Makos or Marlins?
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Anonymous
| OP, given your kid’s times, which are impressive at the low end of the age group, I would not completely discount Machine and NCAP. Any club is going to want a 13 year old who already is pushing AAAA in their best events, so arrange for your swimmer to meet the coach of their prospective group and join a practice at multiple clubs. You’ll also want a sense of where in Fairfax you are looking to move so you can get an idea of how long it will take to get to the practice locations being considered. Traffic here sucks, so that is not an insignificant consideration. |
Anonymous
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Traffic is a big deal. And something to consider. Makos has a great cohort at that age group. And although Marlins is a big club, they do not have a strong group of swimmers nor a cohort for your swimmer. They are not known for fun either. The head coach is way too intense and burns out a lot of kids. It seems to work for the few good swimmers that they have but not for most. With those times though, I can guarantee your kid would be focused on heavily. |
Anonymous
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Definitely visit and try-out several programs and meet the coaches, meet the kids and ask lots of questions. We have a swimmer who needs to “click” with their coach so that fit is VERY important.
NCAP Burke is a great program and we love the late afternoon practice times. They do plan fun events. Just today they had a Holiday Bowling event. Great group of kids, several in the cohort with very fast times. If also looking at summer swim definitely check out the neighborhood pool situation. Some are HOA based, some have geographic boundaries and waitlist and some are completely open to anyone (Old Keene Mill). A neighborhood pool for summer swim is great and the most fun season. There are two main leagues (NVSL and Colonial) |
Anonymous
Does Makos have kids with AAA/AAAA times? My concern is they wouldn’t have a strong cohort pushing them and I don’t see Makos at many of the big meets we go to around here. |
Anonymous
They have a lot of 13-16s with AAA times and they all practice in one location and together. Mako hosts most of its own meets, so they don't attend a lot of outside meets. They also don't do the big club championships (they do Sport Fair) and they attend ISCA and not NCSA, like some of the other clubs. |
Anonymous
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Looking at Marlins (comparing time standards) they have very few good swimmers making AAA times particularly for the size of their club.
There top swimmer is 11 and they swim in a variety of pools, so even the fast swimmers are not training with one another. |
Anonymous
I’m not saying Makos isn’t a good club, but saying they have “a lot” of 13-16s with at least one AAA time is an exaggeration. They have 7 total girls and 2 total boys between the ages of 13-16 that meet that criteria. |
Anonymous
| My child is younger, so I don’t know the circumstances, but several top-level Makos transferred to NCAP-Burke this year (ages 15+), which is something to consider if I were in OP’s child’s position. |
Anonymous
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There definitely are several strong teens at Mako.
OP, there is an NCAP burke poster who loves to boost it here, and I'm sure it is a fine club. yes, 2 people left mako for NCAP, not several. Mako does AM practice as you age, NCAP is afternoon in HS primarily- that could be part of the reason- otherwise you'd have to ask those 2. Mako, Marlins, NCAP, york, all have options you should check out, among others. Another thing, when GMU closes, if it happens, the teams that practice there, get the high performing groups other practice locations- usually st. james- and sometimes outside if weather permits. Let's all stop being crazy swim parents. |
Anonymous
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How many top swimmers are at NCAP Burke? You can't break out the swimmers by location.
Makos are at one location so that is a fair number of good swimmers swimming with one another. |
Anonymous
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We have been with Machine for 6 years now and have been very happy. Communication for the most part has been top notch and have felt all the coaches at the site from the gears coaches to the site director have cared about my swimmer at all times. We are at the Tuckahoe location but know they have a site at Audrey Moore which is pretty close to GMU, St James, and Burke so I recommend checking them out.
Even though we are at a different site, I have noticed over the past few years that they have consistently been one of, if not the, absolute best performing sites in the 13&Over age groups and their swimmers seem to be very supportive of one another (as do the swimmers at our site) so can’t hurt to at least reach out to the site director with any questions you may have. |
Anonymous
I’m not the Burke booster, but we are at another NCAP site in VA and there are 15 girls and 8 boys at our site between 13-16 that have at least 1 AAA time, with other 13 and 15 year olds close to getting to AAA. |
Anonymous
The Silver I group next year will have about 6 swimmers who have achieved at least one AAAA time and multiple AAA times. The 13-14 Makos girls and 13-14 NCAP-Burke girls are similar, but Makos has more AAA swimmers simply because it has more swimmers (since it is the only Makos site). The NCAP-Burke Silver 1 group typically only has 10-14 swimmers (3-4 per lane). We swim summer league with and against NCAP-Burke and Makos swimmers, and this age group (and the 11-12 below) have elite swimmers at both clubs. They all seem nice, as do their parents. |
Anonymous
*Silver I is the top performing 13-14 group at NCAP-Burke. |
Anonymous
We have been at meets with Burke and I do not think there are that many swimmers who have achieved a AAAA time and will be in Silver 1 (which is 13-14 year olds) next season. They have a couple girls and 3-4 boys who will be 15 next year and are excellent (although not all have AAAA times). They do not currently have any 12 year old girls or boys with AAAA times. I know you are pumping up the Burke site but if you’re going to throw out stats at least make sure they are accurate. |