MCSL rule changes for summer 2026

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Parents who don’t want club swimmers in summer leagues, start new league for teams that don’t allow club swimmers, problem solved

No one is saying that. But attendance at a certain number of practices in order to be able to participate in a meet or game is not uncommon in sports. Club swimming parents just feel their kids should be exempted from anything like this, which I find interesting.

Honestly, having the club kids at practice takes up lane space from the kids that only practice with the summer team. This is why our team doesn’t care if the club kids don’t come to summer practice. The practices are crowded enough as it is, you don’t need to make it worse when the club kids are already practicing elsewhere.

And do the kids even know this issue exists? The club swimmers are mainly swimming A meets anyway, so the kids that only swim B meets are unlikely to overlap with those swimmers.

I think that is the rub. They don't see any problems with not going to the crowded practices. "It's too crowded anyway you should appreciate us not bringing our kids", which by the way we do appreciate. But then, they crowd out the recreational swimmers from the A meets by taking lanes and not leaving any, which we don't appreciate.

It would be one thing if there were no B meets and the summer only/frequent practice attendees were not able to compete because of the club kids taking all the A meet slots, but everyone is getting a chance to compete. Whether you swim in an A meet or B meet is dependent on how fast you are, and for the club swimmers there is no correlation between attending summer practices and how fast they swim at meets. What you really want is club kids to be banned from summer swim so that the summer only kids have the chance to swim in A meets. I really would be fine if my kid wasn’t allowed to do summer league, it won’t take up my Saturday mornings anymore and no more volunteering, but you’re going to be hard pressed to have enough people to work automation, serve as the meet referee, and serve as S/T judges because most of us are the parents of club swimmers.

It's just that B-meets are so limited. Last year like 2 out of five were canceled by rain. This year there were two canceled by rain. We ended up having an intrasquad make up.

Yes, the club kids should be somewhere else nine times out of ten. You just don't understand how underwhelming it is to see kids swim year-round with professional coaches, compete (and lose often times) to summer kids. Oh, we've got a ribbon. It's one thing if it's like a rec basketball team and everyone is in the same class and they are all friends, but in our summer league team that isn't the case. The A-team kids clearly don't want to associate with the "B-team" kids(except the ones that are club swimmers, but don't have the times.).

So the weather is the fault of club swimmers? As for not wanting to associate with the "B-team" kids, this makes no sense. Rather, it sounds like there is a bit of resentment of the parents of club swimmers don't want to associate with the parents of non-club swimmers.

What this really comes down to is that parents of summer-only swimmers want their kids swimming in A meets because they go to summer practices. If that's what they want, then go ahead and "ban" club swimmers if they don't attend X number of practices. MCSL will collapse, teams will fold, and pools will all close for lack of revenue.

Dramatic much? Our coaches already encourage ALL summer swimmers to attend practices. Is everyone attending every day? Of course not. But I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone on our team who is literally only showing up on Saturday mornings an no other times. You sound entitled.

DP, this varies by team. Our coach encourages the club swimmers to just go to club practice so that they can focus on the summer only kids during summer practice. The club kids all go to the social events, pep rallies, help with junior coaching the little ones, etc. but they are only rarely at summer practice.

DP. The PP didn't address the underlying point. Namely, it's the summer swim parents who want their kids to swim in A meets on Saturdays because they show up to summer swim practices. But just showing up isn't how the world works. Attendance is irrelevant to performance

Yes, your kid can swim all year round and still lose to summer league swimmer, my daughter beat many club swimmers this summer. The parents still aren't fun to be around.

The parents who are complaining are those whose kids don't get to swim in A meets because there are club swimmers on the team who are faster. Not everyone in club swim is fast, but many are because they swim all year round (4+ times a week). If your kid doesn't want to do that, and only wants to show up for summer swim practices, they'll swim B meets for the most part. Complaining about this as somehow being unfair is a waste of time.

The parents of club swimmers are generally very nice, but they take swimming very seriously. As such, they may prefer to spend time with other parents who feel the same (I.e., compare notes, shared experiences, etc). That said, there are some insufferable club swim parents, but they're rare and their kids often drop swimming as they get older.

Just saying there are plenty of slow swimmers that don't make A-meets in the clubs. What about them, can we ding on them? I don't know why they sign up for summer league at all.

That last sentence clarifies that you’re actually the one that’s there for the ribbons. Club swimmers - of all abilities - do summer swim because it’s fun and because it’s an opportunity to compete as a team vs. as an individual.
Are you the RMSC try-out starting block scandal parent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess you could just drop the code of conduct rule 2. Is that what the club swimmers want?

2. I will attend every practice and meet that I can and will notify my coach if I cannot.

Hey Coach, I won't be at practice, ever, because I have club practice.

Coach - cool, thanks, see you Saturday!

This "rule" is vague, and this is exactly how it works.

Then they conveniently show up for the all-star week practices when the pool is nearly empty.

The fastest HS club swimmers aren’t even around that week.

+1, iykyk

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents who don’t want club swimmers in summer leagues, start new league for teams that don’t allow club swimmers, problem solved

No one is saying that. But attendance at a certain number of practices in order to be able to participate in a meet or game is not uncommon in sports. Club swimming parents just feel their kids should be exempted from anything like this, which I find interesting.

Honestly, having the club kids at practice takes up lane space from the kids that only practice with the summer team. This is why our team doesn’t care if the club kids don’t come to summer practice. The practices are crowded enough as it is, you don’t need to make it worse when the club kids are already practicing elsewhere.

And do the kids even know this issue exists? The club swimmers are mainly swimming A meets anyway, so the kids that only swim B meets are unlikely to overlap with those swimmers.

I think that is the rub. They don't see any problems with not going to the crowded practices. "It's too crowded anyway you should appreciate us not bringing our kids", which by the way we do appreciate. But then, they crowd out the recreational swimmers from the A meets by taking lanes and not leaving any, which we don't appreciate.

It would be one thing if there were no B meets and the summer only/frequent practice attendees were not able to compete because of the club kids taking all the A meet slots, but everyone is getting a chance to compete. Whether you swim in an A meet or B meet is dependent on how fast you are, and for the club swimmers there is no correlation between attending summer practices and how fast they swim at meets. What you really want is club kids to be banned from summer swim so that the summer only kids have the chance to swim in A meets. I really would be fine if my kid wasn’t allowed to do summer league, it won’t take up my Saturday mornings anymore and no more volunteering, but you’re going to be hard pressed to have enough people to work automation, serve as the meet referee, and serve as S/T judges because most of us are the parents of club swimmers.

It's just that B-meets are so limited. Last year like 2 out of five were canceled by rain. This year there were two canceled by rain. We ended up having an intrasquad make up.

Yes, the club kids should be somewhere else nine times out of ten. You just don't understand how underwhelming it is to see kids swim year-round with professional coaches, compete (and lose often times) to summer kids. Oh, we've got a ribbon. It's one thing if it's like a rec basketball team and everyone is in the same class and they are all friends, but in our summer league team that isn't the case. The A-team kids clearly don't want to associate with the "B-team" kids(except the ones that are club swimmers, but don't have the times.).

So the weather is the fault of club swimmers? As for not wanting to associate with the "B-team" kids, this makes no sense. Rather, it sounds like there is a bit of resentment of the parents of club swimmers don't want to associate with the parents of non-club swimmers.

What this really comes down to is that parents of summer-only swimmers want their kids swimming in A meets because they go to summer practices. If that's what they want, then go ahead and "ban" club swimmers if they don't attend X number of practices. MCSL will collapse, teams will fold, and pools will all close for lack of revenue.

Dramatic much? Our coaches already encourage ALL summer swimmers to attend practices. Is everyone attending every day? Of course not. But I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone on our team who is literally only showing up on Saturday mornings an no other times. You sound entitled.

DP, this varies by team. Our coach encourages the club swimmers to just go to club practice so that they can focus on the summer only kids during summer practice. The club kids all go to the social events, pep rallies, help with junior coaching the little ones, etc. but they are only rarely at summer practice.

DP. The PP didn't address the underlying point. Namely, it's the summer swim parents who want their kids to swim in A meets on Saturdays because they show up to summer swim practices. But just showing up isn't how the world works. Attendance is irrelevant to performance

Yes, your kid can swim all year round and still lose to summer league swimmer, my daughter beat many club swimmers this summer. The parents still aren't fun to be around.

The parents who are complaining are those whose kids don't get to swim in A meets because there are club swimmers on the team who are faster. Not everyone in club swim is fast, but many are because they swim all year round (4+ times a week). If your kid doesn't want to do that, and only wants to show up for summer swim practices, they'll swim B meets for the most part. Complaining about this as somehow being unfair is a waste of time.

The parents of club swimmers are generally very nice, but they take swimming very seriously. As such, they may prefer to spend time with other parents who feel the same (I.e., compare notes, shared experiences, etc). That said, there are some insufferable club swim parents, but they're rare and their kids often drop swimming as they get older.

I agree. People with similar experiences tend to hang out with each other. It’s a natural phenomenon and not exclusive to swimming.

Most parents of faster club swimmers are pretty chill when it comes to summer swim as USA swim meets are more important. There is something unique about summer swim that is very different culturally from club swim. Swimmers love the atmosphere and ability to join their friends that may do other activities and sports during the remainder of the year. It would upset many club swimmers if they were excluded from summer swim.

Nobody is saying club swimmers should be excluded from summer swim. But IF there were a practice participation requirement (that was actually enforced) in order to swim meets and your priority is club swim then you're making the choice to exclude yourselves. Sometimes you can't do everything and have to make a choice. This isn't unique to swimming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents who don’t want club swimmers in summer leagues, start new league for teams that don’t allow club swimmers, problem solved

No one is saying that. But attendance at a certain number of practices in order to be able to participate in a meet or game is not uncommon in sports. Club swimming parents just feel their kids should be exempted from anything like this, which I find interesting.

Honestly, having the club kids at practice takes up lane space from the kids that only practice with the summer team. This is why our team doesn’t care if the club kids don’t come to summer practice. The practices are crowded enough as it is, you don’t need to make it worse when the club kids are already practicing elsewhere.

And do the kids even know this issue exists? The club swimmers are mainly swimming A meets anyway, so the kids that only swim B meets are unlikely to overlap with those swimmers.

I think that is the rub. They don't see any problems with not going to the crowded practices. "It's too crowded anyway you should appreciate us not bringing our kids", which by the way we do appreciate. But then, they crowd out the recreational swimmers from the A meets by taking lanes and not leaving any, which we don't appreciate.

It would be one thing if there were no B meets and the summer only/frequent practice attendees were not able to compete because of the club kids taking all the A meet slots, but everyone is getting a chance to compete. Whether you swim in an A meet or B meet is dependent on how fast you are, and for the club swimmers there is no correlation between attending summer practices and how fast they swim at meets. What you really want is club kids to be banned from summer swim so that the summer only kids have the chance to swim in A meets. I really would be fine if my kid wasn’t allowed to do summer league, it won’t take up my Saturday mornings anymore and no more volunteering, but you’re going to be hard pressed to have enough people to work automation, serve as the meet referee, and serve as S/T judges because most of us are the parents of club swimmers.

It's just that B-meets are so limited. Last year like 2 out of five were canceled by rain. This year there were two canceled by rain. We ended up having an intrasquad make up.

Yes, the club kids should be somewhere else nine times out of ten. You just don't understand how underwhelming it is to see kids swim year-round with professional coaches, compete (and lose often times) to summer kids. Oh, we've got a ribbon. It's one thing if it's like a rec basketball team and everyone is in the same class and they are all friends, but in our summer league team that isn't the case. The A-team kids clearly don't want to associate with the "B-team" kids(except the ones that are club swimmers, but don't have the times.).

So the weather is the fault of club swimmers? As for not wanting to associate with the "B-team" kids, this makes no sense. Rather, it sounds like there is a bit of resentment of the parents of club swimmers don't want to associate with the parents of non-club swimmers.

What this really comes down to is that parents of summer-only swimmers want their kids swimming in A meets because they go to summer practices. If that's what they want, then go ahead and "ban" club swimmers if they don't attend X number of practices. MCSL will collapse, teams will fold, and pools will all close for lack of revenue.

Dramatic much? Our coaches already encourage ALL summer swimmers to attend practices. Is everyone attending every day? Of course not. But I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone on our team who is literally only showing up on Saturday mornings an no other times. You sound entitled.

DP, this varies by team. Our coach encourages the club swimmers to just go to club practice so that they can focus on the summer only kids during summer practice. The club kids all go to the social events, pep rallies, help with junior coaching the little ones, etc. but they are only rarely at summer practice.

DP. The PP didn't address the underlying point. Namely, it's the summer swim parents who want their kids to swim in A meets on Saturdays because they show up to summer swim practices. But just showing up isn't how the world works. Attendance is irrelevant to performance

Yes, your kid can swim all year round and still lose to summer league swimmer, my daughter beat many club swimmers this summer. The parents still aren't fun to be around.

The parents who are complaining are those whose kids don't get to swim in A meets because there are club swimmers on the team who are faster. Not everyone in club swim is fast, but many are because they swim all year round (4+ times a week). If your kid doesn't want to do that, and only wants to show up for summer swim practices, they'll swim B meets for the most part. Complaining about this as somehow being unfair is a waste of time.

The parents of club swimmers are generally very nice, but they take swimming very seriously. As such, they may prefer to spend time with other parents who feel the same (I.e., compare notes, shared experiences, etc). That said, there are some insufferable club swim parents, but they're rare and their kids often drop swimming as they get older.

I agree. People with similar experiences tend to hang out with each other. It’s a natural phenomenon and not exclusive to swimming.

Most parents of faster club swimmers are pretty chill when it comes to summer swim as USA swim meets are more important. There is something unique about summer swim that is very different culturally from club swim. Swimmers love the atmosphere and ability to join their friends that may do other activities and sports during the remainder of the year. It would upset many club swimmers if they were excluded from summer swim.

Nobody is saying club swimmers should be excluded from summer swim. But IF there were a practice participation requirement (that was actually enforced) in order to swim meets and your priority is club swim then you're making the choice to exclude yourselves. Sometimes you can't do everything and have to make a choice. This isn't unique to swimming.

Class attendance isn't required for many universities, yet they're glad to take the students' money, so non-attendance isn't unique to swimming either. MCSL has chosen not to enforce any mandatory practice attendance requirement, leaving it up to the individual teams - where it should be. Feel free to enforce it for your team, but you might not like the result....

[Anonymous]

You’d think parents would be happy to have lanes less crowded by club swimmers not attending. But again, the chief complaint really isn’t really about practice attendance, it’s that poor Larla and Larlo aren’t able to swim A meets because there are faster swimmers on the team. Feel free to sign your swimmers up for winter swim!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’d think parents would be happy to have lanes less crowded by club swimmers not attending. But again, the chief complaint really isn’t really about practice attendance, it’s that poor Larla and Larlo aren’t able to swim A meets because there are faster swimmers on the team. Feel free to sign your swimmers up for winter swim!

But those parents would:

1. Have to pay more $$$$
2. Have to drive them to swim practice at 4:30 am during the week and early on Saturdays
3. Have to drive them to swim meets all around the DMV for short/long course (or travel to ISCA/NCSA)
4. Have to time their kids longer swims
5. Have to volunteer for the club team
6. Have to shell out $$$ for swim equipment, parka, t-shirts/sweatshirts

Club swimmers aren't inherently better kids. They just put in the work year round. That's why they swim the A meets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think parents would be happy to have lanes less crowded by club swimmers not attending. But again, the chief complaint really isn’t really about practice attendance, it’s that poor Larla and Larlo aren’t able to swim A meets because there are faster swimmers on the team. Feel free to sign your swimmers up for winter swim!

But those parents would:

1. Have to pay more $$$$
2. Have to drive them to swim practice at 4:30 am during the week and early on Saturdays
3. Have to drive them to swim meets all around the DMV for short/long course (or travel to ISCA/NCSA)
4. Have to time their kids longer swims
5. Have to volunteer for the club team
6. Have to shell out $$$ for swim equipment, parka, t-shirts/sweatshirts

Club swimmers aren't inherently better kids. They just put in the work year round. That's why they swim the A meets.

Nah- a few are naturally gifted (and have the right genetics) but most
work their tails off 50 weeks a year, and upwards of 20-25 hours/week. If club swimmers were banned from summer swim (or required to attend practices which isn’t feasible when every summer team practice conflicts with club practices) then parents of summer only swimmers will have to step up and volunteer more.

I have a feeling that most summer teams couldn’t exist without the parents of their club swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think parents would be happy to have lanes less crowded by club swimmers not attending. But again, the chief complaint really isn’t really about practice attendance, it’s that poor Larla and Larlo aren’t able to swim A meets because there are faster swimmers on the team. Feel free to sign your swimmers up for winter swim!

But those parents would:

1. Have to pay more $$$$
2. Have to drive them to swim practice at 4:30 am during the week and early on Saturdays
3. Have to drive them to swim meets all around the DMV for short/long course (or travel to ISCA/NCSA)
4. Have to time their kids longer swims
5. Have to volunteer for the club team
6. Have to shell out $$$ for swim equipment, parka, t-shirts/sweatshirts

Club swimmers aren't inherently better kids. They just put in the work year round. That's why they swim the A meets.

Nah- a few are naturally gifted (and have the right genetics) but most
work their tails off 50 weeks a year, and upwards of 20-25 hours/week. If club swimmers were banned from summer swim (or required to attend practices which isn’t feasible when every summer team practice conflicts with club practices) then parents of summer only swimmers will have to step up and volunteer more.

I have a feeling that most summer teams couldn’t exist without the parents of their club swimmers.

OR clubs and summer pools would have to adjust to make participation more feasible. IME swim tends to be inherently inflexible because of the attitude that's-the-way-it's-always-been. And no one is talking about "banning" anyone except you.

I mean it's fine if your high level competitve swimmer wants to swim some summer rec meets to get more ribbons, you do you. But this is much less common in other sports so I can see why some parents are befuddled by it. Our summer pool does not have a lot of wealthy families so a lot of the year-round swimmers do RMSC and YMCA so it's a different situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think parents would be happy to have lanes less crowded by club swimmers not attending. But again, the chief complaint really isn’t really about practice attendance, it’s that poor Larla and Larlo aren’t able to swim A meets because there are faster swimmers on the team. Feel free to sign your swimmers up for winter swim!

But those parents would:

1. Have to pay more $$$$
2. Have to drive them to swim practice at 4:30 am during the week and early on Saturdays
3. Have to drive them to swim meets all around the DMV for short/long course (or travel to ISCA/NCSA)
4. Have to time their kids longer swims
5. Have to volunteer for the club team
6. Have to shell out $$$ for swim equipment, parka, t-shirts/sweatshirts

Club swimmers aren't inherently better kids. They just put in the work year round. That's why they swim the A meets.

Nah- a few are naturally gifted (and have the right genetics) but most
work their tails off 50 weeks a year, and upwards of 20-25 hours/week. If club swimmers were banned from summer swim (or required to attend practices which isn’t feasible when every summer team practice conflicts with club practices) then parents of summer only swimmers will have to step up and volunteer more.

I have a feeling that most summer teams couldn’t exist without the parents of their club swimmers.

OR clubs and summer pools would have to adjust to make participation more feasible. IME swim tends to be inherently inflexible because of the attitude that's-the-way-it's-always-been. And no one is talking about "banning" anyone except you.

I mean it's fine if your high level competitve swimmer wants to swim some summer rec meets to get more ribbons, you do you. But this is much less common in other sports so I can see why some parents are befuddled by it. Our summer pool does not have a lot of wealthy families so a lot of the year-round swimmers do RMSC and YMCA so it's a different situation.

Ribbons? 😂 You think they swim summer league for ribbons?

The timing of practices, both club and summer, are based on availability and clearing out before member/public hours. That results in overlapping practice schedules. Just ask the diving off the blocks tryout parent from RSFC that is fiesty about swim teams using public pools.

[Anonymous]

Need the 32 yr old swimmer from the other thread to start lobbying for MCSL inclusion to bring this full circle of stupidity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think parents would be happy to have lanes less crowded by club swimmers not attending. But again, the chief complaint really isn’t really about practice attendance, it’s that poor Larla and Larlo aren’t able to swim A meets because there are faster swimmers on the team. Feel free to sign your swimmers up for winter swim!

But those parents would:

1. Have to pay more $$$$
2. Have to drive them to swim practice at 4:30 am during the week and early on Saturdays
3. Have to drive them to swim meets all around the DMV for short/long course (or travel to ISCA/NCSA)
4. Have to time their kids longer swims
5. Have to volunteer for the club team
6. Have to shell out $$$ for swim equipment, parka, t-shirts/sweatshirts

Club swimmers aren't inherently better kids. They just put in the work year round. That's why they swim the A meets.

Nah- a few are naturally gifted (and have the right genetics) but most
work their tails off 50 weeks a year, and upwards of 20-25 hours/week. If club swimmers were banned from summer swim (or required to attend practices which isn’t feasible when every summer team practice conflicts with club practices) then parents of summer only swimmers will have to step up and volunteer more.

I have a feeling that most summer teams couldn’t exist without the parents of their club swimmers.

I just don't think that it is really the right outlet for it. Personally, I think the summer league teams start to shrink because people don't get much value out of it. Maybe two or three meets in the summer, never going to make an A meet. OK I'm done. Maybe I'll just get a membership at pool somewhere where it isn't so crowded for the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think parents would be happy to have lanes less crowded by club swimmers not attending. But again, the chief complaint really isn’t really about practice attendance, it’s that poor Larla and Larlo aren’t able to swim A meets because there are faster swimmers on the team. Feel free to sign your swimmers up for winter swim!

But those parents would:

1. Have to pay more $$$$
2. Have to drive them to swim practice at 4:30 am during the week and early on Saturdays
3. Have to drive them to swim meets all around the DMV for short/long course (or travel to ISCA/NCSA)
4. Have to time their kids longer swims
5. Have to volunteer for the club team
6. Have to shell out $$$ for swim equipment, parka, t-shirts/sweatshirts

Club swimmers aren't inherently better kids. They just put in the work year round. That's why they swim the A meets.

Nah- a few are naturally gifted (and have the right genetics) but most
work their tails off 50 weeks a year, and upwards of 20-25 hours/week. If club swimmers were banned from summer swim (or required to attend practices which isn’t feasible when every summer team practice conflicts with club practices) then parents of summer only swimmers will have to step up and volunteer more.

I have a feeling that most summer teams couldn’t exist without the parents of their club swimmers.

I just don't think that it is really the right outlet for it. Personally, I think the summer league teams start to shrink because people don't get much value out of it. Maybe two or three meets in the summer, never going to make an A meet. OK I'm done. Maybe I'll just get a membership at pool somewhere where it isn't so crowded for the summer.

No, more likely that swimming isn't the kid's primary sport because the kid doesn't want to swim year round - and that's okay. When kids get to the 13-14 level, they have either chosen swim as their primary sport or they chose some other sport. That other sport may have summer practices (or even a year round club) that conflicts with swim. Even if there isn't a conflict, kids who are serious about another sport are often too tired to swim. There are some who stick around at 13-14 and 15-18, but there aren't that many (at least there weren't on our team that had 150+ summer swimmers). Also, kids at the 15-18 level have summer jobs that conflict with summer swim.

One of my kids dropped summer swim in favor of another sport, not because s/he wasn't able to swim A meets (and s/he did swim some A meets).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’d think parents would be happy to have lanes less crowded by club swimmers not attending. But again, the chief complaint really isn’t really about practice attendance, it’s that poor Larla and Larlo aren’t able to swim A meets because there are faster swimmers on the team. Feel free to sign your swimmers up for winter swim!

But those parents would:

1. Have to pay more $$$$
2. Have to drive them to swim practice at 4:30 am during the week and early on Saturdays
3. Have to drive them to swim meets all around the DMV for short/long course (or travel to ISCA/NCSA)
4. Have to time their kids longer swims
5. Have to volunteer for the club team
6. Have to shell out $$$ for swim equipment, parka, t-shirts/sweatshirts

Club swimmers aren't inherently better kids. They just put in the work year round. That's why they swim the A meets.

Nah- a few are naturally gifted (and have the right genetics) but most
work their tails off 50 weeks a year, and upwards of 20-25 hours/week. If club swimmers were banned from summer swim (or required to attend practices which isn’t feasible when every summer team practice conflicts with club practices) then parents of summer only swimmers will have to step up and volunteer more.

I have a feeling that most summer teams couldn’t exist without the parents of their club swimmers.

I just don't think that it is really the right outlet for it. Personally, I think the summer league teams start to shrink because people don't get much value out of it. Maybe two or three meets in the summer, never going to make an A meet. OK I'm done. Maybe I'll just get a membership at pool somewhere where it isn't so crowded for the summer.

No, more likely that swimming isn't the kid's primary sport because the kid doesn't want to swim year round - and that's okay. When kids get to the 13-14 level, they have either chosen swim as their primary sport or they chose some other sport. That other sport may have summer practices (or even a year round club) that conflicts with swim. Even if there isn't a conflict, kids who are serious about another sport are often too tired to swim. There are some who stick around at 13-14 and 15-18, but there aren't that many (at least there weren't on our team that had 150+ summer swimmers). Also, kids at the 15-18 level have summer jobs that conflict with summer swim.

One of my kids dropped summer swim in favor of another sport, not because s/he wasn't able to swim A meets (and s/he did swim some A meets).

Yeah, we've already got our summer league exit planned for around 13-14. That's when they'll have to buy tickets to watch her perform. It is a good cross training sport, if you actually get to do it. Might have to take up water running instead.