IronKids

So last year I did my first tri and like everyone else, I became totally hooked. I've managed to get my wife hooked as well so having two people in the house has sparked my sons interest. Our new active lifestyle is accomplishing what I had hoped would happen.....teach our kids good habits. As a result, I will be signing my son up for IronKids in 2010. He's already a terrific runner and biker so we have been working on his swimming. Our master class coach (a former pro triathlete and olympic coach himself) offered a class over the summer for various skill levels which helped him tremendously. He went into the the class knowing how to dog paddle and is now swimming with pretty good form. Our coach said he has very strong potential and is progressing at a very rapid pace. Yesterday, he swam 25yds in 45 sec and 50 yards in 1:50. I don't think thats too bad for a 5 yr old. He's a very competitive child and loves to race. He's already doing 5K's and we'll be entering him in a local swim meet this month. The Ironkids race is pretty short for his age (50yrd swim, 2 mi bike, 500yrd run) so since the bike and run can be easily accomplished, we are spending the time improving his swim stroke. Needless to say, my dilemma is keeping his interest up in the sport and getting him ready for the race without burning him out. On top of his swimming, he's involved in baseball, tennis, karate and running club. We believe its better to be well rounded and let him find the sport that HE enjoys but at the same time I don't see anything wrong with pushing them in a certain direction. Therefore, I would love any advice you may have on training children who have shown strong athletic potential.