What is "swim culture" like?

[Anonymous]

My mixed DS (late elementary) is interested in competitive swimming. I don't really swim and know nothing about swim teams, but I have heard it's lots of early mornings and that there are lots of demands on your time. I am curious, what is the typical swim culture, if there is one? Do teams tend to work together and cheer each other on? Any issues with body image and eating pressure?

DS originally wanted to take Lax and I said no thanks because I just cannot stand the elitist Laxbro culture (I grew up with it), and I figure if he REALLY still wants to in middle school he can still join lax. He took hockey for several seasons and I was quietly relieved when he said he was no longer interested. What is swimming like? At this point, he is still enthusiastic about lots of sports and while I haven't outright banned any, I grew up with lots of issues surrounding my heritage and was bullied for it. Maybe it's just my own experience, but I really don't want the same for DS. In my own experience, track, tennis, golf, and basketball were all pretty welcoming teams, along with crew. Soccer didn't seem to have any major issues though I never played.

[Anonymous]

I would rank it 3 levels above baseball culture, but a half step below crew.

[Anonymous]

Club swim culture is different than summer swim culture. Club swim is more about personal best and getting time cuts where summer swim is about team competitions. The scoring and completion in summer leagues can bring out the crazy in parents. Overall I find club swim pretty chill; there is no yelling at refs about bad calls and all that. Overall kids are very supportive of their teammates and always on the deck or turn end of the pool cheering on their friends.

Swim is definitely a time commitment thought. As kids get older they practice more and more. Sometime that means early mornings, although lots of clubs have afternoon options as well. Meets can be long so there is a lot of sitting around unless your volunteering. Which takes me to the volunteer stuff. It takes a lot of volunteers to run a meet so parents are expected and often required to put in a good amount of time.

[Anonymous]

Have done rec hockey, rec baseball, high level travel soccer, and club swim.

Swimming is much more of an objective sport than team sports. There are times standards and you either made the times or you didn’t. It’s very much an individual sport.

Whereas team sports are more subjective of what makes a good soccer player - eg is it the kid who is better defensively or the kid who kicks the ball the farthest or runs the fastest? That leads to more politicking and cutthroat culture in my opinion.

Like any sport, there is a swim team for everyone and what they want from the sport. There are teams for folks who are very serious and teams that have more social events. Teams that don’t participate in swim meets and do it more for the exercise.

Maybe if you could indicate what you are looking for in a swim club, culture wise, commitment level wise, and location wise, I bet a lot of folks here could help point you to a good fit for your DC.

[Anonymous]

It's nice that it's a co-ed sport. They don't compete against each other but the teams/clubs are co-ed. I think that way lowers the douche factor that you see in a lot of male team sports. Kids aren't really threatened by other kids because it's a very objective sport - times. Someone wins and someone loses so they will compete with each other but it doesn't get nasty or personal in my experience. They do tend to cheer for each other. Summer swim and high school teams are very social and fun. Club swimmers can be more intense and winter meets are pretty long and boring.

For kids who get very intensely into club swimming in high school, it's truly terrible hours (basically waking up in the middle of the night 5-6 days a week) and very time consuming and doesn't allow for much of a life outside of it. But club swimming does leave lots of opportunities to swim less intensely and they can participate on their high school team.

It's like anything there are parents who are incapable of talking about anything but their child and swimming and it's painful. But there are regular people too.

[Anonymous]

PPs' points about objectivity are well-taken - the same can be said for sports like cross-country and track and field (and rowing, maybe not quite as much). IME, this objectivity makes for a stronger team culture than many traditional team sports. Kids cheer for their teammates and their teammates cheer for them without any need to fight over playing time. The repetitiveness of swimming tends to draw a certain personality - you have to enjoy hard work for the sake of hard work and be able to keep yourself focused. Swimmers, like runners and rowers, include pretty much anyone who works hard, supports their teammates, and doesn't whine.

The big downside to me, as a parent of swimmers, is they have to practice more frequently from a younger age to be very competitive, at least most of the time. But, you know the potential meet schedule for the whole year in advance, which is helpful.

[Anonymous]

Our kids have done club soccer, crew, basketball (more rec level than club) and swimming. I like the culture of club swimming the best. High school swimming is also great. Club soccer has crazy parents everyone knows about. The number of emails I received over the years, cautioning parents not to verbally abuse refs numbered in the dozens. Every year there was some scandal about an altercation on the field. The crew kids were close, but there was a lot of rivalry to get into first boat or a better position and often, things got snide. I drove in the carpool for all three sports and the crew kids immediately would start bashing their teammates’ abilities as soon as they got into the car. So and so slacks off, so and so is weak, so and so doesn’t belong in the stroke seat. The soccer kids would complain about each other, the refs and how every single call was against them. Swim kids were generally positive and did not make fun of slower swimmers.

I like that swimming is coed and mixed age. The older kids help the younger ones and everyone supports each other. My kids are friends with their rivals on other swim teams and that was not the case when they played soccer.

[Anonymous]

OP, definitely start with a summer swim team this year. It's just a June-July season and great fun. You'll get a good sense of whether your child likes competing or not. I'm not sure where you live, but if you're in Montgomery County, MCSL (the summer swim league) has multiple public teams that don't require a pool membership. Tryouts will take place in the next week or so.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/rec/activitiesandprograms/aquatics/competitiveprograms.html

[Anonymous]

You specifically asked about body image and eating issues. I found it was less of an issue than other sports. Kids are used to wearing very little and get very comfortable with their bodies. I think of teenage girls helping each other get on tech suits for example. The eating part is critical because the competitive kids need so many calories. Coaches tend to start teaching nutrition and what to eat and when to eat at least by middle school. You'll find eating and body image concerns everywhere, but our experience was swimming is a very healthy environment for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You specifically asked about body image and eating issues. I found it was less of an issue than other sports. Kids are used to wearing very little and get very comfortable with their bodies. I think of teenage girls helping each other get on tech suits for example. The eating part is critical because the competitive kids need so many calories. Coaches tend to start teaching nutrition and what to eat and when to eat at least by middle school. You'll find eating and body image concerns everywhere, but our experience was swimming is a very healthy environment for it.

To add to this there are also a lot of different body types in swimming. It’s actually pretty cool to see such differences in one sport and kids being successful with different builds.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the different perspectives and advice. It sounds like we should begin by giving summer swim a try and seeing how that goes.

[Anonymous]

Summer can be fun, great exercise, lots of fun. It can also be a huge time commitment. There is definitely parebt drama, like any sport. There can certainly be swim mom cliques with the mean, gossip mom vibe. Have the right mindset and watch out for drama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You specifically asked about body image and eating issues. I found it was less of an issue than other sports. Kids are used to wearing very little and get very comfortable with their bodies. I think of teenage girls helping each other get on tech suits for example. The eating part is critical because the competitive kids need so many calories. Coaches tend to start teaching nutrition and what to eat and when to eat at least by middle school. You'll find eating and body image concerns everywhere, but our experience was swimming is a very healthy environment for it.

To add to this there are also a lot of different body types in swimming. It’s actually pretty cool to see such differences in one sport and kids being successful with different builds.

This is something I’ve noticed about swim, with my 12u and I love that (at least in this age, I’m not as familiar with older swimmers) you can find success across different shapes, sizes, builds, and heights. There’s no specific body type that you have to be in order to be good at the sport (the way you would expect for basketball, football, tennis, running, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You specifically asked about body image and eating issues. I found it was less of an issue than other sports. Kids are used to wearing very little and get very comfortable with their bodies. I think of teenage girls helping each other get on tech suits for example. The eating part is critical because the competitive kids need so many calories. Coaches tend to start teaching nutrition and what to eat and when to eat at least by middle school. You'll find eating and body image concerns everywhere, but our experience was swimming is a very healthy environment for it.

To add to this there are also a lot of different body types in swimming. It’s actually pretty cool to see such differences in one sport and kids being successful with different builds.

This is something I’ve noticed about swim, with my 12u and I love that (at least in this age, I’m not as familiar with older swimmers) you can find success across different shapes, sizes, builds, and heights. There’s no specific body type that you have to be in order to be good at the sport (the way you would expect for basketball, football, tennis, running, etc).

Well, I mean, it helps to be 6 foot 2+ as a guy or 5 foot 9+ as a girl…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's nice that it's a co-ed sport. They don't compete against each other but the teams/clubs are co-ed. I think that way lowers the douche factor that you see in a lot of male team sports. Kids aren't really threatened by other kids because it's a very objective sport - times. Someone wins and someone loses so they will compete with each other but it doesn't get nasty or personal in my experience. They do tend to cheer for each other. Summer swim and high school teams are very social and fun. Club swimmers can be more intense and winter meets are pretty long and boring.

For kids who get very intensely into club swimming in high school, it's truly terrible hours (basically waking up in the middle of the night 5-6 days a week) and very time consuming and doesn't allow for much of a life outside of it. But club swimming does leave lots of opportunities to swim less intensely and they can participate on their high school team.

It's like anything there are parents who are incapable of talking about anything but their child and swimming and it's painful. But there are regular people too.

All of this has been our experience. Will also add: summer swim is super fun. Winter/club swim can be a drag but is great exercise and my kids have great friends from it. It’s pretty supportive. It’s definitely not the most diverse sport (lots of white and Asian kids) but my kids have friends of all races on their dmv team. Lots of volunteering needed to make meets run.