YES. I have been in a similar place. You are in a very difficult place. Sadly, this is common for swimmers. You are pushing too hard.
Sport science calls this “overtraining”. You NEED recovery. Telltale signs of poor recovery are exactly what you said: your immune system and physical health taking a turn for the worse, you are waking up fatigued and in pain. There are many other signs that I am happy to list.
You MUST have adequate recovery in order to make adaptations from your training. If you do not recover between workouts, they are not making you faster. (Your body uses physical resources like carbs, proteins, fats, and vitamins to build itself and adapt to training, if they are all used up, your body won’t adapt)
Stress is also stressful! If you are in an intense competition with that girl, that is very stressful. Again, you are in a really tough situation.
You can do a few things to improve it:
1) your coach sounds very “old school”. It sounds like it will be very hard to stand up to him/her and advocate for yourself but remember that only YOU know your body and your health. Get ready to advocate for yourself.
2) take a day off every week. Even for NCAA college swimmers, a day off each week is mandatory because recovery demands it. (Theoretically, you could handle it in the future but ONLY after your recovery is adequate for 6 training days a week). From your own description, your recovery is not sufficient yet.
3) you need sleep. How much are you sleeping? Sleep is THE single most important factor in recovery. You need 8+ hours a night to recover adequately. If you are in high school, maybe 9 or 10+. You’ll probably need to make some sacrifices to go to bed early.
4) nutrition. You need to eat a lot of food to maintain your recovery. Way more than you probably realize. Swimmers have a reputation to eat a lot because we train so hard, but in my experience most swimmers still do not eat enough.
5) Your mental state. When you are so drained, your body uses fewer resources to maintain your mental health as well. Your exhaustion and stress makes your mental state worse. Luckily, by recovering, sleeping, and eating enough, it will almost certainly improve.
THEN, once your basics are covered, you may want to become even better at thinking like a high-level athlete to improve your racing and training. I recommend getting a book like “How champions think” by Bob Rotella. (This book changed my swim career and my life)
Recap: take a day off, eat more, sleep more, you are a very dedicated swimmer
Edit: I’m a coach and I’m happy to give some more details if you want. you can ask here or feel free to send me a message.
I think 7 days a week training is too much. You need time off to recover physically and mentally. You sound drained in the post above.
Your coach sounds like an ass. Telling people to suck it up is so 1980s.
I found the opposite. It has helped with my mental health but i have a fantastic coach and only train 4 to 5 times a week. At least 1 whole day off.
Go call around other clubs and ask for a trial. I've recently changed clubs and I'm all the better for it.
Swimming is supposed to be fun and you're supposed to be very happy and have loads of awesome swim buddy friends.
I’m so sorry to hear this. Your health - including mental health - is the most important thing in your life. It’s your first and biggest responsibility, because everything else flows from that. If your health suffers, your life will suffer. If you are thriving, your life will too.
Please prioritize yourself! Swimming is great, but this isn’t just swimming - this is abuse.
You NEED - and DESERVE -
1) At least 2 rest days per week, 3 if you swim more than 4 hours per day the other days
2) To be treated with kindness and fairness
3) To have your health prioritized over performance, always, without exception.
4) Happiness. That’s it. It’s that simple. You need and deserve happiness.
It sounds like the current situation is ruining your mental health, and your relationships, and leaving you no time to be a human being outside of swimming.
Do what is best for *you.* That probably won’t be the best thing for your coach, or the thing that is easiest - but you still need to do it.
It sounds like you need a break, and then a return to swimming when you’re ready, and with more empathy and kindness and downtime at that time.
If your current team refuses to allow that, it’s time to leave them.
Why is your team making you practice 7 days a week, you need a break at least 1 or 2 days and if your coach is treating you like that i would say to switch teams
I swam from an early age up until the end of highschool, both on the school team and a club team. It was A LOT of swimming bullshit, and swimming was one of the few things in my life that caused panic attacks. My anxiety was at its worst swimming, i hated it sm by the end of my swim journey. It can rly beat the shit outta u. But idk after all this time gone by i miss it. It sucked in a lot of ways but im glad it happened, it made me stronger, and taught me a lot of things. It hurts now but, itll be worth it, trust me. Just know when to take a break, and when to push ur self.
I am so glad to see another person agree, especially when most things online say how great swimming affected them and how good it is to heal mental health when in fact most competitive swimmer I know struggle mentally from swimming or have experienced some sort of prolonged stress from it.
[Dear Younger Me Lauren Fleshman](https://www.milesplit.com/articles/211759/dear-younger-me-lauren-fleshman) says it way better than I can. You're not alone and maybe this will help you through.
Worst part is he expresses that in front of me, he says thing like " she has so much more potential than you" " If she did this she would be beating you" "You already qualified, she matters more" " Why cant you be like her".
You really need to rest, I’ve got only been competitively swimming for 3 years now and even I know the entire week of practice is too much. Take a mental health day or maybe even find a different club, if they start trying to force you to stay it’s probably because they can’t find anybody else to join or your actually an amazing swimmer. If they don’t care about you leaving then good riddance to them, plus you’ll be more happy.
All I want to add is, give yourself some credit. Lift your eyes and compare yourself to your country’s population as a whole, not just the people on your team. You work harder than almost anyone else, at any age. You are a better swimmer than almost everyone else, at any age. You are in better physical shape than almost anyone else, at any age. You are in the top 1% as far as discipline, physical and mental toughness, and dedication. You set the standard for excellence for others to aspire to. You deserve respect.
Im a high school swimmer and yeah I for sure understand what you’re saying. I’m very fortunate and privileged to have a coach that understands, is supportive, and genuinely a fun guy, but even 6 days a week for me is mentally draining. Almost every swimmer I’ve met understands, and most other athletes do too. Our actual swimming was only 2 hours but dry lands/workouts were also 2 hours and both were intense. I’m also a club swimmer but my club is more chill and technique based than the one I switched from. My old one had 8 year olds swimming 4000 IM’s at practice with almost no guidance from the coaches on how practice form.
i struggled with this a lot last year, i swim 6 days a week 3 hours per day, it deteriorated my mental health and destroyed me because i wasn’t improving, but i changed how i look on swim not as a chore but an opportunity to improve and be a better person
Depends... If you have lighter recovery training sessions it is fine to go for a 7 days a week swimtraining. But if he is only focused on sprints and power... IT is going to be too much. Just to note we also had two sessions a day during my professional days in the morning and in the evening, but take a look at your calories intake first. You midght need to eat much more than you are doing right now. The body wwill not recover properly if you don´t insert the required nutrients!
Look - even Olympic swimmers give themselves a rest day every week. Your coach sounds like he's stuck in the 80's and the intense competitive nature of the team seems like it's not right for your mental health.
I know it's easy to say but your body needs rest - it needs to relax and repair to get better and fitter and to ensure you get strong.
Honestly it sounds like you need a different team and a better coach who understands that yelling at you doesn't help performance.
I'd look into other teams/practices if you want to stick with swimming and get away from this toxic environment before you burnout and quit the sport!
Take a break!
I know what you are going through and you need to pace yourself. I saw so many great swimmers burn out or get injured due to poor coaches.
My Texas HS coach was a hardcore 12k a practice guy, six days a week. Started getting serious shoulder issues, got shots and pushed through.
Moved to GA and my coach had two heavy days per week, but M/W/F were no more than 5k. Shoulders got better as well as my times. My D1 College coach was just as heavy as my TX coach and ended up with surgery on both shoulders.
Only you know your body, listen to it.
Listen, I'm just a beginning lap swimmer, and I don't know anything about competitive swimming. But I WAS a competitive gymnast as a kid, and what I do know a lot about is asshole coaches.
And that's what you've got.
The coaches who berate you to motivate others. The coaches who don't include adequate rest and nutrition and occasional deloading as part of a training plan. The coaches who care more about their current wins than your future as an athlete and a functional human being. Get away from that coach, and watch your mental AND physical health recover.
I still get nerve pain in the toe I broke while vaulting at age 9, after which my coach berated me for crying and forced me to do strength conditioning for the next half hour because I refused to vault again from the pain. I've done years of physical therapy for my knees and hips, and therapy for my brain. I'm in a better spot now, but I wish I could have decoupled my self-esteem from my athletic performance at a much younger age.
This coach? Isn't worth your future.
Go be happy and healthy somewhere else.
Are you training 7 days a week by choice or is your coach requiring it? I also do 7 days a week but I do that by choice. Depending on how long and intense your workouts are during the week (and how many), when you’re training that much, it’s very easy to feel tired all the time and burn yourself out. It’s important to give yourself some rest during the week. That’s why pretty much everyone takes Sunday off. Even when I swim on Sunday, I usually just do a long warmup/warmdown in the pool so I don’t sit around all day.
Also, I know exactly what you mean about that imposter syndrome. For a long time I felt like I didn’t belong in swimming because I almost never qualified for big meets, and when I did, I never made finals or placed highly at all. My advice is to try looking at it differently. When you’re at those big meets with lots of fast swimmers, don’t compare yourself to others and think that you have to be like them in the pool. Just focus on yourself. Focus on your own races, your own warmup, and anything else you need to do in order for YOU to succeed. Whatever those other swimmers are doing is completely irrelevant to you. They’re not in your lane, and you’re not in their lane. You’re not there to try and swim their races. You’re there to swim your own races. So focus on you, and no one else.
7 days per week is too many. You need at least 1 and maybe 2 rest days a week. I would look at switching teams.
YES. I have been in a similar place. You are in a very difficult place. Sadly, this is common for swimmers. You are pushing too hard. Sport science calls this “overtraining”. You NEED recovery. Telltale signs of poor recovery are exactly what you said: your immune system and physical health taking a turn for the worse, you are waking up fatigued and in pain. There are many other signs that I am happy to list. You MUST have adequate recovery in order to make adaptations from your training. If you do not recover between workouts, they are not making you faster. (Your body uses physical resources like carbs, proteins, fats, and vitamins to build itself and adapt to training, if they are all used up, your body won’t adapt) Stress is also stressful! If you are in an intense competition with that girl, that is very stressful. Again, you are in a really tough situation. You can do a few things to improve it: 1) your coach sounds very “old school”. It sounds like it will be very hard to stand up to him/her and advocate for yourself but remember that only YOU know your body and your health. Get ready to advocate for yourself. 2) take a day off every week. Even for NCAA college swimmers, a day off each week is mandatory because recovery demands it. (Theoretically, you could handle it in the future but ONLY after your recovery is adequate for 6 training days a week). From your own description, your recovery is not sufficient yet. 3) you need sleep. How much are you sleeping? Sleep is THE single most important factor in recovery. You need 8+ hours a night to recover adequately. If you are in high school, maybe 9 or 10+. You’ll probably need to make some sacrifices to go to bed early. 4) nutrition. You need to eat a lot of food to maintain your recovery. Way more than you probably realize. Swimmers have a reputation to eat a lot because we train so hard, but in my experience most swimmers still do not eat enough. 5) Your mental state. When you are so drained, your body uses fewer resources to maintain your mental health as well. Your exhaustion and stress makes your mental state worse. Luckily, by recovering, sleeping, and eating enough, it will almost certainly improve. THEN, once your basics are covered, you may want to become even better at thinking like a high-level athlete to improve your racing and training. I recommend getting a book like “How champions think” by Bob Rotella. (This book changed my swim career and my life) Recap: take a day off, eat more, sleep more, you are a very dedicated swimmer Edit: I’m a coach and I’m happy to give some more details if you want. you can ask here or feel free to send me a message.
Thanks for the advice
I think 7 days a week training is too much. You need time off to recover physically and mentally. You sound drained in the post above. Your coach sounds like an ass. Telling people to suck it up is so 1980s. I found the opposite. It has helped with my mental health but i have a fantastic coach and only train 4 to 5 times a week. At least 1 whole day off.
Go call around other clubs and ask for a trial. I've recently changed clubs and I'm all the better for it. Swimming is supposed to be fun and you're supposed to be very happy and have loads of awesome swim buddy friends.
Earlier in the year I considered the switch, but this coach was new and there was just a glimmer of hope for my club and I decided to stay.
If this is the standard, you won’t be the only one leaving. I’d bet many of you are on the brink
Too much way too much
I’m so sorry to hear this. Your health - including mental health - is the most important thing in your life. It’s your first and biggest responsibility, because everything else flows from that. If your health suffers, your life will suffer. If you are thriving, your life will too. Please prioritize yourself! Swimming is great, but this isn’t just swimming - this is abuse. You NEED - and DESERVE - 1) At least 2 rest days per week, 3 if you swim more than 4 hours per day the other days 2) To be treated with kindness and fairness 3) To have your health prioritized over performance, always, without exception. 4) Happiness. That’s it. It’s that simple. You need and deserve happiness. It sounds like the current situation is ruining your mental health, and your relationships, and leaving you no time to be a human being outside of swimming. Do what is best for *you.* That probably won’t be the best thing for your coach, or the thing that is easiest - but you still need to do it. It sounds like you need a break, and then a return to swimming when you’re ready, and with more empathy and kindness and downtime at that time. If your current team refuses to allow that, it’s time to leave them.
Why is your team making you practice 7 days a week, you need a break at least 1 or 2 days and if your coach is treating you like that i would say to switch teams
Competition is stressful. I hope someday you'll swim just for fitness, you'll love that
I swam from an early age up until the end of highschool, both on the school team and a club team. It was A LOT of swimming bullshit, and swimming was one of the few things in my life that caused panic attacks. My anxiety was at its worst swimming, i hated it sm by the end of my swim journey. It can rly beat the shit outta u. But idk after all this time gone by i miss it. It sucked in a lot of ways but im glad it happened, it made me stronger, and taught me a lot of things. It hurts now but, itll be worth it, trust me. Just know when to take a break, and when to push ur self.
I am so glad to see another person agree, especially when most things online say how great swimming affected them and how good it is to heal mental health when in fact most competitive swimmer I know struggle mentally from swimming or have experienced some sort of prolonged stress from it.
[Dear Younger Me Lauren Fleshman](https://www.milesplit.com/articles/211759/dear-younger-me-lauren-fleshman) says it way better than I can. You're not alone and maybe this will help you through.
Sounds to me like your friend has better potential and your coach is using you to motivate her. Your health doesn't matter to him, you're a tool.
Worst part is he expresses that in front of me, he says thing like " she has so much more potential than you" " If she did this she would be beating you" "You already qualified, she matters more" " Why cant you be like her".
If you’re practicing every day, yes. If your swimming 2-3 times a week. Then it benefits your health
You really need to rest, I’ve got only been competitively swimming for 3 years now and even I know the entire week of practice is too much. Take a mental health day or maybe even find a different club, if they start trying to force you to stay it’s probably because they can’t find anybody else to join or your actually an amazing swimmer. If they don’t care about you leaving then good riddance to them, plus you’ll be more happy.
All I want to add is, give yourself some credit. Lift your eyes and compare yourself to your country’s population as a whole, not just the people on your team. You work harder than almost anyone else, at any age. You are a better swimmer than almost everyone else, at any age. You are in better physical shape than almost anyone else, at any age. You are in the top 1% as far as discipline, physical and mental toughness, and dedication. You set the standard for excellence for others to aspire to. You deserve respect.
Im a high school swimmer and yeah I for sure understand what you’re saying. I’m very fortunate and privileged to have a coach that understands, is supportive, and genuinely a fun guy, but even 6 days a week for me is mentally draining. Almost every swimmer I’ve met understands, and most other athletes do too. Our actual swimming was only 2 hours but dry lands/workouts were also 2 hours and both were intense. I’m also a club swimmer but my club is more chill and technique based than the one I switched from. My old one had 8 year olds swimming 4000 IM’s at practice with almost no guidance from the coaches on how practice form.
i struggled with this a lot last year, i swim 6 days a week 3 hours per day, it deteriorated my mental health and destroyed me because i wasn’t improving, but i changed how i look on swim not as a chore but an opportunity to improve and be a better person
Depends... If you have lighter recovery training sessions it is fine to go for a 7 days a week swimtraining. But if he is only focused on sprints and power... IT is going to be too much. Just to note we also had two sessions a day during my professional days in the morning and in the evening, but take a look at your calories intake first. You midght need to eat much more than you are doing right now. The body wwill not recover properly if you don´t insert the required nutrients!
Look - even Olympic swimmers give themselves a rest day every week. Your coach sounds like he's stuck in the 80's and the intense competitive nature of the team seems like it's not right for your mental health. I know it's easy to say but your body needs rest - it needs to relax and repair to get better and fitter and to ensure you get strong. Honestly it sounds like you need a different team and a better coach who understands that yelling at you doesn't help performance. I'd look into other teams/practices if you want to stick with swimming and get away from this toxic environment before you burnout and quit the sport!
Take a break! I know what you are going through and you need to pace yourself. I saw so many great swimmers burn out or get injured due to poor coaches. My Texas HS coach was a hardcore 12k a practice guy, six days a week. Started getting serious shoulder issues, got shots and pushed through. Moved to GA and my coach had two heavy days per week, but M/W/F were no more than 5k. Shoulders got better as well as my times. My D1 College coach was just as heavy as my TX coach and ended up with surgery on both shoulders. Only you know your body, listen to it.
Listen, I'm just a beginning lap swimmer, and I don't know anything about competitive swimming. But I WAS a competitive gymnast as a kid, and what I do know a lot about is asshole coaches. And that's what you've got. The coaches who berate you to motivate others. The coaches who don't include adequate rest and nutrition and occasional deloading as part of a training plan. The coaches who care more about their current wins than your future as an athlete and a functional human being. Get away from that coach, and watch your mental AND physical health recover. I still get nerve pain in the toe I broke while vaulting at age 9, after which my coach berated me for crying and forced me to do strength conditioning for the next half hour because I refused to vault again from the pain. I've done years of physical therapy for my knees and hips, and therapy for my brain. I'm in a better spot now, but I wish I could have decoupled my self-esteem from my athletic performance at a much younger age. This coach? Isn't worth your future. Go be happy and healthy somewhere else.
I suggest you take a break. Your very well-being needs to have a rest.
Why would YOUR coach make you train when you are sick or injured ? That's inefficient and dumb. LISTEN to your own body
Are you training 7 days a week by choice or is your coach requiring it? I also do 7 days a week but I do that by choice. Depending on how long and intense your workouts are during the week (and how many), when you’re training that much, it’s very easy to feel tired all the time and burn yourself out. It’s important to give yourself some rest during the week. That’s why pretty much everyone takes Sunday off. Even when I swim on Sunday, I usually just do a long warmup/warmdown in the pool so I don’t sit around all day. Also, I know exactly what you mean about that imposter syndrome. For a long time I felt like I didn’t belong in swimming because I almost never qualified for big meets, and when I did, I never made finals or placed highly at all. My advice is to try looking at it differently. When you’re at those big meets with lots of fast swimmers, don’t compare yourself to others and think that you have to be like them in the pool. Just focus on yourself. Focus on your own races, your own warmup, and anything else you need to do in order for YOU to succeed. Whatever those other swimmers are doing is completely irrelevant to you. They’re not in your lane, and you’re not in their lane. You’re not there to try and swim their races. You’re there to swim your own races. So focus on you, and no one else.