Year Round Swim Team Recommendations
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Anonymous
| Hi, we are new to the area and my 12 year old wants to try out for a swim team this fall. She swam on a mini team when she was 6. She's legal in all the strokes and would benefit from coaches that will benefit from a little attention/support. Any teams in the Alexandria/Fairfax area that communicate with their swimmers and actually coach them? I understand that majority of these teams are big and offer very little individual attention. Can you recommend teams with any black coaching staff? Thanks |
Anonymous
| As our summer swim coach told us “ pick the one closest to your house with the practice times that work for your family” None of the year round clubs seem to work on strokes a whole lot, it’s mostly endurance. |
Anonymous
+1 You can get lucky with good coaches, but I do think it is luck. The coaches come and go from all teams. |
Anonymous
| Depending on where you live, pick the closest pool. For that area I would look at Makos (big team, but good) or the Marlins (small team but with some quality coaching). If super serious try Machine or NCAP. |
Anonymous
This. Plus ask around your summer team for suggestions/thoughts. DS tried 3 teams (all that practice at the same pool) until he found one that he clicked with. Differences were: coaches, time of practices, practice availability, size of team, number of kids in each lane, frequency/distance of meets, skill level of swimmers. Some of the smaller (and more expensive teams) worked on more mechanics. Larger teams were more endurance. |
Anonymous
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The head coach of shark tank is black if you are looking for that, it is a very small team though that may not take beginners. We are at Mako, and I would recommend, but some coaches are better than others. I wouldn't go NCAP burke at 12- unless super fast, too late to get in the better groups and you'll pay $$$ for yardage, but can't speak to the other locations.
Has your daughter been doing summer swim since 6 YO? |
Anonymous
| You can also supplement now with Swim Start or Swim with Beth, you'll get technique work at both that can help |
Anonymous
At 12, even the good ones are just tweaking strokes at practice. I can't think of teams that would really try to build up a 12 year old who needed major work on their strokes. They'd be happy to take your money and put the kid in a lane, but I wouldn't expect them to get that much attention from coaches |
Anonymous
Yes, it’s a common misconception that many parents have that swim team is somewhere around 50% technique instruction and 50% conditioning. Count me in that group. Most clubs are more like 25/75 or 20/80, and the technique instruction is often in the form of drills that teach kids the correct technique. If your kid doesn’t get the point of the drill, then it won’t help much. Younger kids get more technique instruction and learn the basics of how to race. By 11-12, there won’t be as much time spend on the fundamentals of starts and turns or basic stroke mechanics. By 13-14, kids will work on fine tuning their strokes, learning more difficult turns, dryland for power/strength, race strategy, and conditioning and more conditioning. In our program, the kids who join at 11-13 have an adjustment period where they get used to all the language of interpreting a set and reading the clock, the logistics of swimming with other kids in a lane, and physically keeping up in practice. Then, they can put their focus on learning. These swimmers are put in lower age groups at first, but they move up fast! |
Anonymous
| NCAP Tysons has one black coach Sydney Bright as part of their coaching staff. She leads Bronze 1, which is primarily 9-12 year olds. They swim 4 days a week. She would be in the upper age of that group, but might be worth exploring. |
Anonymous
| HEAL has multiple coaches who are African American, though I don't know where they practice. I'd avoid, to the extent you can, the really large teams like NCap or Machine- they really don't care about the kids (unless you get lucky and get that one awesome coach). Good luck! |
Anonymous
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DC Wave is based in the city and I believe has black coaches and as well as more black swimmers than many clubs.
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Anonymous
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another thing to consider is if your DD has friends on any teams currently. Swim can be lonely and a grind, it is more fun to practice with friends, and definitely to have friends at meets to hang out with in between events, (which can be an hour break between or more)
Of course, they'll make friends on any team, but it is fun when you have them there. |
Anonymous
+1000. Every kid needs at least one friend to look forward to seeing at practice. |