Mini-team swim lessons?

[Anonymous]

A poster in another thread mentioned having signed up their child for a swim team with a “mini team” (or “pre-team”?) that consists of daily swim lessons. Where/how can I find something like this in the McLean/Falls Church/Arlington area?

My kids (6 & 4) have done Goldfish with little progress, so I’d love to find something better, but don’t understand how swim teams (or pre-teams) work. Thanks for any advice!

[Anonymous]

You have to belong to a pool. Start there.

[Anonymous]

And it happens during swim season, which is almost over.

Between now and next summer, find a pool to join that has a swim team and pre team. Then make sure you sign up on time.

[Anonymous]

Also make sure you understand what the pool means by pre-team. Our pool has a swim lesson program which is different from our mini program. Pre-team requires being able to swim 25m of freestyle and backstroke. It might not be pretty or legal, but can they generally do it without doggy paddling, stopping to hold the wall or standing.

[Anonymous]

We stayed until the end at Goldfish and I regret it. If your kids are now comfortable in the water & you want to advance to more technical stroke work, suggest looking into a rec center program or a developmental clinic through one of the year-round clubs. They prob will need to be able to do a lap of freestyle & backstroke though for those programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also make sure you understand what the pool means by pre-team. Our pool has a swim lesson program which is different from our mini program. Pre-team requires being able to swim 25m of freestyle and backstroke. It might not be pretty or legal, but can they generally do it without doggy paddling, stopping to hold the wall or standing.

Is that to join or to graduate?

[Anonymous]

For my pool mini had to swim across the diving well. Any stroke or stoke attempt that got them across would would do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also make sure you understand what the pool means by pre-team. Our pool has a swim lesson program which is different from our mini program. Pre-team requires being able to swim 25m of freestyle and backstroke. It might not be pretty or legal, but can they generally do it without doggy paddling, stopping to hold the wall or standing.

Is that to join or to graduate?

To join. Pre team is about taking kids who have basic swimming skills and improving them. It isn’t the same as teaching them how to swim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For my pool mini had to swim across the diving well. Any stroke or stoke attempt that got them across would would do it.

Same. The coach didn’t expect kids to know the strokes at the start of pre-team.

[Anonymous]

Same here. Pre team meant swimming across 25 in any way. My kid did 2 years and learned 3 strokes. She learned butterfly in her first year of real team at 8. She also did separate group swim lessons st the pool after practice daily for 3 summers. Youngest will get into pre team next year but she already has a decent crawl stroke.

[Anonymous]

Hi op - I am that poster I think Like others said, different pools handle this differently. As you heard, some pools you have to already be swimming some normal strokes. Dominion Hills is like this. Our pool, Forest Hollow (we are Arlington residents but haven't gotten off the list at Arlington pools yet, probably calling myself out to anyone that knows me) which is doable from Falls church takes a different approach - if you are 4 and comfortable in the water they take them and work with them. It is fantastic.

Until recently Forest hollow has not had a waitlist, I think they JUST filled up for this summer. But that means there will definitely be some spots when things open up in the spring as there is always turnover in pools. So if it works for you, email forest hollow and ask them to let you know when membership opens up next year. https://www.foresthollow.com/

Otherwise, what I did was basically look at the pools in the area and on the website you can usually find details of their swim team and "mini" teams. I don't know how many operate like forest hollow where it is more open, but most pools have a mini team where you don't have to be able to swim a 25, that is the job of the mini team to teach you. That is kind of the whole point, to help kids get to a point they could do a more typical practice. Sounds like some are more intense but there are definitely other pools that do this more developmental approach.

[Anonymous]

op I will add, as others have said it is ideal for more of these pre-teams to have some basics. I would do a couple months of individual lessons in the spring (if you really feel like kids made no progress in Goldfish, but at forest hollow doing streamline and kick is enough), and then pre-team in the summer and your kids will be swimming by the end of summer. I've watched the kids at forest hollow this summer, all have made a lot of progress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also make sure you understand what the pool means by pre-team. Our pool has a swim lesson program which is different from our mini program. Pre-team requires being able to swim 25m of freestyle and backstroke. It might not be pretty or legal, but can they generally do it without doggy paddling, stopping to hold the wall or standing.

Is that to join or to graduate?

To join. Pre team is about taking kids who have basic swimming skills and improving them. It isn’t the same as teaching them how to swim.

Seems to vary- at our pool (in MCSL), if your child swims freestyle across the pool at the evaluation they go straight to the swim team. Pre-team is for the kids who can swim a few yards independently , then over the course of the season the goal is to get them swimming a length of freestyle, and backstroke although more kids are able to accomplish the former.

[Anonymous]

Our pre-team is open to kids who can swim 15m. It can be an ugly 15m.

It has many benefits: inexpensive, daily practice, motivation supplied by older kids. But it’s run by a handful of trained coaches for lots of kids at once with young teen swim team kids providing the in-water support and guidance (though teen to mini ratio is great at our pool - pretty much 1:1).

Many families do pre-team supplemented by private lessons also offered by our pool. In the past, our pool has also offered group swim lessons as well. My kids did that at ages 4 and 5 daily for 2 weeks, which worked great for getting them proficient.

As others have noted, you’re too late for preterm this summer - but you might be able to find lessons. I’d start investigating pool clubs near you if you think you’d be interested next year. Some offer August memberships and may have lessons you could sign up for then (often taught by older teen swim team kids).

[Anonymous]

Seems your best bet would be to find a bridge program over the school year (Swim with Beth, SwimSmart, rec center) to position them for next summer. If you share your location, we could provide specific programs. Simultaneously, explore and join a pool for next year.