedly plateaus. The most I have dropped in the past year is .7 in my 500 free.
My friends tell me that everybody hits a plateau when they're 13-14, but the thing is, they're also 13-14 and they're definitely not plateauing! I can't be old enough to stop dropping time, right? I have never peaked before. Seriously. Of course I could drop a few seconds when I was just learning the techniques and how to race, but I never really dropped tons of seconds consecutively in a race before like everyone else has. I thought everyone peaked and plateaued. Why am I only plateauing? I work my butt off every day at practice. I'm always relaxed behind the blocks. I'm never nervous to race. It makes me so mad that I used to be seconds faster than all of these other swimmers, and now they're seconds faster than me.
-Plateauing at 14?
---
Dear Plateauing At 14?,
Everyone plateaus. Everyone. You will plateau, your friends will plateau, their friends will plateau. It happens to everyone, every swimmer, and every athlete, at some point during their competitive career.
Don’t be frustrated that you’re “the only one” experiencing a decrease of crazy time drops. A lot of this has to do with growth. You’re only 14-years-old. You’re still growing. You’re still building muscle. Your body is changing all the time, which alters your technique and power through the water. Your body is adjusting. You’re constantly re-learning how to swim. One thing is clear: You have a lot of time drops to come.
In swimming, you’re not going to drop time every time you race. You’re just not going to. I remember those awesome days when you are 10-years-old and seemingly every single time you touch the water, you score another personal best. I remember seeing other swimmers my age at 12, at 14, at 16-years-old dropping insane, crazy amounts of time. You know what happened? I got jealous. I got a bad attitude. I got envious. You know what else happened? Eventually, I got over it, readjusted my attitude, and I caught up to them.
But part of getting older is acknowledging that you’re not going to drop time every single race. Sometimes, you won’t even drop time throughout a season. This happens, and it’s part of the sport. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s just what happens. Now that you’re 14, you’re going to start to endure some of those mental challenges: How can you cope with plateaus? How can you keep the love for the sport going, even when you stop dropping time for a little while?
I want you to imagine this:
Imagine that you’re climbing a mountain. This mountain is your swimming career. And every single step you take, you think you’re going to reach the top, because you can’t see above the next rock. And then you climb onto that rock, and there’s another rock. Then you climb another rock, and there’s a long, long plateau in front of you. Literally, a plateau. You can’t see beyond that plateau. It’s foggy. You don’t see anywhere else to go.
Do you stop climbing?
Do you keep walking?
Do you keep going?
I once didn’t drop time in a particular event for three years. It was really, really frustrating. I went from the best in the state for my age to just another swimmer at the state meet. So, I hear you. I know what it’s like to trudge through a plateau, never quite knowing that you’re going to reach a higher elevation.
But you will. You’re only 14. You have a lot of swimming ahead of you. You have a lot of growing and maturing ahead of you. This is part of the sport – the struggles, the injuries, the plateaus. This is part of becoming older and a more mature swimmer.
Imagine that feeling you’ll have at your last race, and you’re standing atop the mountain and looking at all you accomplished. You will look back to these years as very important: Did you keep walking on that plateau? Or did you stop? Did you get frustrated and turn back?
Everyone plateaus. But if you work on improving yourself every single day, one small thing each practice, then you’re moving forward. And eventually, even though you think you’re walking in place, you’ll actually realize that you needed to cross this plateau to get to where you’re going.
When I was 12, I was one of the fastest people in my age group. Now I'm 14, and everybody has passed me up. It just utterly amazes me that all my teammates and friends on other teams are dropping these huge amounts of time, and I can't even get close to a time I went two years ago. All of a sudden, everybody just got so fast, and now I can't keep up with them. I don't know why it bothers me so much. I know I shouldn't compare myself to other swimmers. I know that every swimmer supposedly plateaus. The most I have dropped in the past year is .7 in my 500 free.
My friends tell me that everybody hits a plateau when they're 13-14, but the thing is, they're also 13-14 and they're definitely not plateauing! I can't be old enough to stop dropping time, right? I have never peaked before. Seriously. Of course I could drop a few seconds when I was just learning the techniques and how to race, but I never really dropped tons of seconds consecutively in a race before like everyone else has. I thought everyone peaked and plateaued. Why am I only plateauing? I work my butt off every day at practice. I'm always relaxed behind the blocks. I'm never nervous to race. It makes me so mad that I used to be seconds faster than all of these other swimmers, and now they're seconds faster than me.
-Plateauing at 14?
---
Dear Plateauing At 14?,
Everyone plateaus. Everyone. You will plateau, your friends will plateau, their friends will plateau. It happens to everyone, every swimmer, and every athlete, at some point during their competitive career.
Don’t be frustrated that you’re “the only one” experiencing a decrease of crazy time drops. A lot of this has to do with growth. You’re only 14-years-old. You’re still growing. You’re still building muscle. Your body is changing all the time, which alters your technique and power through the water. Your body is adjusting. You’re constantly re-learning how to swim. One thing is clear: You have a lot of time drops to come.
In swimming, you’re not going to drop time every time you race. You’re just not going to. I remember those awesome days when you are 10-years-old and seemingly every single time you touch the water, you score another personal best. I remember seeing other swimmers my age at 12, at 14, at 16-years-old dropping insane, crazy amounts of time. You know what happened? I got jealous. I got a bad attitude. I got envious. You know what else happened? Eventually, I got over it, readjusted my attitude, and I caught up to them.
But part of getting older is acknowledging that you’re not going to drop time every single race. Sometimes, you won’t even drop time throughout a season. This happens, and it’s part of the sport. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s just what happens. Now that you’re 14, you’re going to start to endure some of those mental challenges: How can you cope with plateaus? How can you keep the love for the sport going, even when you stop dropping time for a little while?
I want you to imagine this:
Imagine that you’re climbing a mountain. This mountain is your swimming career. And every single step you take, you think you’re going to reach the top, because you can’t see above the next rock. And then you climb onto that rock, and there’s another rock. Then you climb another rock, and there’s a long, long plateau in front of you. Literally, a plateau. You can’t see beyond that plateau. It’s foggy. You don’t see anywhere else to go.
Do you stop climbing?
Do you keep walking?
Do you keep going?
I once didn’t drop time in a particular event for three years. It was really, really frustrating. I went from the best in the state for my age to just another swimmer at the state meet. So, I hear you. I know what it’s like to trudge through a plateau, never quite knowing that you’re going to reach a higher elevation.
But you will. You’re only 14. You have a lot of swimming ahead of you. You have a lot of growing and maturing ahead of you. This is part of the sport – the struggles, the injuries, the plateaus. This is part of becoming older and a more mature swimmer.
Imagine that feeling you’ll have at your last race, and you’re standing atop the mountain and looking at all you accomplished. You will look back to these years as very important: Did you keep walking on that plateau? Or did you stop? Did you get frustrated and turn back?
Everyone plateaus. But if you work on improving yourself every single day, one small thing each practice, then you’re moving forward. And eventually, even though you think you’re walking in place, you’ll actually realize that you needed to cross this plateau to get to where you’re going.
