Club or stroke & turn next for 8 yo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d do Swim With Beth’s upper lanes. It will give more stroke instruction than club will. Or do something like the 1x per week Mako Blue (those coaches are great!) and SWB.

The catch would be postponing club membership for another year. If OP's child can get into a club as an 8yo/mini, it's so much easier to break in at that level than it is as a 9 or a 10, no matter how much stroke improvement you may think you are building up in the interim. Tough choices!

A 9 year old with experience in summer and a strong stroke and turn foundation will have no problem transitioning to a club team.

Very much depends which club you’re referring to.

Exactly. It's hard to break into a tryout situation with limited spaces as a 9yo if most of the spots are already taken by kids aging up from 8U.

Back when my kids were trying out that was never a problem. I haven’t heard of it being a widespread problem for newcomers at NoVa clubs either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d do Swim With Beth’s upper lanes. It will give more stroke instruction than club will. Or do something like the 1x per week Mako Blue (those coaches are great!) and SWB.

The catch would be postponing club membership for another year. If OP's child can get into a club as an 8yo/mini, it's so much easier to break in at that level than it is as a 9 or a 10, no matter how much stroke improvement you may think you are building up in the interim. Tough choices!

A 9 year old with experience in summer and a strong stroke and turn foundation will have no problem transitioning to a club team.

Very much depends which club you’re referring to.

Exactly. It's hard to break into a tryout situation with limited spaces as a 9yo if most of the spots are already taken by kids aging up from 8U.

Back when my kids were trying out that was never a problem. I haven’t heard of it being a widespread problem for newcomers at NoVa clubs either.

Where it’s a problem is at clubs like RMSC, AAC, and DC Wave that are county/city run and cheaper than the other clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP have you heard anything about York Reston? I am curious about the 8 and under group there, but only know people whose kids do Oak Marr. It seems like York’s philosophy is to incorporate fun, but not sure how that works in practice? I have a kid who loves the social aspect of swim and wants to make A meets/divisionals in summer swim. But they found our summer team’s maintenance program boring last year. It wasn’t very well run and didn’t have any of the “fun” events or any sort of thought toward making practice interesting/fun for the kids. It’s hard to know whether my kid just wouldn’t enjoy club swim or if he would enjoy a team that puts a little more thought into mixing things up a bit and holds fun events outside of the pool.

Unfortunately I don't currently know anyone in York Reston but there's a couple other 8 yos we know from our summer program looking at it too. It is very convenient for us.

[Anonymous]

This is OP for those who may read this thread in the future York requires legal is all 4 strokes for the club and their swim school isn't convenient for us so we will be looking into swim with beth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP for those who may read this thread in the future York requires legal is all 4 strokes for the club and their swim school isn't convenient for us so we will be looking into swim with beth.

OP if York Reston is convenient for you, I think there are other clubs nearby that take 8 and unders who are legal in 2 or 3 strokes. Off the top of my head: Water Wolves at the Reston YMCA, Marlins or Centreville Swim Club at Cub Run, mini Makos at GMU. Maybe Herndon Commanders(?) at the community center too.

[Anonymous]

Tom Dolan Swim School used to be excellent for stroke development. I'm not sure how it is after they were bought out by Big Blue though.