Are travel swim meets worth the time for young beginners?

[Anonymous]

DC did summer neighborhood swimming for the first time this year (she actually learned three strokes this summer) and just started year-round swimming. She is still improving and her times are not competitive at all. Should we drive her to travel meets that require a 1-2 night stay or just let her attend local meets for now? There are not many meets that she can attend as a swimmer under 9 (probably 1-2 a month). Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I’d say probably not, but depends if/why those are even being offered/encouraged by your club/coach.

Are you DMV (PVS swimming)? I ask bc in this area with a new 9yo, there is no reason to travel and I’d be surprised if a club even offered a meet like that.

Our club doesn’t have travel meets for entry level/average kids. JOs is not an overnight for most in our region. We started doing travel meets, for fastest kids, 1-2 per year at 10, and a lot of kids will wait until the next age group, and again, this is the fastest kids, qualifying for fast meets.

[Anonymous]

I have never heard of a club offering travel meets for a new beginner level 8 year old. What would be the point? Most of those meets have fast qualifying times anyway, and if they don’t, there is no reason to travel unless you live in a very rural area with very few teams/meets. Even then, I can’t see traveling at entry level when they should just be learning the basics. My kid started traveling at 9 but he was already getting AA+ times at that age and qualifying for bigger meets. At 10 he did more long distance travel when he was faster and qualifying for Zones, etc. It’s a lot of time and expense and I never would have done it if there wasn’t a good reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d say probably not, but depends if/why those are even being offered/encouraged by your club/coach.

Are you DMV (PVS swimming)? I ask bc in this area with a new 9yo, there is no reason to travel and I’d be surprised if a club even offered a meet like that.

Our club doesn’t have travel meets for entry level/average kids. JOs is not an overnight for most in our region. We started doing travel meets, for fastest kids, 1-2 per year at 10, and a lot of kids will wait until the next age group, and again, this is the fastest kids, qualifying for fast meets.

Thanks! Yes, DC is in a PVS club. Our club doesn’t encourage travel meets. I was just curious as a parent of a new swimmer 😂

[Anonymous]

One meet/month is more than enough for a brand new club swimmer. Most clubs won’t allow more than that. Keep it local, no reason to travel.

[Anonymous]

Is this the Hoki invitational by any chance? I know York at least offered it to younger swimmers this year.

[Anonymous]

No need for travel meets at that age. However, if the trip sounds fun to you, go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One meet/month is more than enough for a brand new club swimmer. Most clubs won’t allow more than that. Keep it local, no reason to travel.

Definitely enjoy the local, travel free meets as long as you can!

[Anonymous]

So although summer swim is intense and short, parents have to transition to the club mentality which is very different with meets.

Unless your kid is in a senior performance group you will not do more than a meet a month. There is no need to travel either.

Also, encourage your swimmer to try and get their elite patch. Each club will tell you the standard, but it pushes the swimmer to compete in all age appropriate events with a little push. At 9, my kid's hardest event was the 200 IM.

Try to have your swimmer compete both days of the meet and to do the maximum number events allowed that day. This confuses parents at first since you usually only do sprint 50s and 2 or 3 events in the summer at a meet. Whereas a winter meet will have long breaks between events with plenty recovery.

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

My DS did do one travel meet when he was 8 - BUT it was a day trip and most parents didn't go. His team went somewhere in the New York city suburbs and left around 6:00am - it was a Saturday. We picked him back up around midnight. We had to send him with breakfast, a bag lunch and snacks and after the meet they all went out for pizza. I looked up his times, and he swam 3 events. DS had a blast spending the day with friends.

[Anonymous]

our club offered it to our 8-year old. Swimming is one of his favorite sports and he wants to go. We're going but I'm a little worried about some disappointment. He did an away tournament for a different (team) sport and had a blast. But that was mostly because of the kids having fun hanging out in the hotel. This time there won't be a gang of kids that they know.

[Anonymous]

This is so interesting to me as someone with a 9 year old swimmer, who isn't in the DC area. It's a whole different world. As a team there are 3-4 overnight meets a year that DS could attend without qualifying times, and we even have an international one this season - although we are very close to another country so it's more exotic than it sounds. With the exception of our home meets, everything is at least an hour away regardless. Last season was his first and we did one travel meet and he LOVED the experience, didn't care at all about results. But personally I think getting experience in different environments, with different setups, etc., is invaluable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC did summer neighborhood swimming for the first time this year (she actually learned three strokes this summer) and just started year-round swimming. She is still improving and her times are not competitive at all. Should we drive her to travel meets that require a 1-2 night stay or just let her attend local meets for now? There are not many meets that she can attend as a swimmer under 9 (probably 1-2 a month). Thanks!

I’m guessing it’s the Tech meet. No need to go. What is bolded is wrong, however. That’s plenty of meets!

[Anonymous]

OP a meet a month is PERFECT. That is plenty.