Help me find a new club

[Anonymous]

Shark Tank. Lots of swimmers from our neighborhood seem to be heading there and doing well. Based on talking to parents, if my kids went back to swim, that's where we would go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Location: closer-in Fairfax County. Reston probably as far west as we would go regularly.

Age: 11-12 but would prefer not to club hop for older age groups, if possible.

Wish list: 1. attentive coaches willing to offer pointers, cheer on swimmers, make recommendations on stroke tweaks based on what they are seeing in practice or meets. Not looking for dedicated stroke instruction like you’d get from private coaching. Don’t need coddling and understand the superstars will get the most attention.
2. Competitive program that offers a good meet schedule but don’t need kill or be killed. Nice kids who are supportive but push each other. Parents willing to hang out and have a drink at out of town meets or socially (we have the latter two in spades currently).

I have a good handle on the programs that exist—looking for direct feedback from those who have been at one or a few.

Potomac Marlins would be my recommendation, especially for that age group. Personally, I think they have some of the best coaches in the area and are churning out some really great swimmers. My DD started as one of the slowest swimmers when she joined the team (6) and is now very close to getting A times in several of her strokes (10). We have been very happy with the coaches so far.

The kids are also very supportive of one another. They’re all friends. They call each other after school. They hang out (we had 10 marlins at our house yesterday). They practically fall in the pool at meets cheering for each other. But at practice, they’re racing.

And I can’t speak for out of town meets (we haven’t done any yet), but we definitely go out with other parents after local meets. Hope that helps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Friends with kids in travel soccer talk about having conferences with their coach once or twice a year (done for every player, parents meet with Coach for feedback).

Our NCAP coaches did this - we were in Alexandria pre-Covid. Kid’s had to list two or three goals every session and Coach talk to them about goals afterwards.

My kid swims with NCAP in Tysons. Her group has no formal conferences, but the coach does ask them to do goal setting at the beginning of the season and is always open to discussions about performance, etc. throughout the year. DC checks in after every race at a meet and gets feedback in real time plus the coach is very responsive to questions on deck after practice or via email. This coach is 100% why we’re still there, since York and Machine are both closer to home and practice in nicer facilities.

I think my child swims with yours... We are also very happy with NCAP Tysons. I agree the facilities could be nicer/newer, but because they have exclusive use of the facility, they have so much more flexibility. For example, yesterday and today, both our practices were rescheduled rather than just canceled. If we were renting lanes at the Rec center, no way this could have happened and we would have missed 2 days of training.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I think a lot of this varies by the coaches at each practice location and for each group level. You could switch clubs and still end up with these issues elsewhere. I would address your concerns with the current club (at least the feedback and stroke technique, not the social stuff) and see what response you get before jumping ship.

FWIW, we're at York and are happy. My 11 DS is same level as your child.

[Anonymous]

Curious, what do you consider crowded as far as lanes, OP? I have heard most clubs have very crowded practice groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question. We have a 9 yr old BB swimmer. Friends with kids in travel soccer talk about having conferences with their coach once or twice a year (done for every player, parents meet with Coach for feedback).

Does this happen in some swim clubs? We get no feedback ever on meet performance or anything. DC says occasionally a coach will offer broad feedback to the entire group: everyone's turns weren't great at the meet, we will work on that.

This does happen at some clubs about once a year with each parent. Some clubs it doesn’t start until your kids are older and swimming in different groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Friends with kids in travel soccer talk about having conferences with their coach once or twice a year (done for every player, parents meet with Coach for feedback).

Our NCAP coaches did this - we were in Alexandria pre-Covid. Kid’s had to list two or three goals every session and Coach talk to them about goals afterwards.

My kid swims with NCAP in Tysons. Her group has no formal conferences, but the coach does ask them to do goal setting at the beginning of the season and is always open to discussions about performance, etc. throughout the year. DC checks in after every race at a meet and gets feedback in real time plus the coach is very responsive to questions on deck after practice or via email. This coach is 100% why we’re still there, since York and Machine are both closer to home and practice in nicer facilities.

I think my child swims with yours... We are also very happy with NCAP Tysons. I agree the facilities could be nicer/newer, but because they have exclusive use of the facility, they have so much more flexibility. For example, yesterday and today, both our practices were rescheduled rather than just canceled. If we were renting lanes at the Rec center, no way this could have happened and we would have missed 2 days of training.

Another Tysons parent and my kids love the coaches and their groups. As mentioned, the kids set goals and receive a lot of feedback. The communication is great and we’ve found it to be a very individualized experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We like a lot about Makos but in Jr Blues there is no coach communication whatsoever. We have a stronger swimmer who has made big gains this year, to include qualifying for the more selective meets and have been totally on our own to figure it out. No one flagged DC had qualified, suggested they enter etc.

Maybe that's normal but for the amount of money we pay, expected some degree of Hey congrats kid, you made the time cut for XYZ, here's what you need to do to enter etc.

We have been in two different clubs and the expectation is a swimmer tracks this on their own.

[Anonymous]

NCAP Tysons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Location: closer-in Fairfax County. Reston probably as far west as we would go regularly.

Age: 11-12 but would prefer not to club hop for older age groups, if possible.

Wish list: 1. attentive coaches willing to offer pointers, cheer on swimmers, make recommendations on stroke tweaks based on what they are seeing in practice or meets. Not looking for dedicated stroke instruction like you’d get from private coaching. Don’t need coddling and understand the superstars will get the most attention.
2. Competitive program that offers a good meet schedule but don’t need kill or be killed. Nice kids who are supportive but push each other. Parents willing to hang out and have a drink at out of town meets or socially (we have the latter two in spades currently).

I have a good handle on the programs that exist—looking for direct feedback from those who have been at one or a few.

Potomac Marlins would be my recommendation, especially for that age group. Personally, I think they have some of the best coaches in the area and are churning out some really great swimmers. My DD started as one of the slowest swimmers when she joined the team (6) and is now very close to getting A times in several of her strokes (10). We have been very happy with the coaches so far.

The kids are also very supportive of one another. They’re all friends. They call each other after school. They hang out (we had 10 marlins at our house yesterday). They practically fall in the pool at meets cheering for each other. But at practice, they’re racing.

And I can’t speak for out of town meets (we haven’t done any yet), but we definitely go out with other parents after local meets. Hope that helps

The 400 Freestyle “warm-up” that they do every single day with swimmers that aren’t even skilled enough to do flip turns would beg to differ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Location: closer-in Fairfax County. Reston probably as far west as we would go regularly.

Age: 11-12 but would prefer not to club hop for older age groups, if possible.

Wish list: 1. attentive coaches willing to offer pointers, cheer on swimmers, make recommendations on stroke tweaks based on what they are seeing in practice or meets. Not looking for dedicated stroke instruction like you’d get from private coaching. Don’t need coddling and understand the superstars will get the most attention.
2. Competitive program that offers a good meet schedule but don’t need kill or be killed. Nice kids who are supportive but push each other. Parents willing to hang out and have a drink at out of town meets or socially (we have the latter two in spades currently).

I have a good handle on the programs that exist—looking for direct feedback from those who have been at one or a few.

Potomac Marlins would be my recommendation, especially for that age group. Personally, I think they have some of the best coaches in the area and are churning out some really great swimmers. My DD started as one of the slowest swimmers when she joined the team (6) and is now very close to getting A times in several of her strokes (10). We have been very happy with the coaches so far.

The kids are also very supportive of one another. They’re all friends. They call each other after school. They hang out (we had 10 marlins at our house yesterday). They practically fall in the pool at meets cheering for each other. But at practice, they’re racing.

And I can’t speak for out of town meets (we haven’t done any yet), but we definitely go out with other parents after local meets. Hope that helps

The 400 Freestyle “warm-up” that they do every single day with swimmers that aren’t even skilled enough to do flip turns would beg to differ.[b]

I would agree. They have a handful of good swimmers that would probably be better off at NCAP to reach their true potential but since the club owners give those swimmers lot of attention they stay. Honestly they would do better with the Makos, NCAP, YORK, or half a dozen other clubs.

[Anonymous]

what are the main clubs' reps?

We have the folks on here saying Marlins are small and give more attention, others saying they only care about laps and not technique.

Many Older Machine swimmers at our summer pool seem to be in physical therapy by 13, but they churn out very strong athletes?

Makos tight-knit, good stroke instruction, but little individual coach feedback?

Fish has gold rep for youngest swimmer training?

York incorporates fun for young kids, also close-knit?

NCAP seems to have a lot of happy families on here too -- clearly has plenty of strong swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Honestly each family has their own experience and it can vary from club to club, site to site, training group to training group. It’s rare to get a uniform opinion across the boards about a particular club. We are with NCAP, not Tysons, and it’s a good fit for my swimmer. My swimmer is an NCSA/Zones level swimmer, so I do feel like NCAP will maximize their potential better than some of the smaller clubs could. We have also found the communication to be great, we are never in the dark about upcoming meets, the QTs needed, etc. But I also understand why the club wouldn’t be a good fit for every family/swimmer. It’s competitive, and there is focus on the fast kids with extra meets and training trips that are available only to those kids. Families/swimmers need to identify what is most important to them and pick a club with those priorities in mind.

[Anonymous]

We were NCAP. For the best swimmers, it was great. For the rest, they were lumped together without much individual attention. My kid's technique improved more with summer swim than with NCAP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly each family has their own experience and it can vary from club to club, site to site, training group to training group. It’s rare to get a uniform opinion across the boards about a particular club. We are with NCAP, not Tysons, and it’s a good fit for my swimmer. My swimmer is an NCSA/Zones level swimmer, so I do feel like NCAP will maximize their potential better than some of the smaller clubs could. We have also found the communication to be great, we are never in the dark about upcoming meets, the QTs needed, etc. But I also understand why the club wouldn’t be a good fit for every family/swimmer. It’s competitive, and there is focus on the fast kids with extra meets and training trips that are available only to those kids. Families/swimmers need to identify what is most important to them and pick a club with those priorities in mind.

I’ve heard this a lot. What is it about NCAP that maximizes potential better than other clubs? Thank you!