What age to swim teams start?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and a comment about the starting early crowd with swim.

I am currently watching a crop of early swimmers that had immense success now having a LOT of issues. They are no longer experience the huge time drops of younger kids and all of these new swimmers that started at 11 that were not much in the way of competition then are now catching up and surpassing in times at the 13-14 age group.

They have been overtraining for years and are frustrated. I now see why kids burn out.

Its just really sad that every sport is so competitive. There is nothing that the kids can do for fun. Its always about winning, being the fastest etc. Sucks for these kids. My kid wants to swim for fun and I am having a hard time finding a place where he can swim 2x a week without any meets or competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and a comment about the starting early crowd with swim.

I am currently watching a crop of early swimmers that had immense success now having a LOT of issues. They are no longer experience the huge time drops of younger kids and all of these new swimmers that started at 11 that were not much in the way of competition then are now catching up and surpassing in times at the 13-14 age group.

They have been overtraining for years and are frustrated. I now see why kids burn out.

It’s just really sad that every sport is so competitive. There is nothing that the kids can do for fun. It’s always about winning, being the fastest etc. Sucks for these kids. My kid wants to swim for fun and I am having a hard time finding a place where he can swim 2x a week without any meets or competition.

If you are in Maryland there are at least 2 options for that: FINS and JFD. JFD was once a competitive team but is not this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and a comment about the starting early crowd with swim.

I am currently watching a crop of early swimmers that had immense success now having a LOT of issues. They are no longer experience the huge time drops of younger kids and all of these new swimmers that started at 11 that were not much in the way of competition then are now catching up and surpassing in times at the 13-14 age group.

They have been overtraining for years and are frustrated. I now see why kids burn out.

Its just really sad that every sport is so competitive. There is nothing that the kids can do for fun. Its always about winning, being the fastest etc. Sucks for these kids. My kid wants to swim for fun and I am having a hard time finding a place where he can swim 2x a week without any meets or competition.

Clubs that have programs where you 2x a week sometimes say competition/meets is desirable but not mandatory and I've seen that be the case for teenagers, too, where some of the winter programs are more geared towards maintenance because swimmer cares more summer swim and not USA swimming meets, for instance. I'm unaware of any cases where they refuse to allow a kid to participate because the kid decided not to do any meets. I'd ask teams/coaches to get their thoughts.

Recognizing that cultures across and within clubs can have vary widely, speaking from my vantage point having 2 kids who've been doing club swimming since 9-10, I will say that I've seen a wide range of kids in the 9-14 where not everyone is fixated on winning/fastest. Practically speaking, swimming is a tough sport and so if "winning"/being the fastest are your top reasons for swimming, I have to imagine that you're going to encounter serious disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and a comment about the starting early crowd with swim.

I am currently watching a crop of early swimmers that had immense success now having a LOT of issues. They are no longer experience the huge time drops of younger kids and all of these new swimmers that started at 11 that were not much in the way of competition then are now catching up and surpassing in times at the 13-14 age group.

They have been overtraining for years and are frustrated. I now see why kids burn out.

It’s just really sad that every sport is so competitive. There is nothing that the kids can do for fun. It’s always about winning, being the fastest etc. Sucks for these kids. My kid wants to swim for fun and I am having a hard time finding a place where he can swim 2x a week without any meets or competition.

If you are in Maryland there are at least 2 options for that: FINS and JFD. JFD was once a competitive team but is not this year.

I checked FINS, the marlins group (which would be for my kid based on age) requires that they know all 4 strokes pretty well. He only knows 3. Why does he need to know all 4 if he has no intention of competing in a swim meet? Why can’t free style, back and breast be enough to just swim for fun and endurance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and a comment about the starting early crowd with swim.

I am currently watching a crop of early swimmers that had immense success now having a LOT of issues. They are no longer experience the huge time drops of younger kids and all of these new swimmers that started at 11 that were not much in the way of competition then are now catching up and surpassing in times at the 13-14 age group.

They have been overtraining for years and are frustrated. I now see why kids burn out.

It’s just really sad that every sport is so competitive. There is nothing that the kids can do for fun. It’s always about winning, being the fastest etc. Sucks for these kids. My kid wants to swim for fun and I am having a hard time finding a place where he can swim 2x a week without any meets or competition.

If you are in Maryland there are at least 2 options for that: FINS and JFD. JFD was once a competitive team but is not this year.

I checked FINS, the marlins group (which would be for my kid based on age) requires that they know all 4 strokes pretty well. He only knows 3. Why does he need to know all 4 if he has no intention of competing in a swim meet? Why can’t free style, back and breast be enough to just swim for fun and endurance?

I mean you could just take your kid to the pool twice a week for fun and endurance then? You said there were no options, there are in fact options that have been provided to you. You certainly can call FINS and explain that your son age wise fits in Marlins but doesn’t really know fly. It’s not a competitive program, I’m sure they would still be willing to take him. But maybe really all you want to do is complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and a comment about the starting early crowd with swim.

I am currently watching a crop of early swimmers that had immense success now having a LOT of issues. They are no longer experience the huge time drops of younger kids and all of these new swimmers that started at 11 that were not much in the way of competition then are now catching up and surpassing in times at the 13-14 age group.

They have been overtraining for years and are frustrated. I now see why kids burn out.

It’s just really sad that every sport is so competitive. There is nothing that the kids can do for fun. It’s always about winning, being the fastest etc. Sucks for these kids. My kid wants to swim for fun and I am having a hard time finding a place where he can swim 2x a week without any meets or competition.

If you are in Maryland there are at least 2 options for that: FINS and JFD. JFD was once a competitive team but is not this year.

NP here. Both these programs sound like exactly what we are looking for but we are on the East side of DC and these are a hike to get to Rockville or North Bethesda. Do you know of any other programs further east or in VA that might be easier to get to.