Do A meet families ever take vacation during summer swim season?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best summer swimmers are year-round swimmers. Year-round swimmers tend to take vacations in August because that's when clubs take a 2-3 week break. No serious swimmer goes on vacation for 2 weeks in July. But some A meet swimmers are probably not particularly serious, so you might catch a break there.

That doesn't work for high school kids playing a fall sport. We take vacation in early July and deal with an upset coach. It's what works best for our family

[Anonymous]

At our high-division pool, some 8 & under A meet swimmers take vacation, and many of these kids swim year round. For some, it’s tough to anticipate how your 8 & under swimmer is going to stack up once the summer season rolls around. Others miss A meets unexpectedly for sickness or other reasons. Things happen and I think everyone recognizes that summer swim is for fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in D1

Unless you swim for Chesterbrook or Tuckahoe kids in D1 miss weekend meets.

Overlee kids don't miss either.

[Anonymous]

Not at our pool. It's why they sell August memberships.

[Anonymous]

We used to be at a Division 8-10 pool and people regularly took vacations during the season and it was very normal and other kids just swam at the A meet.

We are at a D1 pool now and A meet kids don't miss. I have heard stories of kids being sick and getting pressured to swim anyway if they are top swimmers. It's much more intense. I know families with older swimmers who also play a fall sport at school and the season starts early August. They just don't take any vacations over the summer. There are families who prioritize their kids sports above any other activity and that's their choice to make.

[Anonymous]

DC at one of the top divisions missed an A meet before July 4th weekend last year, will miss an A meet on July 4th weekend this year. DC’s not in year round swim and join summer swim for fun and make friends, will not likely to be in A meet next summer ( it’s surprised to still be in A meet this year, but DC’s already the slowest kid in every A meet strokes, feels embarrassed to not be able to help the team but DC’s not in year round club). Another DC was only at A meet once last year and will not be in A meet again, had some time to adjust since sibling went and still go but it’s fine now. Every kid has strength in different areas, and both DCs are happy to do swim related activities together with their friends.

[Anonymous]

DS is one of the top 2 swimmers in his age group on our team. He's missing the July 6th A meet because he's going to a sleep away camp for a week for another sport. It was only offered this week, so he had to miss a week of swim. He's at the bottom of his age group, so next summer he won't miss an A meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best summer swimmers are year-round swimmers. Year-round swimmers tend to take vacations in August because that's when clubs take a 2-3 week break. No serious swimmer goes on vacation for 2 weeks in July. But some A meet swimmers are probably not particularly serious, so you might catch a break there.

That doesn't work for high school kids playing a fall sport. We take vacation in early July and deal with an upset coach. It's what works best for our family

Yeah and when you have multiple kids involved in different activities, sometimes there is just no good time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best summer swimmers are year-round swimmers. Year-round swimmers tend to take vacations in August because that's when clubs take a 2-3 week break. No serious swimmer goes on vacation for 2 weeks in July. But some A meet swimmers are probably not particularly serious, so you might catch a break there.

That doesn't work for high school kids playing a fall sport. We take vacation in early July and deal with an upset coach. It's what works best for our family

Yeah and when you have multiple kids involved in different activities, sometimes there is just no good time.

That's where we are. We're not giving up our summer vacation and high school sports take precedence over summer swim. We try to schedule around divisionals and all stars, but we've been away for all star relays and usually miss an A meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the team and age groups- top division teams with top swimmers my guess is no, but lower division teams and kids in younger age groups yes. I think older kids care more and won't miss, younger kids/parents of young kids tend to not care as much.

My kids have swum in A meets for the past 9 years and we only missed 1 A meet the very first year/before we knew our kid would make A meets. Now they would be very angry if we missed.

Why do top divisions and top swimmers not want to miss A meet once or twice? Are they afraid of losing their spots or potentially improving their times

No, they just really love summer swim, being part of the team, competing and the excitement of A meets. I also think many don't want to let their relays down.

Summer swim is super short. Missing 2 meets is a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the team and age groups- top division teams with top swimmers my guess is no, but lower division teams and kids in younger age groups yes. I think older kids care more and won't miss, younger kids/parents of young kids tend to not care as much.

My kids have swum in A meets for the past 9 years and we only missed 1 A meet the very first year/before we knew our kid would make A meets. Now they would be very angry if we missed.

Why do top divisions and top swimmers not want to miss A meet once or twice? Are they afraid of losing their spots or potentially improving their times

No, they just really love summer swim, being part of the team, competing and the excitement of A meets. I also think many don't want to let their relays down.

Summer swim is super short. Missing 2 meets is a lot.

It starts the same week school gets out and goes through the end of July. High school teams are already having workouts by the time it ends. If you do anything more than a 7 day vacation, you likely miss two meets. Our family used to do August before the kids got older, now we do end of June

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best summer swimmers are year-round swimmers. Year-round swimmers tend to take vacations in August because that's when clubs take a 2-3 week break. No serious swimmer goes on vacation for 2 weeks in July. But some A meet swimmers are probably not particularly serious, so you might catch a break there.

That doesn't work for high school kids playing a fall sport. We take vacation in early July and deal with an upset coach. It's what works best for our family

We lucked out bc both kids are swimmers, no fall HS sports. Club swimmers are not vacationing in July bc they are training and competing in club championship meets. Our family draws the line at August meets (I.e. zones).

[Anonymous]

We try to avoid being away during swim season when we can, but sometimes travel intervenes. When that happens we try to place the travel after time trials and hold it to earlier in the season, counting on DCs to be able to lay down some decent times asap upon their return. Our coaches are completely supportive of all of the kids on the team having a wide variety of summer experiences and never, ever pressure kids or families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends somewhat on division and pool. Those top pools are hard core! My pool not so much. That said, my kids are A meet swimmers, and we wait until last week of July/August to vacation because my kids love summer swim.

This is a phrase that isn’t even really used at some pools. I’ve never heard it and we’ve been involved for about 14 years. You need 60 swimmers to fill all lanes across the age groups (NVSL). If you are on our team and available to swim you can pretty much plan on being called upon to swim.

My kids are on a big team in MCSL—there are a handful top kids that only swim A meets, and a lot ( like my kids) that swim 1-2 heats in an A meet and the rest in B meets. Mcsl doesn’t do the exhibition thing like in NVSL

(NVSL D1 parent here): What is the exhibition thing? I’ve never seen any child swim as an exhibition (we had this in the summer league where I grew up, but I don’t think NVSL has exhibition swims unless some B meet consortiums have them.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends somewhat on division and pool. Those top pools are hard core! My pool not so much. That said, my kids are A meet swimmers, and we wait until last week of July/August to vacation because my kids love summer swim.

This is a phrase that isn’t even really used at some pools. I’ve never heard it and we’ve been involved for about 14 years. You need 60 swimmers to fill all lanes across the age groups (NVSL). If you are on our team and available to swim you can pretty much plan on being called upon to swim.

My kids are on a big team in MCSL—there are a handful top kids that only swim A meets, and a lot ( like my kids) that swim 1-2 heats in an A meet and the rest in B meets. Mcsl doesn’t do the exhibition thing like in NVSL

(NVSL D1 parent here): What is the exhibition thing? I’ve never seen any child swim as an exhibition (we had this in the summer league where I grew up, but I don’t think NVSL has exhibition swims unless some B meet consortiums have them.)

You can do them in NVSL. You have to have a lane between an exhibition swim and anyone who is competing.