swim team w/o meets (8 yo in NE DC)

[Anonymous]

(I am aware of this thread (https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/808280.page), but its slant is more NoVA focused.)

My 8yo asked to join a swim team but doesn't want to do meets (I don't get it but I've learned my lesson about pushing too hard). I'm not from this area, and I know nothing about the local youth swim environment.

Is there a swim club proximate to NE DC (including close-in MoCo/PG County) that would offer this as an option?

[Anonymous]

Machine's Gears program doesn't require meets. There are locations at UMD-College Park and Fairland/Laurel, both reasonably close to NE. My kids thrived there last year in their first year of club swimming and are excited for the upcoming year.

[Anonymous]

No teams will require meets for an 8 year old— though there will be meets, and a coach might encourage them to participate.

[Anonymous]

Like the previous poster said, no team requires meets. Those are optional. DC Wave has some practices at turkey Thicket in NE DC. The tryouts would be in the spring and summer.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. Where I grew up, meet participation was compulsory from the ages of 6 and up. (I still very much remember the trauma of my first race. I stopped in the dead center of the pool and hung on to the divider for what felt like 15 minutes.)

[Anonymous]

There are different options out there. For example, in Northern Maryland there are AAU. I am not exactly sure how that works. Montgomery County is lumped into AAU with Northern Virginia, but all the teams around here are USA Swimming. I think there are more AAU in Northern Virginia. Here in MOCO USA Swimming is competitive Olympics oriented swimming. I was looking into AAU, because my daughter is in AAU basketball, and I prefer the parent coach-oriented style. There is a trend towards AAU in swimming since the pandemic basically locked many 8yo groups out of the competitive clubs. They weren't in the pool at all, except the ones that were in very young. Many of the competitive programs are forgoing USA Swimming fees. USA Swimming lost like 18,000 swimmers during the pandemic and haven't recovered. The swim meets are a miserable waste of time, I would rather be swimming myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are different options out there. For example, in Northern Maryland there are AAU. I am not exactly sure how that works. Montgomery County is lumped into AAU with Northern Virginia, but all the teams around here are USA Swimming. I think there are more AAU in Northern Virginia. Here in MOCO USA Swimming is competitive Olympics oriented swimming. I was looking into AAU, because my daughter is in AAU basketball, and I prefer the parent coach-oriented style. There is a trend towards AAU in swimming since the pandemic basically locked many 8yo groups out of the competitive clubs. They weren't in the pool at all, except the ones that were in very young. Many of the competitive programs are forgoing USA Swimming fees. USA Swimming lost like 18,000 swimmers during the pandemic and haven't recovered. The swim meets are a miserable waste of time, I would rather be swimming myself.

Interesting - tell me more about this trend, I was completely unaware of it and I'm not coming up with much w/ my searches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are different options out there. For example, in Northern Maryland there are AAU. I am not exactly sure how that works. Montgomery County is lumped into AAU with Northern Virginia, but all the teams around here are USA Swimming. I think there are more AAU in Northern Virginia. Here in MOCO USA Swimming is competitive Olympics oriented swimming. I was looking into AAU, because my daughter is in AAU basketball, and I prefer the parent coach-oriented style. There is a trend towards AAU in swimming since the pandemic basically locked many 8yo groups out of the competitive clubs. They weren't in the pool at all, except the ones that were in very young. Many of the competitive programs are forgoing USA Swimming fees. USA Swimming lost like 18,000 swimmers during the pandemic and haven't recovered. The swim meets are a miserable waste of time, I would rather be swimming myself.

Interesting - tell me more about this trend, I was completely unaware of it and I'm not coming up with much w/ my searches.

https://swimswam.com/shifting-tides-swim-teams-weight-splitting-membership-between-usa-swimming-aau/

[Anonymous]

Capitol Sea Devils meets at Holton Arms or St Albans. Has a few meets but most kids don’t do them - it’s a great intro program.

[Anonymous]

Usually it depends on the level. Lower levels don’t care as much. We are RMSC but rarely do meets. Mine is in the lowest level group. They cannot go as often at times due to other activities. Coaches have been very supportive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are different options out there. For example, in Northern Maryland there are AAU. I am not exactly sure how that works. Montgomery County is lumped into AAU with Northern Virginia, but all the teams around here are USA Swimming. I think there are more AAU in Northern Virginia. Here in MOCO USA Swimming is competitive Olympics oriented swimming. I was looking into AAU, because my daughter is in AAU basketball, and I prefer the parent coach-oriented style. There is a trend towards AAU in swimming since the pandemic basically locked many 8yo groups out of the competitive clubs. They weren't in the pool at all, except the ones that were in very young. Many of the competitive programs are forgoing USA Swimming fees. USA Swimming lost like 18,000 swimmers during the pandemic and haven't recovered. The swim meets are a miserable waste of time, I would rather be swimming myself.

Interesting - tell me more about this trend, I was completely unaware of it and I'm not coming up with much w/ my searches.

https://swimswam.com/shifting-tides-swim-teams-weight-splitting-membership-between-usa-swimming-aau/

Some valid points made in the article but I don't see this shift to AAU happening to any great extent around here at this time...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are different options out there. For example, in Northern Maryland there are AAU. I am not exactly sure how that works. Montgomery County is lumped into AAU with Northern Virginia, but all the teams around here are USA Swimming. I think there are more AAU in Northern Virginia. Here in MOCO USA Swimming is competitive Olympics oriented swimming. I was looking into AAU, because my daughter is in AAU basketball, and I prefer the parent coach-oriented style. There is a trend towards AAU in swimming since the pandemic basically locked many 8yo groups out of the competitive clubs. They weren't in the pool at all, except the ones that were in very young. Many of the competitive programs are forgoing USA Swimming fees. USA Swimming lost like 18,000 swimmers during the pandemic and haven't recovered. The swim meets are a miserable waste of time, I would rather be swimming myself.

Interesting - tell me more about this trend, I was completely unaware of it and I'm not coming up with much w/ my searches.

https://swimswam.com/shifting-tides-swim-teams-weight-splitting-membership-between-usa-swimming-aau/

Some valid points made in the article but I don't see this shift to AAU happening to any great extent around here at this time...

Yeah, it is missing around here.

I think RMSC should really be AAU. They really aren't an Olympic caliber organization for most of their swimmers. Would really keep costs down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are different options out there. For example, in Northern Maryland there are AAU. I am not exactly sure how that works. Montgomery County is lumped into AAU with Northern Virginia, but all the teams around here are USA Swimming. I think there are more AAU in Northern Virginia. Here in MOCO USA Swimming is competitive Olympics oriented swimming. I was looking into AAU, because my daughter is in AAU basketball, and I prefer the parent coach-oriented style. There is a trend towards AAU in swimming since the pandemic basically locked many 8yo groups out of the competitive clubs. They weren't in the pool at all, except the ones that were in very young. Many of the competitive programs are forgoing USA Swimming fees. USA Swimming lost like 18,000 swimmers during the pandemic and haven't recovered. The swim meets are a miserable waste of time, I would rather be swimming myself.

Interesting - tell me more about this trend, I was completely unaware of it and I'm not coming up with much w/ my searches.

https://swimswam.com/shifting-tides-swim-teams-weight-splitting-membership-between-usa-swimming-aau/

Some valid points made in the article but I don't see this shift to AAU happening to any great extent around here at this time...

Yeah, it is missing around here.

I think RMSC should really be AAU. They really aren't an Olympic caliber organization for most of their swimmers. Would really keep costs down.

But would it, though?

The difference in annual membership is $80 - $20 for AAU and $100 for USA swimming. But this is only a small fraction of the overall costs associated with swimming - coach salaries, facility use costs and meet costs are all going to be the same so how is this keeping costs down?

Look 80 bucks is 80 bucks and they could save each individual this amount annually and with the exception of their advanced/national groups, they could reasonably do this but what what is the advantage?

There already is S&T and SwiMontgomery which are essentially run by RMSC coaches which cover the "no meet" / "less serious" option that some want; I don't think these kids need to have a USA swimming membership so that's not a cost for them.

What am I missing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are different options out there. For example, in Northern Maryland there are AAU. I am not exactly sure how that works. Montgomery County is lumped into AAU with Northern Virginia, but all the teams around here are USA Swimming. I think there are more AAU in Northern Virginia. Here in MOCO USA Swimming is competitive Olympics oriented swimming. I was looking into AAU, because my daughter is in AAU basketball, and I prefer the parent coach-oriented style. There is a trend towards AAU in swimming since the pandemic basically locked many 8yo groups out of the competitive clubs. They weren't in the pool at all, except the ones that were in very young. Many of the competitive programs are forgoing USA Swimming fees. USA Swimming lost like 18,000 swimmers during the pandemic and haven't recovered. The swim meets are a miserable waste of time, I would rather be swimming myself.

Can you share info about the AAU basketball for girls? Is that in Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are different options out there. For example, in Northern Maryland there are AAU. I am not exactly sure how that works. Montgomery County is lumped into AAU with Northern Virginia, but all the teams around here are USA Swimming. I think there are more AAU in Northern Virginia. Here in MOCO USA Swimming is competitive Olympics oriented swimming. I was looking into AAU, because my daughter is in AAU basketball, and I prefer the parent coach-oriented style. There is a trend towards AAU in swimming since the pandemic basically locked many 8yo groups out of the competitive clubs. They weren't in the pool at all, except the ones that were in very young. Many of the competitive programs are forgoing USA Swimming fees. USA Swimming lost like 18,000 swimmers during the pandemic and haven't recovered. The swim meets are a miserable waste of time, I would rather be swimming myself.

Can you share info about the AAU basketball for girls? Is that in Montgomery County?

PP was talking about AAU as an option for SWIMMING, not basketball.

There is AAU basketball but this is the wrong forum - you should ask that question in the basketball forum, down the hall, 3rd door on the left:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/show/91.page