At what age did your kid quit/finish summer swim team?

[Anonymous]

I loved summer swim and was an active volunteer, but by around age 11-12, at our pool (Chesterbrook), if you weren't swimming year round it was really difficult to participate. The year round swimmers were so much faster, my DD would be a full length behind at practice. It wasn't even about being picked for "A" meets - she didn't care about that. Experience might have been different at a lower-ranked pool, but Chesterbrook was where we had our membership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let all kids pull away in junior high if they are
not willing to go from 2-3 day to 5 days + mornings in high school. 3 Mornings min for sprints, 5 mornings for distance, 3-5 hour Saturday + Sunday. Swimming and dry land = 32 hours week for a D1 scholarship

You must be confused. This is summer swim, not the route anyone takes to a D1 scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Mine would do it in the evenings. Mornings just don't work. I understand though why it's hard for a busy pool to do evening practices.

[Anonymous]

Mine is 11 but wants to be a lifeguard at our pool when she’s 15, this would work with swim team not conflict t with it so I guess we’ll see..

[Anonymous]

Mine both did around 11. They had no interest in swimming during the winter so they fell behind their peers and were sick of just swimming in B meets. It’s tough around here for kids who aren’t as in to swimming but just like being on the team because swimming in this area is so serious.

[Anonymous]

My kid is 15. He hasn’t gone to the pool once the past two years, with us or on his own with friends. Forget swim team, he refuses to even go now because he doesn’t want to see kids from school.

Personally, I think he got self conscious about his body. I go with my younger kid, who never wanted to join swim team.

[Anonymous]

Summer before 9th grade. Busy with other interests, summer job, body insecurity, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let all kids pull away in junior high if they are
not willing to go from 2-3 day to 5 days + mornings in high school. 3 Mornings min for sprints, 5 mornings for distance, 3-5 hour Saturday + Sunday. Swimming and dry land = 32 hours week for a D1 scholarship

You must be confused. This is summer swim, not the route anyone takes to a D1 scholarship.

It’s also not accurate for club to D1 path. My committed swimmer does about 20h of training per week. Of course that’s a lot, but not 7d or 3-5 mornings or 32h!!

[Anonymous]

Age 13 boy. Doesn't want to swim this year because he hasn't grown and is not interested in getting beat every week.

[Anonymous]

On our team the biggest predictor of if kids continue through high school is their friends. So this year we will have a bunch of high school senior boys who are all friends, but basically no 8th through juniors. And we have a bunch of sophomore girls who are all friends but very few freshmen, juniors and seniors.

[Anonymous]

One swam until they were 18 and had a group of friends that had swam together since they were 7. The other didn't have friends on the team any more quit at 15.

[Anonymous]

At our pool, kids seldom made it to the 15/18 age group. But overtime a culture was built where older kids chose to hang around even when swimming was no longer their primary sport because the team and the friends they made along the way meant something to them. When you get to High School kids might have other sports or interests but to be able to ascend from a preteam at age 5 to graduating 14 summers later with the same group of kids is pretty incredible and creates lifelong memories and friendships that really can’t be beat. When MCSL allowed swimmers who missed their senior season to comeback as exhibition swimmers in 2021 a large number did because they were passionate about the team and the relationships they built along the way and we’re overjoyed to put on the team cap one last time even it wasn’t for points. This did ruffle the feathers of a few crazy Karen swim parents who don’t understand what summer swim is all about.

Long story short, encourage your kids to stick it out if they can and see their summer swim career through to the finish because it can be quite redeeming and goes far beyond swimming in a pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our pool, kids seldom made it to the 15/18 age group. But overtime a culture was built where older kids chose to hang around even when swimming was no longer their primary sport because the team and the friends they made along the way meant something to them. When you get to High School kids might have other sports or interests but to be able to ascend from a preteam at age 5 to graduating 14 summers later with the same group of kids is pretty incredible and creates lifelong memories and friendships that really can’t be beat. When MCSL allowed swimmers who missed their senior season to comeback as exhibition swimmers in 2021 a large number did because they were passionate about the team and the relationships they built along the way and we’re overjoyed to put on the team cap one last time even it wasn’t for points. This did ruffle the feathers of a few crazy Karen swim parents who don’t understand what summer swim is all about.

Long story short, encourage your kids to stick it out if they can and see their summer swim career through to the finish because it can be quite redeeming and goes far beyond swimming in a pool

Allowing one year to repeat means the year behind misses out. There are finite lanes in the pool, so inviting those seniors back edged out other kids. In our pool, it would have meant that current seniors never got their shot

[Anonymous]

Kids drop by 15-18 because all races are 100yd, except for fly. Which is tough if your kid is not a year round swimmer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our pool, kids seldom made it to the 15/18 age group. But overtime a culture was built where older kids chose to hang around even when swimming was no longer their primary sport because the team and the friends they made along the way meant something to them. When you get to High School kids might have other sports or interests but to be able to ascend from a preteam at age 5 to graduating 14 summers later with the same group of kids is pretty incredible and creates lifelong memories and friendships that really can’t be beat. When MCSL allowed swimmers who missed their senior season to comeback as exhibition swimmers in 2021 a large number did because they were passionate about the team and the relationships they built along the way and we’re overjoyed to put on the team cap one last time even it wasn’t for points. This did ruffle the feathers of a few crazy Karen swim parents who don’t understand what summer swim is all about.

Long story short, encourage your kids to stick it out if they can and see their summer swim career through to the finish because it can be quite redeeming and goes far beyond swimming in a pool

Allowing one year to repeat means the year behind misses out. There are finite lanes in the pool, so inviting those seniors back edged out other kids. In our pool, it would have meant that current seniors never got their shot

They swam in exhibition lanes. Didn’t take opportunity from anyone or score any points. They were there to be part of the team not to claim a trophy for 3rd most points in a age group (usually like 15 points over 15 swims)