Club or stroke & turn next for 8 yo?

[Anonymous]

8 yo boy (rising 3rd) is finishing up summer swim and is expressing interest in swim as his primary sport. He is legal in 3 strokes but they are kinda sloppy and gets B times. Our summer team does a winter session but we did it last last winter and there was very little instruction on improving strokes. We are thinking of either a FFX county stroke & turn class at Oakmarr in the fall to improve his strokes, or joining a winter club. We are in Reston and we're looking at York specifically. Would the club give better stroke instruction? We have no aspirations for super competitive swim and don't want him to burn out but don't want to close any doors either but not getting in early enough. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

If he's already 8 I'd say club, absolutely. He's already on the older side and you want him to develop. S&T in my experience (remember YMMV) yielded some endurance and very little actual improvement, because it's really for kids who barely know the strokes, not kids who need to refine them. Find a supportive club where he can still join a developmental level and get him in the water as many days per week as are right for him.

[Anonymous]

Club. The coaching will be much better. An 8 and under group will still focus heavily on technique. Club is also more likely to introduce flip turns which will be helpful if your kid will be 9 next summer.

My 7 year old is legal in all four strokes and will be probably do one day a week at a low key club to get good stroke instruction and one day with the summer team’s maintenance program to see friends/exercise. Two days of club is fine for an 8 year old who is expressing interest as long as the club seems to emphasize technique and fun.

[Anonymous]

I’d do Swim With Beth’s upper lanes. It will give more stroke instruction than club will. Or do something like the 1x per week Mako Blue (those coaches are great!) and SWB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d do Swim With Beth’s upper lanes. It will give more stroke instruction than club will. Or do something like the 1x per week Mako Blue (those coaches are great!) and SWB.

The catch would be postponing club membership for another year. If OP's child can get into a club as an 8yo/mini, it's so much easier to break in at that level than it is as a 9 or a 10, no matter how much stroke improvement you may think you are building up in the interim. Tough choices!

[Anonymous]

York at Oak Mont would be a great choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d do Swim With Beth’s upper lanes. It will give more stroke instruction than club will. Or do something like the 1x per week Mako Blue (those coaches are great!) and SWB.

The catch would be postponing club membership for another year. If OP's child can get into a club as an 8yo/mini, it's so much easier to break in at that level than it is as a 9 or a 10, no matter how much stroke improvement you may think you are building up in the interim. Tough choices!

A 9 year old with experience in summer and a strong stroke and turn foundation will have no problem transitioning to a club team.

[Anonymous]

The logic of focusing on stroke development over endurance for an 8 year old makes all the sense in the world, but when kids start out in swim, many programs are geared toward their beginners. So stroke development will likely have kids that still could benefit from regular swim class, 8u club swim will have kids that need stroke refinement and are not legal to race. I would opt for club swim over stroke development. And I know you are not interested in super competitive swim, but year round swim is hard work, even for 8 year olds. If he doesn’t like swimming laps, working hard, and pushing himself in the pool, it’s better to know now than to spend a year in stroke school and then find out he hates club swimming when he is 9/10.

I would not put much stock in the PP who said 8 year old is “on the later side”. In the beginning, the kids who started at 7 will, on the whole, be faster. But kids who start at 9/10/11 can catch up. Judging from my kids’ team, getting a kid started by 9/10 is early enough. I have one kid that started at age 10 and he was an average swimmer until 12-13 and now has sectional cuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d do Swim With Beth’s upper lanes. It will give more stroke instruction than club will. Or do something like the 1x per week Mako Blue (those coaches are great!) and SWB.

The catch would be postponing club membership for another year. If OP's child can get into a club as an 8yo/mini, it's so much easier to break in at that level than it is as a 9 or a 10, no matter how much stroke improvement you may think you are building up in the interim. Tough choices!

A 9 year old with experience in summer and a strong stroke and turn foundation will have no problem transitioning to a club team.

I think PP is saying that there are fewer open spots for 9 year olds in the area. This is definitely true in NY. There are only a few teams in manhattan and our team had zero spots for 11/12 year olds and just a few for 9/10 year olds because so many 8u moved up. There were several 9/10 year old swimmers trying out who were faster than many current swimmers who couldn’t get a spot.

[Anonymous]

Ok then, amen my previous comment to say no problem transitioning or finding a spot on a team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The logic of focusing on stroke development over endurance for an 8 year old makes all the sense in the world, but when kids start out in swim, many programs are geared toward their beginners. So stroke development will likely have kids that still could benefit from regular swim class, 8u club swim will have kids that need stroke refinement and are not legal to race. I would opt for club swim over stroke development. And I know you are not interested in super competitive swim, but year round swim is hard work, even for 8 year olds. If he doesn’t like swimming laps, working hard, and pushing himself in the pool, it’s better to know now than to spend a year in stroke school and then find out he hates club swimming when he is 9/10.

I would not put much stock in the PP who said 8 year old is “on the later side”. In the beginning, the kids who started at 7 will, on the whole, be faster. But kids who start at 9/10/11 can catch up. Judging from my kids’ team, getting a kid started by 9/10 is early enough. I have one kid that started at age 10 and he was an average swimmer until 12-13 and now has sectional cuts.

This is good advice thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d do Swim With Beth’s upper lanes. It will give more stroke instruction than club will. Or do something like the 1x per week Mako Blue (those coaches are great!) and SWB.

The catch would be postponing club membership for another year. If OP's child can get into a club as an 8yo/mini, it's so much easier to break in at that level than it is as a 9 or a 10, no matter how much stroke improvement you may think you are building up in the interim. Tough choices!

A 9 year old with experience in summer and a strong stroke and turn foundation will have no problem transitioning to a club team.

Very much depends which club you’re referring to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d do Swim With Beth’s upper lanes. It will give more stroke instruction than club will. Or do something like the 1x per week Mako Blue (those coaches are great!) and SWB.

The catch would be postponing club membership for another year. If OP's child can get into a club as an 8yo/mini, it's so much easier to break in at that level than it is as a 9 or a 10, no matter how much stroke improvement you may think you are building up in the interim. Tough choices!

A 9 year old with experience in summer and a strong stroke and turn foundation will have no problem transitioning to a club team.

Very much depends which club you’re referring to.

Exactly. It's hard to break into a tryout situation with limited spaces as a 9yo if most of the spots are already taken by kids aging up from 8U.

[Anonymous]

My kids joined York when they were older, but I understand from friends that their kids were instructed on strokes at York to become legal.

[Anonymous]

OP have you heard anything about York Reston? I am curious about the 8 and under group there, but only know people whose kids do Oak Marr. It seems like York’s philosophy is to incorporate fun, but not sure how that works in practice? I have a kid who loves the social aspect of swim and wants to make A meets/divisionals in summer swim. But they found our summer team’s maintenance program boring last year. It wasn’t very well run and didn’t have any of the “fun” events or any sort of thought toward making practice interesting/fun for the kids. It’s hard to know whether my kid just wouldn’t enjoy club swim or if he would enjoy a team that puts a little more thought into mixing things up a bit and holds fun events outside of the pool.