JUST moved to South Arlington and looking for a swim club

[Anonymous]

So we just relocated here and someone at the school pointed us to AAC, which has a practice location within walking distance. BUT, completely full. This is not normal where we moved from, I was a little shocked. Recommendations? Advice?

Good clubs? Price point for age group swimming? The DC area is completely foreign to us in this regards.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the DC area, where every parent is a tiger parent and competition for spots in kids' programs is intense. Year-round swim clubs usually do evaluations in early/mid summer and by now I would presume most teams close-in to DC are full. AAC, York, Machine, NCAP are the ones that most Arlington kids swim for to my knowledge. Reach out and see if it's even worth getting on waitlists at all of them.

Are you on a waitlist for one or more summer pools? Be prepared to be shocked that the big pools in Arlington all have multi-year waiting lists so depending on where you are you may also want to look at pools in nearby Alexandria or Falls Church.

[Anonymous]

Get on a waitlist! When we looked into it it was six years long and I was like “wow that’s pointless.” But seven years later I regret that decision.

We use Long Bridge Aquatic center. But yeah, the swim situation here sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the DC area, where every parent is a tiger parent and competition for spots in kids' programs is intense. Year-round swim clubs usually do evaluations in early/mid summer and by now I would presume most teams close-in to DC are full. AAC, York, Machine, NCAP are the ones that most Arlington kids swim for to my knowledge. Reach out and see if it's even worth getting on waitlists at all of them.

Are you on a waitlist for one or more summer pools? Be prepared to be shocked that the big pools in Arlington all have multi-year waiting lists so depending on where you are you may also want to look at pools in nearby Alexandria or Falls Church.

Seriously??? My kids were swimming club and swam two different summer leagues for fun. It was never an issue to join a pool or a team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the DC area, where every parent is a tiger parent and competition for spots in kids' programs is intense. Year-round swim clubs usually do evaluations in early/mid summer and by now I would presume most teams close-in to DC are full. AAC, York, Machine, NCAP are the ones that most Arlington kids swim for to my knowledge. Reach out and see if it's even worth getting on waitlists at all of them.

Are you on a waitlist for one or more summer pools? Be prepared to be shocked that the big pools in Arlington all have multi-year waiting lists so depending on where you are you may also want to look at pools in nearby Alexandria or Falls Church.

Seriously??? My kids were swimming club and swam two different summer leagues for fun. It was never an issue to join a pool or a team.

Which one??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the DC area, where every parent is a tiger parent and competition for spots in kids' programs is intense. Year-round swim clubs usually do evaluations in early/mid summer and by now I would presume most teams close-in to DC are full. AAC, York, Machine, NCAP are the ones that most Arlington kids swim for to my knowledge. Reach out and see if it's even worth getting on waitlists at all of them.

Are you on a waitlist for one or more summer pools? Be prepared to be shocked that the big pools in Arlington all have multi-year waiting lists so depending on where you are you may also want to look at pools in nearby Alexandria or Falls Church.

Seriously??? My kids were swimming club and swam two different summer leagues for fun. It was never an issue to join a pool or a team.

Which one??

Sorry, this was in Michigan, not in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the DC area, where every parent is a tiger parent and competition for spots in kids' programs is intense. Year-round swim clubs usually do evaluations in early/mid summer and by now I would presume most teams close-in to DC are full. AAC, York, Machine, NCAP are the ones that most Arlington kids swim for to my knowledge. Reach out and see if it's even worth getting on waitlists at all of them.

Are you on a waitlist for one or more summer pools? Be prepared to be shocked that the big pools in Arlington all have multi-year waiting lists so depending on where you are you may also want to look at pools in nearby Alexandria or Falls Church.

Seriously??? My kids were swimming club and swam two different summer leagues for fun. It was never an issue to join a pool or a team.

Most of the big clubs started practice in the last week or 2 so their evaluation period is over. However, if your kids swam club previously and are good, it can’t hurt to reach out to clubs you are interested in and provide their times. The big private clubs like NCAP and Machine are more likely to be able to take a good club swimmer even though the evaluation period has passed.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, I feel this. We moved from Ohio and it’s so frustrating to access activities here. I can’t tell if it’s truly because parents are more competitive here, or because resources and facilities haven’t grown at a rate that matches that of the population. We had our pick of gymnastics teams, swim clubs, and even country clubs and swim clubs out there.

Now it’s a frenzy to access even a wait list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, I feel this. We moved from Ohio and it’s so frustrating to access activities here. I can’t tell if it’s truly because parents are more competitive here, or because resources and facilities haven’t grown at a rate that matches that of the population. We had our pick of gymnastics teams, swim clubs, and even country clubs and swim clubs out there.

Now it’s a frenzy to access even a wait list.

I think that there is a very dense population here and very limited resources. What makes it worse is that rents are so high in this area it prices a lot of activities out. Then it is tough to get people run them because they can't find the skilled people or pay them what their time is worth. Teachers are good sources, but teachers seem less inclined to coach (or lack the skillsets).

[Anonymous]

OP this place is nutters. Most places you have the ability to choose amongst teams, have them reasonably priced, and nearby. Not so, in the DMV. All sports are crazy, expensive, and competitive to get into as well.

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry OP. it can be tough in this area with swimming if you are just moving here.

I agree with others to call all the winter swim leagues the pp listed above and hopefully you will find something. For summer, in arlington it is particularly tough as most summer pools have very long waitlists. Since you're in south arlington, maybe someone can chime in from alexandria if there are any pools that don't typically have a waitlist. In north arlington many families in your situation travel to pools in mclean in this situation. Some that often don't have long wait lists are high point and kent gardens. Oh one that might be closer to you that a neighbor got in quickly and like a lot (they said it's chill which they like) is sleepy hollow bath and racquet. Another that I don't know much about but looks like you can immediately join is forest hollow https://www.foresthollow.com/membership/

Finally close to yorktown high school is Knights of Columbus. This pool does not have a wait list and does membership each year in the spring. You need to sign up right when it opens, I think it is usually April 1st, but you can email and check when it will be and then just be ready. https://www.columbusclubpools.com/pricing/

[Anonymous]

I'd sign up for a practice league for the winter to keep them in shape and start planning now for next summer. Every team for this winter will be full unless your kid is a phenom or you have personal connections.

[Anonymous]

One of the pps and I will say personally I’m not sure the pool issue is a competitiveness issue even though that can be a problem in this area, with the pools it’s more that there just isn’t enough of them for the level of density close in areas have. Our in-laws in the Burke area of Fairfax have no issues with summer pools - there are plenty in their neighborhood because it’s a more planned community. But arlington became pretty dense and is just stuck with the few summer pools it already had. Arlington has quite nice indoor pools (all high schools have new ones, long branch etc) but that doesn’t help you much for swim team.

[Anonymous]

This advice is a little late for you, OP, but may help others. If you are relocating with a swimmer, email some clubs and give the names of your swimmers, their times (BB, A etc), and age. Some clubs don’t require tryouts from swimmers from other USA swimming clubs. Even if they do, they may waive that.

We moved to nyc with a swimmer and I emailed a club when we found out about the move. This was in December, and tryouts had already happened in September. Manhattan is in an even denser situation than dmv with a scarcity of pools, most of which were decrepit and located in buildings that you wouldn’t not be surprised to see a “condemned” sign on. This club was walking distance, had a brand new pool, and had tryouts once a year. If you weren’t on your laptop right when it opened, you couldn’t even get a slot to try out. The club waived the tryout and invited my kid to a practice, and afterward he was able to join. He had BB times, nothing spectacular.

My point is that, a friendly email, perhaps with your kid’s current coach cc’d, can sometimes work. You never know. Since there are multiple practices a week, there usually isn’t a hard cap on numbers, unlike a soccer roster. Even if the club says they are full, ask if your kid can join a practice so he can see if he wants to come to the next tryout. Explain your situation about the move and see what happens. That can parlay itself into an offer to join, might as well try. I’m not overly pushy, but the the fact that this location is WALKABLE would make me try harder to find a way in. Because our club was walkable, we literally saved hundreds of dollars a month in Ubers/sitters/subway fare, not to mention time. Taking a swimmer from another club is much easier than a kid that is brand new to club swim. They already understand the drills and are used to the rigor.

[Anonymous]

For summer swim team, look at Fort Myer or Chinquapin.
What age/level is your kid, OP? AAC or other winter clubs may have spots at higher levels.
Also, as a short term solution, look into APS Swim School. I think they have some groups for kids who already know all 4 strokes, etc. The Arlington parks & rec aquatic classes full within seconds/minutes of registration opening.