Are travel swim meets worth the time for young beginners?

[Anonymous]

We do one to Lancaster County PA each winter. My kid isn't fast but he has a blast at that meet playing in the hotel pool with his friends. I wouldn't do more than one a year though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this the Hoki invitational by any chance? I know York at least offered it to younger swimmers this year.

Yes. Is the place fun?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so interesting to me as someone with a 9 year old swimmer, who isn't in the DC area. It's a whole different world. As a team there are 3-4 overnight meets a year that DS could attend without qualifying times, and we even have an international one this season - although we are very close to another country so it's more exotic than it sounds. With the exception of our home meets, everything is at least an hour away regardless. Last season was his first and we did one travel meet and he LOVED the experience, didn't care at all about results. But personally I think getting experience in different environments, with different setups, etc., is invaluable.

We are really spoiled here Especially for those of us mostly central in PVS area. For years, we never went anywhere further than 30 minutes, and our big championship meet was at the University of Maryland, where plenty of people in my neighborhood work!

Canada? I have heard of some of the Buffalo area teams hosting Canadian clubs, bet it goes both ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d say probably not, but depends if/why those are even being offered/encouraged by your club/coach.

Are you DMV (PVS swimming)? I ask bc in this area with a new 9yo, there is no reason to travel and I’d be surprised if a club even offered a meet like that.

Our club doesn’t have travel meets for entry level/average kids. JOs is not an overnight for most in our region. We started doing travel meets, for fastest kids, 1-2 per year at 10, and a lot of kids will wait until the next age group, and again, this is the fastest kids, qualifying for fast meets.

Thanks! Yes, DC is in a PVS club. Our club doesn’t encourage travel meets. I was just curious as a parent of a new swimmer 😂

Gotcha! I also missed that your kid is actually under 9 still but as you see from other responses, one meet a month is typical and there are good local options. It is interesting to see the experiences of some taking young kids for a travel meet. I am sure it is fun, but definitely unnecessary. I hope the club offering HOKI to little ones doesn't put families in a position to have kids feel left out if they think it is unreasonable. I also think they should have something to look forward to as they get older. Some of my favorite swim meets were December meets when my kids were 7-8y, they had a festive theme, and the kids were so cute. No rush to get to the other stuff IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this the Hoki invitational by any chance? I know York at least offered it to younger swimmers this year.

Yes. Is the place fun?

Does your swimmer have friends on the team that are going? My 7 (almost 8) year old (also on York) has the option and it is a hard pass given there is a mini 8&U meet a week before and one in early December. She is also new to the team. Seems very overkill to drive 8 hours roundtrip to swim 6 events max when there are other options 15 minutes away.

[Anonymous]

My kids have done year round swim for a number of years now. This is the first year we are doing Hoki. My older son, 13, really wanted to go and we see it as a team bonding experience. We did not and would not have gone when he was 9.

FWIW I have heard it is a fun meet and it's a fast pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so interesting to me as someone with a 9 year old swimmer, who isn't in the DC area. It's a whole different world. As a team there are 3-4 overnight meets a year that DS could attend without qualifying times, and we even have an international one this season - although we are very close to another country so it's more exotic than it sounds. With the exception of our home meets, everything is at least an hour away regardless. Last season was his first and we did one travel meet and he LOVED the experience, didn't care at all about results. But personally I think getting experience in different environments, with different setups, etc., is invaluable.

We are really spoiled here Especially for those of us mostly central in PVS area. For years, we never went anywhere further than 30 minutes, and our big championship meet was at the University of Maryland, where plenty of people in my neighborhood work!

Canada? I have heard of some of the Buffalo area teams hosting Canadian clubs, bet it goes both ways.

Other side - Michigan, funny enough it will be closer than any other meet we go to the whole year, except for home meets.

[Anonymous]

One meet a month is more than enough at that age. No need for travel meets.

[Anonymous]

If your child enjoys the team aspect, I would say yes, go to a travel meet.

Much like travel tournaments for other sports, the benefits of a travel meet are 1) team bonding, 2) family bonding, 3) rising to the pressure of a multi session day - usually there will be morning prelims and afternoon finals, 4) being inspired to swim fast in a “big meet” with unfamiliar teams in an unfamiliar setting, 4) feeling motivated to work hard at practice and set higher goals after the “big meet” experience.

In my experience, #3 and #4 definitely made it worth it.

[Anonymous]

Oops, I messed up the numbering. #4 and 5 made it worth it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your child enjoys the team aspect, I would say yes, go to a travel meet.

Much like travel tournaments for other sports, the benefits of a travel meet are 1) team bonding, 2) family bonding, 3) rising to the pressure of a multi session day - usually there will be morning prelims and afternoon finals, 4) being inspired to swim fast in a “big meet” with unfamiliar teams in an unfamiliar setting, 4) feeling motivated to work hard at practice and set higher goals after the “big meet” experience.

In my experience, #3 and #4 definitely made it worth it.

I agree with the list, but still wouldn't spend the time or money before 10 at least.

[Anonymous]

My kid is 10 and I’m not driving more than 30 mins for a meet. I’ll do meets at UMD and Fairland and that’s it. When she’s older if she’s still into it and wants to go farther afield I will. But I am not devoting my life to it and neither is she.

[Anonymous]

We did at 9.5/10 but only because he was qualifying for big meets like NCSA, Zones etc. Would not have done it for regular/non-QT meets.

[Anonymous]

My kid is 10 and the furthest we have traveled is about 45 minutes to an hour. We are fortunately pretty centrally located to the meets our club has on the schedule, even the winter champs meet and JOs are only a little over an hour away and I’ve told my kid we will take her to those. She puts in the hours at practice so I want her to be able to compete in the meets she’s worked hard to qualify for. That said, I wouldn’t be opposed to a travel meet like the Hoki if I could just make a weekend out of it with the family, Blacksburg is beautiful this time of year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is 10 and the furthest we have traveled is about 45 minutes to an hour. We are fortunately pretty centrally located to the meets our club has on the schedule, even the winter champs meet and JOs are only a little over an hour away and I’ve told my kid we will take her to those. She puts in the hours at practice so I want her to be able to compete in the meets she’s worked hard to qualify for. That said, I wouldn’t be opposed to a travel meet like the Hoki if I could just make a weekend out of it with the family, Blacksburg is beautiful this time of year!

We have been to the Hoki meet and it’s a lot of fun but you definitely can’t make a family trip out of it - there are prelims and finals sessions so you really spend all three days at the pool basically all day long and into the evening.