Advice for 10yo who wants to join club swim?

[Anonymous]

I have a 10yo (who will be 11 in the summer so will be trying out as an 11yo) who was pretty disappointed not to make any clubs he tried out for this summer. He is NOT a fast swimmer (he got a late start to swimming, starting around 7 and actually being able to swim at 8) and plays multiple sports. In the past he's done FINS, ASA rising stars, and a low-key club twice a week for the second half of last year. He loves summer swim, of course, but he's experienced winter swim and likes it enough to want to find a club next year.

We signed him up for a junior development program for this year and plan for him to attend 2x/week.

What else can we do to support him in his goal of joining a swim club next year? Should we up his jr. development to 3x/week - from what I've seen, it won't help with endurance as it's really more focused on stroke development - but will more time in the water help him improve? Are there places in MoCo where we can get him private lessons (we are on the waitlist for MoCo rec, but my understanding is the waitlist is super long)? Or is he simply too late at almost 11?

[Anonymous]

More time in the water would always be helpful. I would never say it's too late, but it is going to be hard to join one of the bigger teams as a not really competitive 11 year old.

[Anonymous]

City of Rockville has some good smaller sized pre team classes that can be good.

[Anonymous]

Shift your focus to the more low key clubs in MoCo: TIBU, QOSA, SDS are the ones that come to mind. Why did he stop with the low-key club he was with last year? I will be honest, age 11 is a hard age to make the larger clubs, especially if your son is admittedly not fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shift your focus to the more low key clubs in MoCo: TIBU, QOSA, SDS are the ones that come to mind. Why did he stop with the low-key club he was with last year? I will be honest, age 11 is a hard age to make the larger clubs, especially if your son is admittedly not fast.

Both of my kids did the lower key club last year and one of them moved to a bigger club. The low key club was not a good fit for us due to it being poorly managed, including coaches not showing up for practices and questionable choices in training (for example, my 9yo never swimming more than a 25 in practices even though at that age they're not even eligible for 25s in meets and the minimum distance is 50). My other child is a more natural swimmer and was able to make it into a bigger club after making huge strides during the summer (almost no progress in winter) and the fact that he's naturally a faster swimmer.

Will look into TIBU! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Can’t you just join a club that still has room? There are plenty of clubs that will take anyone who can swim and will pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can’t you just join a club that still has room? There are plenty of clubs that will take anyone who can swim and will pay.

Other than QOSA do you have examples of clubs that will take anyone? I think all other clubs have tryouts / are full given that it's October.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a 10yo (who will be 11 in the summer so will be trying out as an 11yo) who was pretty disappointed not to make any clubs he tried out for this summer. He is NOT a fast swimmer (he got a late start to swimming, starting around 7 and actually being able to swim at 8) and plays multiple sports. In the past he's done FINS, ASA rising stars, and a low-key club twice a week for the second half of last year. He loves summer swim, of course, but he's experienced winter swim and likes it enough to want to find a club next year.

We signed him up for a junior development program for this year and plan for him to attend 2x/week.

What else can we do to support him in his goal of joining a swim club next year? Should we up his jr. development to 3x/week - from what I've seen, it won't help with endurance as it's really more focused on stroke development - but will more time in the water help him improve? Are there places in MoCo where we can get him private lessons (we are on the waitlist for MoCo rec, but my understanding is the waitlist is super long)? Or is he simply too late at almost 11?

"He is NOT a fast swimmer." Without knowing any details, to be competitive at the 11-12 in the PVS region takes a mix of factors: (1) above average physical attributes at this stage; (2) good technique; and (3) consistency. I'm sure there's more but you can think of factors in terms of tradeoffs. The first factor is sort of "meh". Kids grows at different rates and times. The other two you have a little more control. I've seen kids who were "slow" all the way to 11-12 and then it clicked in terms of physical maturity and technique. What comes first? I don't really know - maybe it's a virtuous circle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t you just join a club that still has room? There are plenty of clubs that will take anyone who can swim and will pay.

Other than QOSA do you have examples of clubs that will take anyone? I think all other clubs have tryouts / are full given that it's October.

TIBU and SDS as mentioned above will take anyone, so it might be worth a call to see if they still have room. I don’t know where in MoCo you are, but Machine’s Gears program doesn’t require you to be fast, and PAC is another low-key club that practices at Fairland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t you just join a club that still has room? There are plenty of clubs that will take anyone who can swim and will pay.

Other than QOSA do you have examples of clubs that will take anyone? I think all other clubs have tryouts / are full given that it's October.

TIBU and SDS as mentioned above will take anyone, so it might be worth a call to see if they still have room. I don’t know where in MoCo you are, but Machine’s Gears program doesn’t require you to be fast, and PAC is another low-key club that practices at Fairland.

+1 for Machine’s Gears. My kids did it at Fairland last year and we moved over to UMD this year. Our oldest started club last year as an 11, almost 12 year old, and is now in one of their High Performance groups. Still not very fast, but she has lots of fun and works hard. Machine has real-time enrollment on their website, so you can see which of the Gears groups still have availability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More time in the water would always be helpful. I would never say it's too late, but it is going to be hard to join one of the bigger teams as a not really competitive 11 year old.

I would find a small club (I am sure there are a few clubs that still have spots). If swimming becomes their thing and they advance they can move to a high club later. My son started at a small club and moved to RMSC in 8th grade, once he started making the cuts to the higher level meets.

[Anonymous]

No. 10, 11 are not an age that is too late for swimming competitively. In fact A LOT of national level swimmers (especially male side) are late starters. If he can understand the situation and handle the fact that he may not be able to swim as fast as other top level swimmers until he becomes 15 or 16, it's worthwhile to try. There are many Olympic medalists that didn't win any meaningful race until they were like 14 or 15.