Just my opinion... but 7 is too young to be making that serious a commitment to competitive swimming.
My opinion is based on family experience: Both my kids (9 and 12) do year-round swimming, with a club in Atlanta that routinely turns out very, very talented swimmers. The senior kids are in the water, twice a day, just about every day of the week. Pretty crazy if you ask me, but they love it.
Even this club - which takes their training very seriously - recommends 3 practices a week for their youngest group (7 to 10 year olds). Maybe 4 times if you've got a kid that needs to burn off the energy, but 3 is fine. They take the long view... at this age, the point is to develop the love of the sport. The kids that are breaking records at 9 are not necessarily the ones still breaking records at 17.
