NCAP or Marlins?
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Anonymous
| Any thoughts on one team versus the other? We live in the Fairfax County part of Alexandria. |
Anonymous
| Which team has more convenient practice locations and times? |
Anonymous
| Which NCAP site are you looking at? |
Anonymous
+1 Location is key. |
Anonymous
|
NCAP is a better club and they compete in faster meets. If you have an elite swimmer this would be the club. The Burke location is really good.
Marlins is a strange club. This year a number of their young swimmers have been sidelined with swimming injuries. A former coach mentioned that they are a heavy yardage group and probably too much too young. Their swimmers are spread out from locations so not a lot of group bonding. They do not attend the faster meets. |
Anonymous
| Marlins is cheaper. |
Anonymous
|
Marlins is great at getting B swimmers to BB and developing the entire cohort. I haven't heard of any overuse injuries among the Marlins, but I have heard that from the NCAP Burke 11-12 boys.
There were some injuries completely unrelated to swimming for some good swimmers. |
Anonymous
|
So we had some swimmer from our club head over to NCAP and we took a number of swimmer from the Marlins.
I have just heard that Marlins is all business at practice. No parties, games, bonding etc. I guess for the super serious that is great. But I prefer a York culture. |
Anonymous
| NCAP-Burke is really far from Alexandria unless you are in the Springfield-border-Franconia-off-286-Alexandria. NCAP-Burke 10Us primarily practice at 6:30 am or 5:30 pm, and the 11+ kids practice at 5 am or 5 pm. Traffic in the afternoon from Alexandria may be a deal breaker. The NCAP-Alexandria coaches are really kind — like really, really kind. But man do their kids at one of their locations practice early (or at least they did — like 4:15 am or something?). |
Anonymous
I was going to mention the practices are really early for the Marlins and they have them practicing WAY early. NCAP Burke also offers afternoon/evening practices if your kid is not an early morning type. And probably better for the younger kids (and parents). I think it depends where you are looking. If the practice pool is Chinquapin and you are up that way or is it Franconia? |
Anonymous
The North part (West End) of Alexandria by Landmark or the Southern part (For Hunt) area of Fairfax County/Alexandria? That is a huge difference and there are some other clubs that you can look at depending. |
Anonymous
OP here - we are in Fort Hunt. |
Anonymous
OP - we are a Marlins family and happy with them. Switched from NCAP Alexandria 2 seasons ago. The Marlins site coach at GW Rec Center - is very good.
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Anonymous
| We’re with Marlins at Franconia and have been very happy with them. NCAP practices at the same time at Franconia and it also seems great, but it’s a lot more expensive. |
Anonymous
| I live in the Fort Hunt area and my daughter swims with NCAP. Overall, I’m happy with the program, but I’d like to see a little more pushing from the coaches. There’s no reason why NCAP Alexandria can’t be as good as Burke or several of the other NCAP locations. We’ve got some talented swimmers and parents who are very interested in helping their children to excel in the sport. Right now, we practice at the George Washington Rec Center, due to the Mount Vernon Rec Center being completely rebuilt. When the new Mount Vernon Rec Center opens, NCAP will probably move back. Other than Potomac Marlins and NCAP, there really aren’t any other options for serious winter swim in the Mount Vernon/Fort Hunt area. |