Summer swim brings out the crazy

Anonymous
Just opt out. No thank you!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Overlee gonna Overlee. Godspeed


My family's at a division 17 pool. Just like people said, the people who either weasel their way out of volunteering or run the pool are still off on the side gossiping about kids' times. We can't even fill lanes, but here they are grudging some kid a few seconds on their fly time.


Team Rep here. Trust me, we don't have time to gossip about kids' times or grandstand about our own kids. We're too busy dealing with the crazy parents


Over our years at the pool I've seen both types of team reps.


Unfortunately, we are on a team in a mid/lower division where one of the reps a few years ago put her child on a medley relay at divisional relay carnival, excluding a very fast child. Time-wise, this never should have happened. In fact, the free relay, which did not have the team rep’s child and had said fast child plus three other fast children, won a medal at all-star relays. The medley relay with the team rep’s child placed like 70th in all of the league. Had the top four been on the medley relay, they probably would have gotten a medal at all star relays too. My child is older, but everyone was murmuring and looking around, knowing exactly what happened. It was both embarrassing for the team rep’s child, who was a nice kid, and shined (or is it shone?) a big ugly light on the integrity of the team. That team rep left, we never knew why, but that was a stain for sure.
Anonymous
So many crazy swim parents that it’s hard not to notice sometimes! So I feel for OP.

1) our team reps automatically make their kids first in line for coaching and private lesson slots, even if their kids are horrible swimmers

2) not summer swim but HS swim: a parent was working automation and manually changed their child’s time so that they qualified for a bigger meet

Insane. What are these parent teaching their kids?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I overheard a parent at practice talking last night about his 10 year old and how basically his kid was the next Olympian. That their club team needed to be good with them not being able to attend club practices since she love summer swim practices. Also apparently not meeting club attendance requirements during the year due to other sports. That they need to deal with it because they needed her because she can make JOs and if they don't like her lack of commitment NCAP would kill to have her.

It was honestly kind of shocking and insane. The tone was crazy. I think the parents he was talking to were just floored by the hubris.


The kid is 10. Lot of kids make JOs at that age and then drop by 14 or 15, it means nothing. I feel sorry for their club and summer coaches.


Not arguing with your point, because I agree about the fall off, but to the kid at age 10, it means so much. Let’s stop denigrating the hard work young swimmers do — and the meets they make/accolades they get — when they are young just because it may not/does not equate to the same level of success when they go through puberty. This is especially true for those of us with Asian or part-Asian children. Lots of earned success in 12U, but puberty often is not kind to swimmers who have Asian genes.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:So many crazy swim parents that it’s hard not to notice sometimes! So I feel for OP.

1) our team reps automatically make their kids first in line for coaching and private lesson slots, even if their kids are horrible swimmers

2) not summer swim but HS swim: a parent was working automation and manually changed their child’s time so that they qualified for a bigger meet

Insane. What are these parent teaching their kids?


The parents and coaches are all nutso. I'm so glad we're doing another sport now.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Overlee gonna Overlee. Godspeed


My family's at a division 17 pool. Just like people said, the people who either weasel their way out of volunteering or run the pool are still off on the side gossiping about kids' times. We can't even fill lanes, but here they are grudging some kid a few seconds on their fly time.


Team Rep here. Trust me, we don't have time to gossip about kids' times or grandstand about our own kids. We're too busy dealing with the crazy parents


Over our years at the pool I've seen both types of team reps.


Unfortunately, we are on a team in a mid/lower division where one of the reps a few years ago put her child on a medley relay at divisional relay carnival, excluding a very fast child. Time-wise, this never should have happened. In fact, the free relay, which did not have the team rep’s child and had said fast child plus three other fast children, won a medal at all-star relays. The medley relay with the team rep’s child placed like 70th in all of the league. Had the top four been on the medley relay, they probably would have gotten a medal at all star relays too. My child is older, but everyone was murmuring and looking around, knowing exactly what happened. It was both embarrassing for the team rep’s child, who was a nice kid, and shined (or is it shone?) a big ugly light on the integrity of the team. That team rep left, we never knew why, but that was a stain for sure.


Seriously? That is crazy.

I am a team rep and our coaches pick swimmers for Saturday meets and relay carnival. This includes sometime putting my kids in the spots where they can score point even if it's not a stroke they want to swim. I just tell the coaches who is and isn't available to swim at given meet.
Anonymous
Summer swim used to be so much fun. Now you have the arrogant, can’t-be-bothered club parents, the crazy intense parents too invested in their swimmers, the dead weight parents who complain and try everything to weasel out of volunteering.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Summer swim used to be so much fun. Now you have the arrogant, can’t-be-bothered club parents, the crazy intense parents too invested in their swimmers, the dead weight parents who complain and try everything to weasel out of volunteering.


The best part is when the various parents from the above groups are all confused why the team keeps getting smaller as people leave and aren't replaced by new families.
Anonymous
Sounds like there’s drama at every pool. Is anyone at a pool where the vibe is generally relaxed and friendly?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Summer swim used to be so much fun. Now you have the arrogant, can’t-be-bothered club parents, the crazy intense parents too invested in their swimmers, the dead weight parents who complain and try everything to weasel out of volunteering.

We don’t have issues with the club parents. I will take the can’t be bothered, yet will pick up a stopwatch to fill their volunteer requirements over the crazy 10 and under summer swim only parent every day of the week. We understand club parents could not care less about game night, or the pep rally, etc., but if they are volunteering to time that’s all we care about. Signed, team rep.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:In my experience, these are the non-club swimmer parents and usually 10U non-club swim parents. Club swim parents know the deal and most of us aren’t super concerned about making summer swim A meets. Most of us also aren’t at practice at all and, if the pool requires us to be there, we are working in a corner. We’ve seen enough swim practices and meets not to want or need to watch kids swim 25 meters and stop at the wall for 10 minutes. (If we are actually being honest, most of us with club swimmers aren’t going to summer swim evening practices right now. We are paying out the wazoo for club, why would they go to summer swim with summer-only swimmers and stand around for 30 minutes?) And if our child swims club and is on a team where the depth precludes their swimming in A meets, we also already know that and, again, we aren’t trying to jockey for any position. Just being real here.


This is all 100% correct.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Sounds like there’s drama at every pool. Is anyone at a pool where the vibe is generally relaxed and friendly?


Yes! I am on a wonderful team in division 15. It's so fun and very little drama. We don't post a ladder and coaches make all the decisions about who swims in a meet.

However, we are very small and, due to rules set by the HOA, are limited in how many outside members we can have. It's still a struggle to fill lanes
Anonymous
The one summer we did swim team, I got no competitive vibe at all. Maybe it's because we were just not competition material
But seriously, everyone appeared very relaxed with each other, not just with my kids and me.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Summer swim used to be so much fun. Now you have the arrogant, can’t-be-bothered club parents, the crazy intense parents too invested in their swimmers, the dead weight parents who complain and try everything to weasel out of volunteering.

We don’t have issues with the club parents. I will take the can’t be bothered, yet will pick up a stopwatch to fill their volunteer requirements over the crazy 10 and under summer swim only parent every day of the week. We understand club parents could not care less about game night, or the pep rally, etc., but if they are volunteering to time that’s all we care about. Signed, team rep.


At our club (D1-3), the club parents largely serve as officials and team reps.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Sounds like there’s drama at every pool. Is anyone at a pool where the vibe is generally relaxed and friendly?


Yes! I am on a wonderful team in division 15. It's so fun and very little drama. We don't post a ladder and coaches make all the decisions about who swims in a meet.

However, we are very small and, due to rules set by the HOA, are limited in how many outside members we can have. It's still a struggle to fill lanes



I can see how posting a ladder can take all the fun out of summer swim. What a great idea and a positive environment. I hope people are taking notes. No reason to post a team ladder so people can boast about their little swimmers.
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