Start-of-season challenges?

[Anonymous]

DC, age 10 and (full disclosure) solid but not a superstar, just moved from a less competitive to a more competitive club team. I've watched a lot of swim practices over the years, and the more competitive team seems notably less disciplined than DC's former club, especially when it comes to basic execution in the lanes (traffic control, anyone?). No one is explicitly messing around, the numbers per lane are perfectly reasonable, and both former club and new club have solid reputations - I'm just surprised to see how . . . inexperienced the more competitive club still looks while interacting in the pool, even after they have been through enough practices to gauge reasonable lane orders based on speed. Anyone else had an experience like this? How many weeks would you say it takes a youngish team to lock in solid practice routines at the start of a new fall/winter season?

[Anonymous]

Are the swimmers watching the clock and leaving at different times? Ours usually leave 5 seconds after the swimmer in front left.

[Anonymous]

The kids in that age group are generally notorious for just wanting to be first in the lane regardless of their ability. We are with a big club and the coaches picked the lanes each kid was assigned to, but ordering within the lanes was left to the kids. My kid aged up to a new group this year and one of the first things they noticed was how nice it was that the lanes weren’t as chaotic because the kids were better at determining their lane order and there wasn’t an obnoxious slower kid trying to lead a lane despite not being fast enough. I think the coaches purposely wanted the kids to be able to work it out amongst themselves but that is a lot to ask of the 10 and under set.

[Anonymous]

We are at a club in Fairfax. First week was chaotic, but this week was very organized. Coach was super clear about when to start off the wall. Even within the lanes the 9-10s figured out a good order. But I agree - it can be crazy depending on the kids and coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC, age 10 and (full disclosure) solid but not a superstar, just moved from a less competitive to a more competitive club team. I've watched a lot of swim practices over the years, and the more competitive team seems notably less disciplined than DC's former club, especially when it comes to basic execution in the lanes (traffic control, anyone?). No one is explicitly messing around, the numbers per lane are perfectly reasonable, and both former club and new club have solid reputations - I'm just surprised to see how . . . inexperienced the more competitive club still looks while interacting in the pool, even after they have been through enough practices to gauge reasonable lane orders based on speed. Anyone else had an experience like this? How many weeks would you say it takes a youngish team to lock in solid practice routines at the start of a new fall/winter season?

Is this just bothering you or does it bother your son too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids in that age group are generally notorious for just wanting to be first in the lane regardless of their ability. We are with a big club and the coaches picked the lanes each kid was assigned to, but ordering within the lanes was left to the kids. My kid aged up to a new group this year and one of the first things they noticed was how nice it was that the lanes weren’t as chaotic because the kids were better at determining their lane order and there wasn’t an obnoxious slower kid trying to lead a lane despite not being fast enough. I think the coaches purposely wanted the kids to be able to work it out amongst themselves but that is a lot to ask of the 10 and under set.

Ugh, coaches need to be on top of this! At one point my DD was in a situation where the kids in the lane kept asking her to lead workouts. She wasn’t the slower kid but regardless of the pace, other kids wanted to be the one passing someone. Then they would run out of steam before the flags and stop in their tracks right in front of her. Coaches seemed unable to fix the behavior which baffles me- we learned it from day 1 in 8 & unders when I was a kid.

One day in the distant future I hope all of those kids stay with swimming and get totally humbled when someone reads them the riot act for not being able to hold a pace or making a stupid pass and hitting someone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids in that age group are generally notorious for just wanting to be first in the lane regardless of their ability. We are with a big club and the coaches picked the lanes each kid was assigned to, but ordering within the lanes was left to the kids. My kid aged up to a new group this year and one of the first things they noticed was how nice it was that the lanes weren’t as chaotic because the kids were better at determining their lane order and there wasn’t an obnoxious slower kid trying to lead a lane despite not being fast enough. I think the coaches purposely wanted the kids to be able to work it out amongst themselves but that is a lot to ask of the 10 and under set.

Ugh, coaches need to be on top of this! At one point my DD was in a situation where the kids in the lane kept asking her to lead workouts. She wasn’t the slower kid but regardless of the pace, other kids wanted to be the one passing someone. Then they would run out of steam before the flags and stop in their tracks right in front of her. Coaches seemed unable to fix the behavior which baffles me- we learned it from day 1 in 8 & unders when I was a kid.

One day in the distant future I hope all of those kids stay with swimming and get totally humbled when someone reads them the riot act for not being able to hold a pace or making a stupid pass and hitting someone.

Our coach started calling out people who were “cheating”, leaving too early, not doing the drill (like kicking when they were supposed to only be pulling), etc. and would penalize those kids and that helped stop some of the things that were happening. She would also occasionally re-order people after a couple sets if it was obvious someone had made themselves the lane leader despite not being able to keep pace. That seemed to happen a lot with older boys (like 10 or 11) insisting that they go first in a lane over girls (typically 9 or 10) who could quite frankly smoke them.

[Anonymous]

As a former swimmer myself I get irrationally angry when I see this type of stuff at my 9 yr old’s practices. The winter club team isn’t an issue, but it’s so bad in the summer and the summer team’s winter program. Bossy kids insist on being the lane leader when they are clearly not the fastest. Kids don’t get out of the way to let others finish all the way into the wall. Some don’t wait the full 5 sec before pushing off and then are on top of the kid in front of them. And yes the cheating like turning around before the wall and swimming during drills or kick sets. One kid in my child’s lane did all of this every week last winter and continued into the summer. Constantly swam on top of my child due to their cheating. Then started beating my child in races and bragging about it. I know this behavior catches up with them eventually but it’s hard to watch when your kid isn’t so assertive. I completely blame coaches for not handling this. All of the summer coaches are swimmers and know better. It’s one reason my child is only doing the winter club team and no more summer team winter program. I would absolutely say something to coaches if this stuff was happening at a club team. You are paying a lot more and the coaching should be a lot better.

[Anonymous]

The behaviors discussed in this thread need to be addressed by the coach, who in many cases is far too busy/distracted to see a kid pull such stunts. If you have the ability to watch practices, even through a window, consider filming the behavior and show the coach who may not have seen it.

Additionally, my DD's club makes every swimmer sign a pledge that includes appropriate swimmer behavior and commitment to being a member of the TEAM. The described behavior would seem to violate such a pledge and be grounds for a warning, extra laps after practice, etc....

Everything depends on your team's coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former swimmer myself I get irrationally angry when I see this type of stuff at my 9 yr old’s practices. The winter club team isn’t an issue, but it’s so bad in the summer and the summer team’s winter program. Bossy kids insist on being the lane leader when they are clearly not the fastest. Kids don’t get out of the way to let others finish all the way into the wall. Some don’t wait the full 5 sec before pushing off and then are on top of the kid in front of them. And yes the cheating like turning around before the wall and swimming during drills or kick sets. One kid in my child’s lane did all of this every week last winter and continued into the summer. Constantly swam on top of my child due to their cheating. Then started beating my child in races and bragging about it. I know this behavior catches up with them eventually but it’s hard to watch when your kid isn’t so assertive. I completely blame coaches for not handling this. All of the summer coaches are swimmers and know better. It’s one reason my child is only doing the winter club team and no more summer team winter program. I would absolutely say something to coaches if this stuff was happening at a club team. You are paying a lot more and the coaching should be a lot better.

This is funny to me because I could have written the same thing. My only stressor at all related to my child's swimming is this. My 9 year old is pretty passive and in summer swim would often get much slower kids in his practice lane starting in front of him. He'd try to go around them but they'd move in front to block him so he'd end up crashing into their feet on most reps. This does nobody any good.

I don't care who is the fastest, it just works better for everyone when the kids are lined up in a proper order. And don't get me started on the "cheating" during drills, eg doing normal backstroke when they're only supposed to kick.

Thankfully it's not an issue for us during indoor swim, the coaches are much more on top of it and the kids are more respectful of the process.

[Anonymous]

We left our club because of this. Not paying 3k+ a year for kids to screw around. Useless practices.

[Anonymous]

This is pointless if you don't name the clubs.