Summer swim brings out the crazy

[Anonymous]

My favorite summer swim story is when my 7 year old daughter — who attended every single practice and swam every single B meet — got excited about getting a trophy at the end of summer banquet. And then they only gave trophies to A meet swimmers.

She said to me that night, “I guess I wasn’t good enough for a trophy.” 😢

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite summer swim story is when my 7 year old daughter — who attended every single practice and swam every single B meet — got excited about getting a trophy at the end of summer banquet. And then they only gave trophies to A meet swimmers.

She said to me that night, “I guess I wasn’t good enough for a trophy.” 😢

I’m so so sorry that happened. She ABSOLUTELY should have gotten a trophy. We are at OKM and our swimmers of the week and trophy winners are almost exclusively not club swimmers, with the exception of awards that are related to points or All Stars.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The whole system is offensive. Mine were A meet kids and year round swimmers. But if they are all on the same team, they should all be able to swim at the same meet. Otherwise, why pay 200-300$ (or more ?) over your membership to have your kid attend packed, chaotic practices? Then get sent to the "B Meet" if your team is even "lucky" enough to have any.

So don't join then. You know how it works and you understand the terms of participation and you prefer not to live with them, which is understandable - no one thing suits everyone. But some of us love summer swim and are willing to contribute to it. Live and let live.

fine, some kids will keep showing up to the A meets and the awards banquet and everyone else can "practice" 20 to a lane for an hour in freezing water then maybe go to a B meet. Its just bizarre. Teammates should be teammates.

Yeah I agree with this and then the coaches and team reps are insanely peppy and act like everyone is having this amazing experience. Our team at least is kind of cult-ish. But meanwhile so many kids feel totally disconnected and end up quitting. It's a weird environment and what other sport is like this for something that is supposed to be "fun"? Genuinely curious if people have examples. Any other sport, including a rec league, you are on a team and then you're all doing all the things together. With competitive sports, they made and are part of the team and get some limited playing time. This is like you got cut for varsity but stay on the team aren't you having a great time and show up to practice every day and go over there with the other kids who aren't very good and then we'll have separate games for you! But you are included!! We value you! I mean sorry kids see through this BS eventually.

Culture can be off for a lot of reasons. My club swimmer would normally come to practice but they are fast, NCSA/Sectionals fast, and so the non- year round kids will point blank yell that they can’t be in their lane, they need to go to a different lane. So yeah, they now only go to practice when other year rounders will be there, but they do make all the A meets and crush it. From the outside you would think they are the problem as the fast year round kid, but they actually aren’t. They would attend practice more but the summer swim only kids are a-holes to them. I’d love for them to quit summer swim but they won’t.

We're having the exact opposite experience on our swim team. My kids excel at a different sport and joined swim team this year for, as a PP put it, exercise/cross-training and fun, social events. At the very first practice, a year-round fast club swimmer told my kid to get out of the lane the coach assigned. When does the fun part start?

Can you share age-group?

If it's 12U (and especially 10U), i could see kids at those age ranges doing a lot of trash talk. I'm not saying it's right/wrong. But by 13 and over, kids know who is fast/isn't fast, and other than some good ribbing, there's no point to putting kids down.

By 13 and over, the fast kids will just totally ignore the slow kids who remain and most of the slow kids will have been driven out. Summer swim! It's a family!

It depends on the kid. If they are fun and well liked as a younger age grouper then they are still in the mix once they are older fast or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite summer swim story is when my 7 year old daughter — who attended every single practice and swam every single B meet — got excited about getting a trophy at the end of summer banquet. And then they only gave trophies to A meet swimmers.

She said to me that night, “I guess I wasn’t good enough for a trophy.” 😢

I wonder if we were at the same pool. This happened at our old pool in MCSL and I was literally mystified by the fact that my kid, who swam 1 event at the A meets, got a trophy when other kids didn’t until someone explained it to me. I hope that practice has been discontinued.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite summer swim story is when my 7 year old daughter — who attended every single practice and swam every single B meet — got excited about getting a trophy at the end of summer banquet. And then they only gave trophies to A meet swimmers.

She said to me that night, “I guess I wasn’t good enough for a trophy.” 😢

Trophies are dumb anyways. Wish they’d get rid of participation trophies. Maybe only give out ones for high point, or a few for specific accomplishments? Trophies for all is destroying our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite summer swim story is when my 7 year old daughter — who attended every single practice and swam every single B meet — got excited about getting a trophy at the end of summer banquet. And then they only gave trophies to A meet swimmers.

She said to me that night, “I guess I wasn’t good enough for a trophy.” 😢

Trophies are dumb anyways. Wish they’d get rid of participation trophies. Maybe only give out ones for high point, or a few for specific accomplishments? Trophies for all is destroying our kids.

Trophy’s are unnecessary for participation when kids get ribbons at every meet!

Our team does most improved, coaches award and high point trophy’s only.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The whole system is offensive. Mine were A meet kids and year round swimmers. But if they are all on the same team, they should all be able to swim at the same meet. Otherwise, why pay 200-300$ (or more ?) over your membership to have your kid attend packed, chaotic practices? Then get sent to the "B Meet" if your team is even "lucky" enough to have any.

So don't join then. You know how it works and you understand the terms of participation and you prefer not to live with them, which is understandable - no one thing suits everyone. But some of us love summer swim and are willing to contribute to it. Live and let live.

fine, some kids will keep showing up to the A meets and the awards banquet and everyone else can "practice" 20 to a lane for an hour in freezing water then maybe go to a B meet. Its just bizarre. Teammates should be teammates.

Yeah I agree with this and then the coaches and team reps are insanely peppy and act like everyone is having this amazing experience. Our team at least is kind of cult-ish. But meanwhile so many kids feel totally disconnected and end up quitting. It's a weird environment and what other sport is like this for something that is supposed to be "fun"? Genuinely curious if people have examples. Any other sport, including a rec league, you are on a team and then you're all doing all the things together. With competitive sports, they made and are part of the team and get some limited playing time. This is like you got cut for varsity but stay on the team aren't you having a great time and show up to practice every day and go over there with the other kids who aren't very good and then we'll have separate games for you! But you are included!! We value you! I mean sorry kids see through this BS eventually.

Culture can be off for a lot of reasons. My club swimmer would normally come to practice but they are fast, NCSA/Sectionals fast, and so the non- year round kids will point blank yell that they can’t be in their lane, they need to go to a different lane. So yeah, they now only go to practice when other year rounders will be there, but they do make all the A meets and crush it. From the outside you would think they are the problem as the fast year round kid, but they actually aren’t. They would attend practice more but the summer swim only kids are a-holes to them. I’d love for them to quit summer swim but they won’t.

We're having the exact opposite experience on our swim team. My kids excel at a different sport and joined swim team this year for, as a PP put it, exercise/cross-training and fun, social events. At the very first practice, a year-round fast club swimmer told my kid to get out of the lane the coach assigned. When does the fun part start?

Can you share age-group?

If it's 12U (and especially 10U), i could see kids at those age ranges doing a lot of trash talk. I'm not saying it's right/wrong. But by 13 and over, kids know who is fast/isn't fast, and other than some good ribbing, there's no point to putting kids down.

By 13 and over, the fast kids will just totally ignore the slow kids who remain and most of the slow kids will have been driven out. Summer swim! It's a family!

At ours, kids are sometimes trying to find others their age who are willing to swim in a meet in order to fill a lane or complete a relay team. It doesn’t really matter if you are slow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite summer swim story is when my 7 year old daughter — who attended every single practice and swam every single B meet — got excited about getting a trophy at the end of summer banquet. And then they only gave trophies to A meet swimmers.

She said to me that night, “I guess I wasn’t good enough for a trophy.” 😢

Ever A meet swimmer got a trophy? And B meet swimmers got nothing? If true, that is crazy as someone who does the awards for our summer team for years.

[Anonymous]

Everybody on our team gets a participation trophy and then there are bigger ones for different points categories. Also a couple special awards and a most improved girl and boy in each age group, which a lot of times is a B meet swimmer. I wouldn't mind if they switched to medals for participation, easier to hang on a bulletin board or push pin for a while and then can go in the memory box.

[Anonymous]

Give season high point awards for B meets

[Anonymous]

All our kids get a medal and the high point and most improved get plaques. I can't imagine giving trophies to part of the team but not all (if they are for participation). But as someone who collected a lot of unnecessary trophies growing up that collected dust, the medals are much easier to store and display.

[Anonymous]

I don’t really think it’s unfair that only A team kids get trophies. FWIW, I have a seven year old who only swims B meets. That may change next year as she gets better. She’s small for her age and competing against mostly eight year olds. She wants to win - but understands that winning her heat is not winning overall. She’s doing hard things and working on goals. If a trophy is motivating so be it.

[Anonymous]

I’m the PP with the trophy story and I didn’t say it was unfair. Just that it was really sad for my kid, who worked very hard and was proud of herself and had that feeling crushed. And it was even worse because it was communicated to the kids that they would get trophies at the awards banquet and then only some kids got them.

I’m not sure if every A meet swimmer got a trophy but it was every swimmer who won points for the team, so NO exclusively B meet swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m the PP with the trophy story and I didn’t say it was unfair. Just that it was really sad for my kid, who worked very hard and was proud of herself and had that feeling crushed. And it was even worse because it was communicated to the kids that they would get trophies at the awards banquet and then only some kids got them.

I’m not sure if every A meet swimmer got a trophy but it was every swimmer who won points for the team, so NO exclusively B meet swimmers.

At our mcsl pool, everyone gets a trophy, and the high point winners of each age group gets big trophies.

I also would prefer a participation medal to a trophy because trophies take up so much space. My kids been swimming for a decade now—their rooms aren’t that big 😂

[Anonymous]

OKM recruits from all over NoVa and is certainly anything but chill. After going 0-5 in D1 last summer, they’re back again for another whipping season. The fruits of recruiting turn brutal in D1.