Year-round swim?

[Anonymous]

Op here, thank you for all your recommendations. I am researching the clubs near by and will book tryouts next month. Any reviews on YMCA Reston water wolves?

[Anonymous]

Ive heard great things about the Fairfax Foxes if they are close to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ive heard great things about the Fairfax Foxes if they are close to you.

A bit outside my radius, but probably doable if once a week. I'll check them out. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do summer swim until they LOVE it. Summer swim is the most fun for the kids. Once they asking for more, then consider doing USA Swimming with a club year round. This is a pretty big jump in demands and isn't as fun (ie where it becomes more serious). Do not push them to year round until they want it otherwise you will kill their love of the sport.

That being said, here is the USA swimming site to find clubs near you. It will show you every pool around you where clubs practice and which clubs practice there.

https://www.usaswimming.org/home/find-a-team

But at what age is it basically too late to jump into year round to be competitive? That’s another factor. My summer swimmer is 9 and swimmers around us seem to be implying it’s too late already! I don’t really care as I don’t see mine going to swim in college or anything, but it’s a great healthy activity for now.

Bad advice and its hard to get on some teams the older kids are. At 9, it gets much harder as most start at 5-6-7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do summer swim until they LOVE it. Summer swim is the most fun for the kids. Once they asking for more, then consider doing USA Swimming with a club year round. This is a pretty big jump in demands and isn't as fun (ie where it becomes more serious). Do not push them to year round until they want it otherwise you will kill their love of the sport.

That being said, here is the USA swimming site to find clubs near you. It will show you every pool around you where clubs practice and which clubs practice there.

https://www.usaswimming.org/home/find-a-team

But at what age is it basically too late to jump into year round to be competitive? That’s another factor. My summer swimmer is 9 and swimmers around us seem to be implying it’s too late already! I don’t really care as I don’t see mine going to swim in college or anything, but it’s a great healthy activity for now.

Bad advice and its hard to get on some teams the older kids are. At 9, it gets much harder as most start at 5-6-7.

Our experience has been that it’s hard to get onto some of the most competitive teams starting at 9 (eg RMSC in Maryland) but there are plenty of other good programs that will take your kid. We had a strong preference for RMSC due to cost, convenience, and friends on the team and one kid didn’t make it until 12 but it wasn’t hard to find other year round programs for her. We know plenty of kids from our summer team that started year round in middle or even high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thank you for all your recommendations. I am researching the clubs near by and will book tryouts next month. Any reviews on YMCA Reston water wolves?

Not a bad option for a kid just starting out in club swim if the location and practice schedule work for you. It is on the smaller side. Some kids to start out there when they’re younger, but move to one of the big clubs if they want to be more serious as they get older. The bigger clubs will have a larger group of very serious swimmers, which provides the training environment that is needed for swimmers who want to reach elite levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thank you for all your recommendations. I am researching the clubs near by and will book tryouts next month. Any reviews on YMCA Reston water wolves?

Not a bad option for a kid just starting out in club swim if the location and practice schedule work for you. It is on the smaller side. Some kids to start out there when they’re younger, but move to one of the big clubs if they want to be more serious as they get older. The bigger clubs will have a larger group of very serious swimmers, which provides the training environment that is needed for swimmers who want to reach elite levels.

Thank you so much, this may be a good option for year 1 on a swim team. Pardon my ignorance, but which are the other bigger/more serious swim clubd (for future)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thank you for all your recommendations. I am researching the clubs near by and will book tryouts next month. Any reviews on YMCA Reston water wolves?

Not a bad option for a kid just starting out in club swim if the location and practice schedule work for you. It is on the smaller side. Some kids to start out there when they’re younger, but move to one of the big clubs if they want to be more serious as they get older. The bigger clubs will have a larger group of very serious swimmers, which provides the training environment that is needed for swimmers who want to reach elite levels.

Thank you so much, this may be a good option for year 1 on a swim team. Pardon my ignorance, but which are the other bigger/more serious swim clubd (for future)?

There are a few rankings of top clubs that you can reference for the highest performing in Potomac Valley Swimming (PVS).

USA Swimming Club Excellence database: https://data.usaswimming.org/datahub/clubexcellence
*Season: 2026 or earlier; LSC drop-down menu: PV

USA Swimming Virtual Club Championship: https://data.usaswimming.org/datahub/virtualclubchampionship
*LSC drop down menu: PV; Season: The most recent is 'short course yards 2025-2026

ASCA Top Age Group Teams: https://swimswam.com/asca-names-2026-top-50-age-group-teams-in-four-divisions/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thank you for all your recommendations. I am researching the clubs near by and will book tryouts next month. Any reviews on YMCA Reston water wolves?

Not a bad option for a kid just starting out in club swim if the location and practice schedule work for you. It is on the smaller side. Some kids to start out there when they’re younger, but move to one of the big clubs if they want to be more serious as they get older. The bigger clubs will have a larger group of very serious swimmers, which provides the training environment that is needed for swimmers who want to reach elite levels.

Thank you so much, this may be a good option for year 1 on a swim team. Pardon my ignorance, but which are the other bigger/more serious swim clubd (for future)?

There are a few rankings of top clubs that you can reference for the highest performing in Potomac Valley Swimming (PVS).

USA Swimming Club Excellence database: https://data.usaswimming.org/datahub/clubexcellence
*Season: 2026 or earlier; LSC drop-down menu: PV

USA Swimming Virtual Club Championship: https://data.usaswimming.org/datahub/virtualclubchampionship
*LSC drop down menu: PV; Season: The most recent is 'short course yards 2025-2026

ASCA Top Age Group Teams: https://swimswam.com/asca-names-2026-top-50-age-group-teams-in-four-divisions/

Very helpful! Thank you!