Club + school

[Anonymous]

It is pretty easy to do both. You swim for club. During the short varsity season, you practice with club, maybe do one school practice a week (different schools have different requirements, mostly due to team building and relay practice). If your kid wants to be a captain, they likely will have to miss more club practices. You do all the school meets so you have qualifying times for the big high school meets (States, Metros, Nat. Cath., etc).

Also, high school meets are very different from club. Your kid may be asked to swim events that are not their best in order to get points for the team, which is more important to a team win than individual times. Times matter for qualifying for the big meets, and only high school meet times count for that (not your club times).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Swimming is all about times, not a “varsity experience”. High school swim lasts 2 months and the rest of the year the kids that aspire to swim in college are competing with their clubs. Colleges all know that club swim is far more competitive, they are not recruiting swimmers based off of their high school resume.

This isn't about recruiting. It's about putting "varsity" on an application where 80% and up of admitted applicants played a varsity sport.

If you want to swim in college, you are recruited by your club times.

You don't need varsity for college applications, when you can say you swam competitively year round.

This is absolutely incorrect for service academies.

🙄 I doubt whether a kid swam HS varsity or competed year round for a club is making the difference in getting into a service academy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

This Tiger Mom is actually not talking about a kid being recruited to swim, she is asking about being able to put on a college application that the kid was a varsity swimmer, like any other throwaway EC that she has forced her kid to participate in solely for the purpose of putting it on an application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

I’m the Ohio poster and this is fascinating! Is this DMV? Big school? Small? I don’t know any high school sport that isn’t at least 5 days/week!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

I’m the Ohio poster and this is fascinating! Is this DMV? Big school? Small? I don’t know any high school sport that isn’t at least 5 days/week!

In Fairfax County, high schools do not have their own pools. So a 60-80 person team gets three lanes at the local rec center to practice. Club swimmers (which is all but one kid for my daughter’s HS team) are expected to attend one practice a week and are not encouraged to do more because there just isn’t space. They all are practicing at least 5 or 6 days a week, though. Just not all together as a HS team, because that’s impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

I’m the Ohio poster and this is fascinating! Is this DMV? Big school? Small? I don’t know any high school sport that isn’t at least 5 days/week!

In Fairfax County, high schools do not have their own pools. So a 60-80 person team gets three lanes at the local rec center to practice. Club swimmers (which is all but one kid for my daughter’s HS team) are expected to attend one practice a week and are not encouraged to do more because there just isn’t space. They all are practicing at least 5 or 6 days a week, though. Just not all together as a HS team, because that’s impossible.

I hope you are exaggerating. Most FC high schools practice 4 days a week with meets on Friday. They have 6-8 lanes for a 1-2 hr practice. Club swimmers make it a couple days a week, but mostly practice with their club team.

[Anonymous]

My HS/club swimmer (Montgomery County public) doesn't practice at all with her HS team, and that is 100% OK with the HS coach (who is also a club coach, but not hers). She misses one HS meet in December for a "higher level" meet, I think only one miss for another meet is allowed per HS season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

I’m the Ohio poster and this is fascinating! Is this DMV? Big school? Small? I don’t know any high school sport that isn’t at least 5 days/week!

In Fairfax County, high schools do not have their own pools. So a 60-80 person team gets three lanes at the local rec center to practice. Club swimmers (which is all but one kid for my daughter’s HS team) are expected to attend one practice a week and are not encouraged to do more because there just isn’t space. They all are practicing at least 5 or 6 days a week, though. Just not all together as a HS team, because that’s impossible.

I hope you are exaggerating. Most FC high schools practice 4 days a week with meets on Friday. They have 6-8 lanes for a 1-2 hr practice. Club swimmers make it a couple days a week, but mostly practice with their club team.

I am not. There are four available practices of one hour each with three lanes. There is only transportion one day a week.

[Anonymous]

Our private HS doesn't have a pool, and they practice about 2-3 days a week for the 8-week season when they can get pool time somewhere. All the serious swimmers practice with their club teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Swimming is all about times, not a “varsity experience”. High school swim lasts 2 months and the rest of the year the kids that aspire to swim in college are competing with their clubs. Colleges all know that club swim is far more competitive, they are not recruiting swimmers based off of their high school resume.

This isn't about recruiting. It's about putting "varsity" on an application where 80% and up of admitted applicants played a varsity sport.

If you want to swim in college, you are recruited by your club times.

You don't need varsity for college applications, when you can say you swam competitively year round.

This is absolutely incorrect for service academies.

🙄 I doubt whether a kid swam HS varsity or competed year round for a club is making the difference in getting into a service academy.

I thought the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

I’m the Ohio poster and this is fascinating! Is this DMV? Big school? Small? I don’t know any high school sport that isn’t at least 5 days/week!

In Fairfax County, high schools do not have their own pools. So a 60-80 person team gets three lanes at the local rec center to practice. Club swimmers (which is all but one kid for my daughter’s HS team) are expected to attend one practice a week and are not encouraged to do more because there just isn’t space. They all are practicing at least 5 or 6 days a week, though. Just not all together as a HS team, because that’s impossible.

I hope you are exaggerating. Most FC high schools practice 4 days a week with meets on Friday. They have 6-8 lanes for a 1-2 hr practice. Club swimmers make it a couple days a week, but mostly practice with their club team.

I know several Fairfax Public schools that only get 3-4 lanes and they have 10-15 kids in a lane. A swimmer cannot even swim because there are so many kids in the lane. It is not much of a workout and mostly it is the slow kids that only swim HS and summer that are at practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

I’m the Ohio poster and this is fascinating! Is this DMV? Big school? Small? I don’t know any high school sport that isn’t at least 5 days/week!

In Fairfax County, high schools do not have their own pools. So a 60-80 person team gets three lanes at the local rec center to practice. Club swimmers (which is all but one kid for my daughter’s HS team) are expected to attend one practice a week and are not encouraged to do more because there just isn’t space. They all are practicing at least 5 or 6 days a week, though. Just not all together as a HS team, because that’s impossible.

I hope you are exaggerating. Most FC high schools practice 4 days a week with meets on Friday. They have 6-8 lanes for a 1-2 hr practice. Club swimmers make it a couple days a week, but mostly practice with their club team.

You most be out in the exurbs of FCPS or a wealthy school. This is not our experience in Springfield area at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

I’m the Ohio poster and this is fascinating! Is this DMV? Big school? Small? I don’t know any high school sport that isn’t at least 5 days/week!

Montgomery County Maryland (MCPS)
The public high schools (~26?) share public/county pools with patrons and our club team that runs out of them. So they get two practices, could be morning or after school. They maybe get 3-4 lanes because multiple schools could be there at the same time. The club kids are required to be "present" for one of them. That just means they sign in, they actually do not get in the water to allow for non-club swimmers to get the space. This is the case for the big teams anyway. I am sure there are schools with smaller teams and the kids may get in. We're at one of the biggest schools with a lot of swimmer, so there are cuts, and sometimes a few club swimmers even get cut.

This is unique to swim due to pool space. Other sports are practicing 5d as far as I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Our public high schools have 2, 1hr practices per week, that isn’t going to train anyone to get the times to get on team at AF or any other academy. The kids train with their clubs and swim most of the HS meets.

For recruiting at these schools, coaches are looking at best times in sanctioned meets. Only a few HS meets per season are official sanctioned times.

Additionally, there are school districts and private HS that don’t have swim teams, so obviously, those kids can only club swim.

I’m the Ohio poster and this is fascinating! Is this DMV? Big school? Small? I don’t know any high school sport that isn’t at least 5 days/week!

Montgomery County Maryland (MCPS)
The public high schools (~26?) share public/county pools with patrons and our club team that runs out of them. So they get two practices, could be morning or after school. They maybe get 3-4 lanes because multiple schools could be there at the same time. The club kids are required to be "present" for one of them. That just means they sign in, they actually do not get in the water to allow for non-club swimmers to get the space. This is the case for the big teams anyway. I am sure there are schools with smaller teams and the kids may get in. We're at one of the biggest schools with a lot of swimmer, so there are cuts, and sometimes a few club swimmers even get cut.

This is unique to swim due to pool space. Other sports are practicing 5d as far as I know.

NP - and MCPS grad/former MCPS swimmer - so glad to see things haven't changed in 30 years!

My kids swim club and if they continue through HS, the overlap would be so minimal, given the above schedule. I know tons of kids through summer swim who do HS and club during the school year.