Tell me about year round swimming

[Anonymous]

Please tell me about the year round swimming clubs for Northern Virginia. Looking for an 8 year old who swims A meets in summer NVSL but still needs a lot of work on the strokes. Definitely not looking for the intensity of summer swim and once a week practice with occasional meets would be fine. Really would like child to continue progressing and be able to learn skills including diving.

I've heard of Potomac Marlins, NCAP and swim farm. I'm sure there are others. What's the difference between all these and what would be the best fit?

[Anonymous]

Where do kids from your summer team swim in the winter? That’s usually your best bet unless you have heard bad things. Plus it’s likely to be close to home. Most clubs will have 2x/week practice for that age though.

[Anonymous]

I think my kid would burn out with 2x weekly and dont want that.

[Anonymous]

If you want once a week, Swim Farm is great. They’ve really helped my kids improve on strokes, and the times are convenient for us. Plus, if you have multiple kids, you can get them all in the pool at the same time (they have all levels on the weekends) which is super convenient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please tell me about the year round swimming clubs for Northern Virginia. Looking for an 8 year old who swims A meets in summer NVSL but still needs a lot of work on the strokes. Definitely not looking for the intensity of summer swim and once a week practice with occasional meets would be fine. Really would like child to continue progressing and be able to learn skills including diving.

I've heard of Potomac Marlins, NCAP and swim farm. I'm sure there are others. What's the difference between all these and what would be the best fit?

Swim Farm or Norman swim both offer 1x/wk options. I will say the jump from 25s to 50s will be big next year and if your child loves swimming a 2X/wk option will have more impact. And it really won’t cause burn out

[Anonymous]

My kid really liked York, it is a bit less intense than some of the other options. He did the practices at Yorktown HS.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by “the intensity of summer swim”? If you mean daily practices and associated shenanigans, then a club program won’t require the same level of commitment. If you mean the actual intensity of practices, then a traditional club program may not be a good fit. Every club program in this town will be far more intense than the fun-fest that is summer swim practices—especially at 8&U. We are in D1 and the only truly intense practices are, I believe, at Tuckahoe (maybe CB). And even those are likely easier than club practices at most age groups.

Many pools have a 1 day per week winter swim program. That could be a good option for you, especially if paired with Swim Farm or Norman another 1-2 days/week.

Not sure of your location, but the Marlins & Swim Farm are not close to each other in the grand scheme of Northern VA traffic. Swim Farm & Norman both practice out of the Arlington pools.

If you are in ARL/McLean/Vienna, FISH has a good mini program that swims out of Spring Hill. Practices are 2-3x/week and meets are monthly-ish.

If you are on a higher division team, it does become harder to stay on the A Meet roster once you hit 9-10 unless your kid swims club or your kid is a really good athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by “the intensity of summer swim”? If you mean daily practices and associated shenanigans, then a club program won’t require the same level of commitment. If you mean the actual intensity of practices, then a traditional club program may not be a good fit. Every club program in this town will be far more intense than the fun-fest that is summer swim practices—especially at 8&U. We are in D1 and the only truly intense practices are, I believe, at Tuckahoe (maybe CB). And even those are likely easier than club practices at most age groups.

Many pools have a 1 day per week winter swim program. That could be a good option for you, especially if paired with Swim Farm or Norman another 1-2 days/week.

Not sure of your location, but the Marlins & Swim Farm are not close to each other in the grand scheme of Northern VA traffic. Swim Farm & Norman both practice out of the Arlington pools.

If you are in ARL/McLean/Vienna, FISH has a good mini program that swims out of Spring Hill. Practices are 2-3x/week and meets are monthly-ish.

If you are on a higher division team, it does become harder to stay on the A Meet roster once you hit 9-10 unless your kid swims club or your kid is a really good athlete.

+1 to all of this. Well said.

[Anonymous]

A one time per week option will not fix technique as you need to be in the water more to fix that.

2x, and even 3x, per week at the right club is no more strenuous than 1x per week. At a younger kid level going more days means that they will work on each stroke more often, and therefore changes will stick, and you can also do an activity that may interfere with a swim practice here and there and not worry about not being in the water for weeks at a time.

[Anonymous]

Not sure where you're located but if it's close to GMU, check out Fairfax Foxes. They have a Sunday Foxes group that would probably be a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want once a week, Swim Farm is great. They’ve really helped my kids improve on strokes, and the times are convenient for us. Plus, if you have multiple kids, you can get them all in the pool at the same time (they have all levels on the weekends) which is super convenient.

After a couple of odd encounters with the owner, I can no longer recommend Swim Farm. Norman is the better and significantly less expensive option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A one time per week option will not fix technique as you need to be in the water more to fix that.

2x, and even 3x, per week at the right club is no more strenuous than 1x per week. At a younger kid level going more days means that they will work on each stroke more often, and therefore changes will stick, and you can also do an activity that may interfere with a swim practice here and there and not worry about not being in the water for weeks at a time.

This is a dumb take. 3 times a week is definitely more strenuous than 1. Less recovery between practices.

OP - look at York. 2 x 1 hr a week practices are perfect for a new to club swimmer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A one time per week option will not fix technique as you need to be in the water more to fix that.

2x, and even 3x, per week at the right club is no more strenuous than 1x per week. At a younger kid level going more days means that they will work on each stroke more often, and therefore changes will stick, and you can also do an activity that may interfere with a swim practice here and there and not worry about not being in the water for weeks at a time.

This is a dumb take. 3 times a week is definitely more strenuous than 1. Less recovery between practices.

OP - look at York. 2 x 1 hr a week practices are perfect for a new to club swimmer.

If you day(s) to recover from an age group practice, then that program is solely focused on immediate results and not long term athlete development

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want once a week, Swim Farm is great. They’ve really helped my kids improve on strokes, and the times are convenient for us. Plus, if you have multiple kids, you can get them all in the pool at the same time (they have all levels on the weekends) which is super convenient.

After a couple of odd encounters with the owner, I can no longer recommend Swim Farm. Norman is the better and significantly less expensive option.

Can you expand on this? I was just looking into Swim Farm and this makes me pause…

[Anonymous]

Norman swimming 2 years ago (Spring Hill, not Yorktown) set my child back two years. There were dozens of parent complaints about the “coaches” instructing kids to swim while providing no feedback or instruction. It was the worst thing we ever could have done for development. I recommend Swim Farm.