Swim team parents: how did you prepare your kids?

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else’s kid in summer swim team? How did your kid learn to swim/prepare to be on swim team?

Looking for recommendations for swim lessons or a private swim instructor in MoCo to help my daughter. This is our first year doing swim team. My daughter didn’t know how to swim when we started a month ago but the team was desperate for kids so she made the team. There’s very little instruction (since there’s so many kids in the lanes and the junior coaches are only in there to make sure they’re not drowning). She has picked up freestyle and backstroke. She manages to be pretty fast and made it into the A meets but her technique isn’t there yet.

I just signed her up group swim lessons after we made the team but I feel like it’s a waste of money and she’s not learning anything. Is there a place that can help her improve her technique and correct her if she’s wrong so she doesn’t learn the wrong thing? Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

If you can afford it, get your child one-on-one lessons with an instructor at your summer pool. At ours, there are always lots of college kids who teach just in the summer. That worked very well in the early years when my child needed more detailed instruction (she's now a club swimmer and loves it!)

Good luck! And more importantly, have fun!

[Anonymous]

A few years of small group (5 kids or less) swim lessons through the county then a few stunts of one on one to finish off stroke form.

[Anonymous]

Summer swim is just fun - I always found 2 bags of Doritos and a can of Red Bull before meets, helped them perform well.

[Anonymous]

DW and I are both off on the summer. My DW also used to be a swim instructor ( any and me type lessons) at a local rec center. From the time our DS was going on a year old we were at the community pool almost every day throughout the summer. Actually, at that time my DW was working summers so I took him. Anyhow, we couldn’t keep him out of the water and by the time he was three he was swimming the length of the pool. We kept him out of swim team because the community team where we lived was quite competitive and high pressure. When he was 8 we moved and he joined the team at our local swim club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DW and I are both off on the summer. My DW also used to be a swim instructor ( any and me type lessons) at a local rec center. From the time our DS was going on a year old we were at the community pool almost every day throughout the summer. Actually, at that time my DW was working summers so I took him. Anyhow, we couldn’t keep him out of the water and by the time he was three he was swimming the length of the pool. We kept him out of swim team because the community team where we lived was quite competitive and high pressure. When he was 8 we moved and he joined the team at our local swim club.

How is this helpful in any way? Should OP suddenly get remarried so she also has a DW who used to be a swim instructor?

[Anonymous]

You can try a program like FINS, they have swim lessons for kids of all ages and abilities. My DD got more out of swimming with them than she did out of the county run lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else’s kid in summer swim team? How did your kid learn to swim/prepare to be on swim team?

Looking for recommendations for swim lessons or a private swim instructor in MoCo to help my daughter. This is our first year doing swim team. My daughter didn’t know how to swim when we started a month ago but the team was desperate for kids so she made the team. There’s very little instruction (since there’s so many kids in the lanes and the junior coaches are only in there to make sure they’re not drowning). She has picked up freestyle and backstroke. She manages to be pretty fast and made it into the A meets but her technique isn’t there yet.

I just signed her up group swim lessons after we made the team but I feel like it’s a waste of money and she’s not learning anything. Is there a place that can help her improve her technique and correct her if she’s wrong so she doesn’t learn the wrong thing? Does anyone have any suggestions?

FINS is great. But the best is to have a coach give private lessons on your pool in the summer. That is the efficient and cheap way to learn!

[Anonymous]

If she is making A meets, she probably won’t benefit from a Goldfish/Big Blue type swim school for kids learning to swim. You need a year round swim team that is 1-2x a week.

Our pool has winter swim for prior year team members and it is a smaller group than the whole team so kids get more attention. There is also an opportunity for “stroke clinic” for kids who have prior team experience.

[Anonymous]

I think Goldfish does a decent job teaching techniques. My son went to Goldfish from ages 5-6. At 6 he joined summer swim and loved it, then joined a club team that fall. We are in VA so he joined Marlins, but we didn’t think they were very good (very coach and location dependent), so he joined a different club the next year.

When he turned 11, we paid Swimbox private lessons so that he could improve on technique which was helpful too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DW and I are both off on the summer. My DW also used to be a swim instructor ( any and me type lessons) at a local rec center. From the time our DS was going on a year old we were at the community pool almost every day throughout the summer. Actually, at that time my DW was working summers so I took him. Anyhow, we couldn’t keep him out of the water and by the time he was three he was swimming the length of the pool. We kept him out of swim team because the community team where we lived was quite competitive and high pressure. When he was 8 we moved and he joined the team at our local swim club.

How is this helpful in any way? Should OP suddenly get remarried so she also has a DW who used to be a swim instructor?

Sorry. I answered one of the questions: How did your kid learn to swim/prepare to be on swim team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can try a program like FINS, they have swim lessons for kids of all ages and abilities. My DD got more out of swimming with them than she did out of the county run lessons.

+1 FINS helped prep all three of our kids for summer swim, and the variety of practice times made it very easy.

We’re moving the oldest (10) up to Tollefson, most likely, for year round, but FINS is a great entry-level swim program.

[Anonymous]

Get her some private lessons to work on her techniques. Swim team practices are time for her to use those techniques.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DW and I are both off on the summer. My DW also used to be a swim instructor ( any and me type lessons) at a local rec center. From the time our DS was going on a year old we were at the community pool almost every day throughout the summer. Actually, at that time my DW was working summers so I took him. Anyhow, we couldn’t keep him out of the water and by the time he was three he was swimming the length of the pool. We kept him out of swim team because the community team where we lived was quite competitive and high pressure. When he was 8 we moved and he joined the team at our local swim club.

How is this helpful in any way? Should OP suddenly get remarried so she also has a DW who used to be a swim instructor?

Sorry. I answered one of the questions: How did your kid learn to swim/prepare to be on swim team?

New poster: you did. But it was clear the OP was seeking useful tips on how to get her kid swimming better, not just chit chatting about any realm of possibility ways to teach a kid to swim.

It’s like: I owe a lot of back taxes. I need ideas how to pay it off. What worked for you?

Answer: My mom’s cousin worked at the IRS and helped get us out of the debt by finding a loophole that only applies to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DW and I are both off on the summer. My DW also used to be a swim instructor ( any and me type lessons) at a local rec center. From the time our DS was going on a year old we were at the community pool almost every day throughout the summer. Actually, at that time my DW was working summers so I took him. Anyhow, we couldn’t keep him out of the water and by the time he was three he was swimming the length of the pool. We kept him out of swim team because the community team where we lived was quite competitive and high pressure. When he was 8 we moved and he joined the team at our local swim club.

How is this helpful in any way? Should OP suddenly get remarried so she also has a DW who used to be a swim instructor?

Sorry. I answered one of the questions: How did your kid learn to swim/prepare to be on swim team?

New poster: you did. But it was clear the OP was seeking useful tips on how to get her kid swimming better, not just chit chatting about any realm of possibility ways to teach a kid to swim.

It’s like: I owe a lot of back taxes. I need ideas how to pay it off. What worked for you?

Answer: My mom’s cousin worked at the IRS and helped get us out of the debt by finding a loophole that only applies to us.

Right. I get it.

My advice is talk to the coaches and see if any of them do private lessons at your pool. Coaches at ours seem to be doing 1:1 lessons a lot.
How old is your child, OP?