Getting into club / year round swimming
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Anonymous
| Unless your kid is begging to club swim, don’t do it. Too much training, not good for them. I am so sorry I let my kid go down this road (and I have a kid who loves to swim). Not worth it. |
Anonymous
depends on the club. My 10yo swims twice a week for an hour each time. It’s good exercise and she likes it. She doesn’t have A times or even B times and I’m ok with that….. it’s your attitude too that matters.. |
Anonymous
Mine swam that schedule at 10 yo too. But when they get to 12, most clubs require 5 days (at least) of practices. And, the clubs corner you. To make groups with the best coaches, you have to commit to attending practice bc they have wait lists. I am not trying to have my kid get a scholarship. I am entirely concerned with raising a good human. At first I thought club swim was so great bc the kids are nice, coaches are dedicated and it requires discipline and executive function. But the amount of practice and money is a lot. And kids get injured (I thought swim was so much better than contact sports but there can be injury). Also, we have hardly any time for family dinner, for example. I feel like it is at a tipping point where the time commitment (not to mention fees) are more than we should ask of a kid. I do not want my kid to be a Soviet athlete, lol. And maybe we have money and time concerns that others don’t. But I keep agreeing bc they love it and I figure it is better than trouble. I tell myself to be grateful that my kid likes anything so much. But I clearly have parental worries. |
Anonymous
It will vary per club. Since you are starting out, look for a club that has flexibility versus a rigid you must do this type of attitude/schedule. There are those clubs out there. Ask questions about requirements and make sure that both you and your child feel comfortable with what the club is asking. |
Anonymous
Everyone’s birthday is disadvantageous for something once they hit the age where they age up on their birthdays. Short course (25 yard) championships are in mid-March. Long course (50 meter) championships are in mid-July. |
Anonymous
+1, this area actually has a lot of low key clubs where there is not the expectation that your kid needs to be in the water 5 days a week once they hit middle school. If your child wants to do swimming as their second sport, there are clubs where this is feasible. Does that work at say NCAP, no, but there are clubs where you can have that balance. And conversely, there are clubs where if your child is talented and committed to swimming they can train at a higher level. Swim is not one size fits all, and we are lucky in this area to have so many options to choose from depending on your kid’s ability and level of commitment. |
Anonymous
Could you all name the clubs? Because I have looked and I can’t find any in Maryland for kids making JO cuts who can stay at a 4 day schedule in 7th and 8th grade. I looked at NCAP, RMSC, ASA. Maybe sea devils or Toll, though I have heard those clubs will push too? There seems to be low key programs but if your kid is making cuts pretty easily, they don’t mesh with the more restrained groups. Would love to find a balanced program for kids who show potential but want to keep the time in the water manageable. |
Anonymous
NP, and this is the difference. Clubs that offer a less competitive track know it's for kids who love swim but also have other interests. If your child wants to swim at a level to be making cuts like that, then it isn't a low-key 2 or 3x/wk thing. |
Anonymous
If your kid is making those cuts almost any club is going to push. Remember the club needs to find those swimmers and push them to their potential for the rating of the club. You can say that your kid wants to be in a competitive group but doesn't want to be in the water 5-6 days and see what they say. Most will still take him and put him in that track but grumble about it at the same time. Because they will want the kid that can make the cuts. |
Anonymous
That is a good thought and I appreciate your understanding of clubs - I am new to this as I wasn’t a swimmer. I could ask the coach about a pulled back schedule. But it feels like there should be a mid range for an athletic kid with good water feel who is very happy with current results at 4 days/week (4 days still feels like a lot for a middle school kid and is more than competitive lacrosse, soccer, baseball etc at that age). I guess my feeling is a kid can go “all in” during high school but if a “reduced” schedule is working for them, why can’t they stick with that before then in middle school? |
Anonymous
| I think there are different things being discussed- are they plenty of area clubs that will happily take swimmers who want to swim somewhere between 2-3 days a week? Yes, absolutely. Can those same swimmers make JO cuts? eh- maybe, probably not especially as they get older. If your goal is to have a JO cut as a 10 or 12 year old, then go all in and swim 4-5 days a week. If your goal is to have a happy well rounded kid, who enjoys swimming and also enjoys other things? Then swim 2 days a week, do other things too- let the kid decide when they want to start swimming more. There is plenty of research to show that swimming performance before puberty doesn't tell you much about what will happen post puberty. |
Anonymous
This is true. Watching this right now at our club. A phenom swimmer at 10-12, is losing the phenom. Still good, but all the kids going through puberty are now right there as well when there used to be a huge difference. What I don't know is that a lot of the girls have gone through puberty and although tall now for their age look like that they will all be 5'4" and under. Meanwhile there is a group of swimmers that are the same age and almost as fast/faster than the current giants. Do the current short ones end up surpassing their peers once they hit puberty? Puberty not only adds height but muscle and strength. |
Anonymous
If you have a kid that wants to make champs cuts (and 11-12 is a lot harder than the 10U cuts) and is capable of making the champs cuts, NCAP, RMSC, and ASA are not going to place your kid in their advanced groups with the other kids of similar ability unless he commits to their practice requirements. I don’t have experience with Toll, SDS, Joe Flaherty’s Dolphins (JFD) or PAC, but those are clubs that come to mind when it comes to accommodating a fast swimmer that also wants to participate in other activities. My thought would be that those clubs have far fewer champs level swimmers so they would want to accommodate you so that you don’t bolt for another club. The difference is that NCAP, RMSC and ASA probably just won’t take your kid without the commitment because unless your kid is a phenom, they have plenty of fast kids; whereas the more low key clubs will take your kid but maybe try and convince you that he should up his practice time but it won’t keep him out of the practice group. |
Anonymous
Which clubs offer swimmers 2-3 days/week, for 12 and up? People make it sound like there’s no middle ground for clubs and if there are other options, I’d love to hear about them. Toll is expensive AF and the practice times are very limited. If the choice is between larger clubs and small, expensive ones with limited options, that’s not much of a choice. Maybe we’ll just have to take what we can get. |
Anonymous
I think you are looking for a bit of a unicorn, a club that’s not expensive AF considering you only want 2-3 times a week, and practices with a group of champs level swimmers. You can try out for RMSC and let them know up front you are only looking for placement in Juniors, not Advanced Juniors, but that training group will not have other champs level swimmers in it. From my experience, once you get into the 11-12 age group, the vast majority of the champs level kids are practicing more than 2-3x per week. Yes, there are some outliers, but overall those kids are in the water more frequently. |