Frustrated with how our swim team takes over the pool

[Anonymous]

Yeah, for June and half of July and the it's over. I'm with 18:09, OP is a crank. Go live in a 55+ community where there are no lids, and you won't have any swim team to annoy you

[Anonymous]

I'm with you, OP. They should open the baby pool during the morning swim team practices and families with young kids would love it! Just one guard looking at the baby pool... how much could that cost?

My kids have done the swim team but I was really irritated at how late our pool opened when my kids were little.

Plus the swim parents make the place feel cliqueish.

I don't think OP is a crank. I think DCUM Swimming forum is just full of crazy swim team families!

[Anonymous]

This is the sort of thing that people should check before they join pools but new parents just don't know! The first pool we belonged to had Monday night meets and it was so disappointing when we went to the pool and were turned away. After that, we checked the calendar before going to the pool. When we moved, we made a point of looking at when swim practices and meets were before we joined a pool. Our current pool has morning practices and meets, and they're all done by 11:00am when the pool opens.

[Anonymous]

OP you probably should have posted this on the elementary school topic and then the cliquey swim mommies wouldn't have jumped on you this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you probably should have posted this on the elementary school topic and then the cliquey swim mommies wouldn't have jumped on you this way.

She tried to but Jeff moved it to where it belongs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm on a pool board for one of these pools and there are (I'll say this probably unkindly) some cranks who have OP's attitude and I'll say I don't give it any credence. It's a NEIGHBORHOOD pool and we have lots of constituents and we do a really good job of balancing all the competing demands, but here's the rub: About 200 families out of around 400 member families are there BECAUSE OF THE SWIM TEAM. Over half the membership is tied to the swim team, and probably another 20% are older members whose kids went through swim team. So swim team is kind of at the core DNA of the neighborhood pools. The problem we see time and again is the small portion of lap swimmers who want the entirety of the pool to themselves, 8 at a time. And then the few members who expect it to be the quiet pool at a posh resort and don't like the family hustle and bustle. Join a country club if you want to avoid the swim team, but otherwise stop being a crank.

So you are ok with alienating 30-50 percent of the membership? What about people who aren’t looking to swim laps but are just looking to have a place to enjoy with their families? You give them no credence? Your attitude is part of the problem OP is addressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Currently, our swim team has the whole pool for two hours in the morning and half the pool for three hours in the afternoon plus the dive team has the well for two hours every afternoon. It’s a lot for non-team pool members. As a former pool manager, I understand why my family is not the demographic the pool needs so our interests aren’t a priority. We may drop the membership or go for the late summer only option though I would miss going over on the weekends in June and July (during times when there aren’t meets!).

Our swim team has the whole pool for hours in the morning when the pool would otherwise be closed. When swim team ends, does your pool start opening earlier? My guess is that without swim team, which is where they draw their lifeguards, the pool wouldn't be able to cover those extra hours.

No, swim season ends but the hours don’t change. But those aren’t the hours working people can go to the pool anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Currently, our swim team has the whole pool for two hours in the morning and half the pool for three hours in the afternoon plus the dive team has the well for two hours every afternoon. It’s a lot for non-team pool members. As a former pool manager, I understand why my family is not the demographic the pool needs so our interests aren’t a priority. We may drop the membership or go for the late summer only option though I would miss going over on the weekends in June and July (during times when there aren’t meets!).

Our swim team has the whole pool for hours in the morning when the pool would otherwise be closed. When swim team ends, does your pool start opening earlier? My guess is that without swim team, which is where they draw their lifeguards, the pool wouldn't be able to cover those extra hours.

No, swim season ends but the hours don’t change. But those aren’t the hours working people can go to the pool anyway.

But multiple people on this thread are complaining that the pool isn't open for infants and toddlers during those hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm on a pool board for one of these pools and there are (I'll say this probably unkindly) some cranks who have OP's attitude and I'll say I don't give it any credence. It's a NEIGHBORHOOD pool and we have lots of constituents and we do a really good job of balancing all the competing demands, but here's the rub: About 200 families out of around 400 member families are there BECAUSE OF THE SWIM TEAM. Over half the membership is tied to the swim team, and probably another 20% are older members whose kids went through swim team. So swim team is kind of at the core DNA of the neighborhood pools. The problem we see time and again is the small portion of lap swimmers who want the entirety of the pool to themselves, 8 at a time. And then the few members who expect it to be the quiet pool at a posh resort and don't like the family hustle and bustle. Join a country club if you want to avoid the swim team, but otherwise stop being a crank.

PP here. That’s why I say I get it. We are not your priority and while that’s generally ok and I don’t complain to the folks who run the pool (volunteers all!), you should know that you aren’t balancing as well as you think you are.

But that’s life. We will probably leave in a year or two and another young swim team family will take our place. And so it goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Currently, our swim team has the whole pool for two hours in the morning and half the pool for three hours in the afternoon plus the dive team has the well for two hours every afternoon. It’s a lot for non-team pool members. As a former pool manager, I understand why my family is not the demographic the pool needs so our interests aren’t a priority. We may drop the membership or go for the late summer only option though I would miss going over on the weekends in June and July (during times when there aren’t meets!).

Our swim team has the whole pool for hours in the morning when the pool would otherwise be closed. When swim team ends, does your pool start opening earlier? My guess is that without swim team, which is where they draw their lifeguards, the pool wouldn't be able to cover those extra hours.

No, swim season ends but the hours don’t change. But those aren’t the hours working people can go to the pool anyway.

But multiple people on this thread are complaining that the pool isn't open for infants and toddlers during those hours.

Great but that poster was specifically responding to my previous post with their guess. Their guess was wrong but even if the pool opened earlier, it wouldn’t matter to people working daytime hours.

[Anonymous]

We have about 250 member families. At the beginning of the month less than 60 were swim team families. It would actually be helpful to the ST if a few more families were on the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm on a pool board for one of these pools and there are (I'll say this probably unkindly) some cranks who have OP's attitude and I'll say I don't give it any credence. It's a NEIGHBORHOOD pool and we have lots of constituents and we do a really good job of balancing all the competing demands, but here's the rub: About 200 families out of around 400 member families are there BECAUSE OF THE SWIM TEAM. Over half the membership is tied to the swim team, and probably another 20% are older members whose kids went through swim team. So swim team is kind of at the core DNA of the neighborhood pools. The problem we see time and again is the small portion of lap swimmers who want the entirety of the pool to themselves, 8 at a time. And then the few members who expect it to be the quiet pool at a posh resort and don't like the family hustle and bustle. Join a country club if you want to avoid the swim team, but otherwise stop being a crank.

Thanks PP this sounds exactly like our pool. I do think a neighborhood pool is just a different animal than a pool at a fitness club, country club, etc. Agree re "at the core DNA" - it provides a lot of the spirit and community of the pool an neighborhood, in addition to our local elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on a pool board for one of these pools and there are (I'll say this probably unkindly) some cranks who have OP's attitude and I'll say I don't give it any credence. It's a NEIGHBORHOOD pool and we have lots of constituents and we do a really good job of balancing all the competing demands, but here's the rub: About 200 families out of around 400 member families are there BECAUSE OF THE SWIM TEAM. Over half the membership is tied to the swim team, and probably another 20% are older members whose kids went through swim team. So swim team is kind of at the core DNA of the neighborhood pools. The problem we see time and again is the small portion of lap swimmers who want the entirety of the pool to themselves, 8 at a time. And then the few members who expect it to be the quiet pool at a posh resort and don't like the family hustle and bustle. Join a country club if you want to avoid the swim team, but otherwise stop being a crank.

Thanks PP this sounds exactly like our pool. I do think a neighborhood pool is just a different animal than a pool at a fitness club, country club, etc. Agree re "at the core DNA" - it provides a lot of the spirit and community of the pool a neighborhood, in addition to our local elementary.

OP here - I am not going to attempt to respond to all the assumptions and things I already addressed in this thread but this last comment really sums up my biggest issue with the intense core group of our swim team that causes all these issues. Swim team is fun and creates a great environment for the members of the swim team ONLY. It is the opposite of spirit building for the community at large- it’s annoying and generally directly at odds with what they want their own experience to be like. Which is fine, people can have different preferences although a community pool would typically make some effort to balance those preferences! But acting like having a swim team is some kind of public good for the community and choosing not to participate in it (or being unable to participate) makes you somehow less part of the community is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Find a larger pool, or quieter one, that suits your needs. Our pool is large with a separate baby pool area, swim and dive practice only take up a section of it and and dive practice only takes over the dive well. Swim practice and lessons end before the pool opens in the morning. Swim meets are only one B meet on a Monday, and one A meet on a Saturday early AM. Pool is fully open during dive meets.
This is a problem with an easy solution. It's you, you're the problem so solve it by moving on to a different pool.

[Anonymous]

A couple of times the first year we joined we mentioned to friend that we were going to take the kids for an evening swim and bring a picnic dinner. DH and I didn't grow up with community pools like this and thought it would be fun. But friend kept informing us "there's swim team tonight!" Turns out there's swim team pretty much every night. And morning. And weekend. And it's all anyone talks about.