Waiting to start club swim?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If he doesn’t like 3 times a week as a 9 year old, he will really hate 4 times a week as an 11 year old. I would find out now if this is something he loves. Even though it seems logical that a 10/11 year old would find it easier to adjust to swim practice than a 9 year old, it is actually the opposite. By 10/11, many kids have been swimming for 2-3 years. I had one kid join at age 7 and one kid join at age 10, and it was harder for my 10 year old to catch up to his age group.



My 7 year old played academy soccer twice a week and swam twice a week and loved both. When he turned 9, he moved from academy to a club team that practiced 2-3 times a week, and he swam 2-3 times a week. He wanted to swim more, but couldn’t because of soccer. He is now turning 13, and is giving up club soccer so he can focus on swim, but I’m glad he did both for 4 years, even though it was clear that he loved swim more than soccer. It kept him from being burned out and focused at swim practice. He will still play soccer at a lower level, but didn’t want to continue soccer practice 3 times a week.

That’s not to say that starting at age 10/11 won’t work - my older kid played basketball with club swim until 12 and is now 15. It took him longer, but he is now achieving the AAA times he has been dreaming about since he was 10. But it was harder for him than it was for my younger one.

This is what my DH is arguing.

DP - it may be harder, but what are the trade-offs? How important is it to your family that your kid excel at swim? What's it worth? Those are questions only you and your DH can answer, OP. It's okay to prioritize family time or downtime or whatever else over optimizing your kid's swimming. Humans typically can't optimize everything.

I am the earlier poster and I agree everyone makes own priorities and no singular right answer. My post reflects my experience that my kids got locked out of teams they wanted to join (not just swimming) bc I couldn’t believe they would have to play year round already and resisted.

Maybe this was better in the end - we will never know - my kids mostly turned out fine, lol, but I do have one kid in particular who wishes I would have allowed her to do stuff earlier and thinks it held her back in an activity she loves (she never got on the team she wanted despite putting up stats to earn it) and I was not expecting that as a parent. And Insoet of broke on the youngest, allowing her to ramp up earlier than her siblings and ahe is the happiest in her sport by far.

I am just offering a nuanced perspective here to counter those who say only the crazies let their kids join teams young. I thought that too and I realized I sort of wish I had allowed it based on their reactions to me later in life and the positive experience of my kid who I relented more on. In hindsight, trying stuff and quitting later may have been better, but then again, who knows.

100% agree. We have four kids and our younger ones are definitely getting into sports - and at a more serious level - at a younger age than our two older ones. With my older ones I wanted to give them the gift of trying out different sports and just being a kid, rather than specializing. I was worried about them burning out, plus I thought it was a little crazy to invest so much time/energy/money into one thing. But in the end, it felt like my older kids were locked out of sports (not just swim) at the level they wanted because we didn't get them in early enough. Things like travel ball - the teams often keep the same rosters as the year before, so it's much harder to break in at an older age even if your kid is really good. Or swimming, it feels like it's so much harder to break in at say age 10 than it is at age 8.

+1. I think when people say it’s harder to break into club swimming at an older age they mean break in at a more competitive club. It’s great that there are so many clubs of varying levels in the DMV, but if your swimmer is interested in trying to compete at a high level, breaking in at 10-11 is harder than 8-9. And yes, you can excel at one of the less competitive clubs and switch to a more competitive one if your kid ends up being fast, but that is disruptive if it’s less convenient or your kid has friends they don’t want to leave.

And that kind of club switch is _extremely_ low percentage and requires breakout-level talent of the kind that makes competitive teams recruit you without a tryout. It's impossible to count on that when you're debating whether to start club at age 7 or age 10. If the kid has the slightest interest, start early and then stop or change clubs or groups if you have to. But don't wait for them to be "readier" at the beginning or you're make it harder _on them_ to get in.

DP - because this conversation is a bit off the original question: "start early" doesn't have to mean starting three times/week at age 8. Going with a club that has, say, twice weekly practice for younger kids, confers the advantages of being on the inside. You don't have to go as intense as possible, as early as possible.

One additional point: it's hard to break into *highly competitive training groups* at an older age. That's different from starting club swim. Plenty of kids start with, say, twice a week at age 8 or 9 and then move up as they'd like. And one of the advantages of joining a larger club that has multiple training groups within given age ranges is that it's easier to move within those than joining from the outside.

I don't think folks on this thread have said it's "crazy" to start swimming at age 8. What I and some others have pointed out is that many clubs offer less intense options for younger kids than what the OP is describing and that, for a young kid in particular, is often a better approach than committing to too much, too soon. Competitive swimming is a very long game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

I'm super interested in your experience because ours has been that it's hard to get in. While obviously if your kid is excellent, they'll find a spot. But for a kid with a B cut or no cut? I'm not sure how they find a spot at 11.

Granted, my kid is NOT a fast swimmer by any means. He did a low tier club last year as a 9yo and tried out this year as a 10yo for TOLL and RMSC and was denied at both. We're going to do a development program this year 2x/week (in the hopes that it prepares him better than the club he joined - for many reasons we were not particularly happy with the club and the amount of improvement over 5 weeks this summer compared to the zero improvement over the course of the year spoke volumes - so we wanted to try something new this year), but I'm not sure he has a path to joining a club again.

There are a limited number of clubs in MoCo. RMSC, ASA, NCAP are all going to be super competitive and only want kids with A cuts at 11-12. He was already denied at TOLL. Other than JFD/QOSA and SDS, are there any other clubs? Does he have a path to ever getting into a club if he wants to? He's a multi-sport athlete and has other sports he excels at, but was disappointed not to get into a club for swimming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

I'm super interested in your experience because ours has been that it's hard to get in. While obviously if your kid is excellent, they'll find a spot. But for a kid with a B cut or no cut? I'm not sure how they find a spot at 11.

Granted, my kid is NOT a fast swimmer by any means. He did a low tier club last year as a 9yo and tried out this year as a 10yo for TOLL and RMSC and was denied at both. We're going to do a development program this year 2x/week (in the hopes that it prepares him better than the club he joined - for many reasons we were not particularly happy with the club and the amount of improvement over 5 weeks this summer compared to the zero improvement over the course of the year spoke volumes - so we wanted to try something new this year), but I'm not sure he has a path to joining a club again.

There are a limited number of clubs in MoCo. RMSC, ASA, NCAP are all going to be super competitive and only want kids with A cuts at 11-12. He was already denied at TOLL. Other than JFD/QOSA and SDS, are there any other clubs? Does he have a path to ever getting into a club if he wants to? He's a multi-sport athlete and has other sports he excels at, but was disappointed not to get into a club for swimming.

As PP said, this is highly dependent on where you live. I lived in Manhattan, and if you weren't on the website when tryout registration opened, you couldn't even get a spot to try out, much less get in. I repeat, even the tryout slots were hard to get. I learned my lesson one year when I went to the website a day after registration opened, and my kids had to wait until the next year. And they usually only had a few spots for 11/12 and 13/14, and some years they had zero spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

I'm super interested in your experience because ours has been that it's hard to get in. While obviously if your kid is excellent, they'll find a spot. But for a kid with a B cut or no cut? I'm not sure how they find a spot at 11.

Granted, my kid is NOT a fast swimmer by any means. He did a low tier club last year as a 9yo and tried out this year as a 10yo for TOLL and RMSC and was denied at both. We're going to do a development program this year 2x/week (in the hopes that it prepares him better than the club he joined - for many reasons we were not particularly happy with the club and the amount of improvement over 5 weeks this summer compared to the zero improvement over the course of the year spoke volumes - so we wanted to try something new this year), but I'm not sure he has a path to joining a club again.

There are a limited number of clubs in MoCo. RMSC, ASA, NCAP are all going to be super competitive and only want kids with A cuts at 11-12. He was already denied at TOLL. Other than JFD/QOSA and SDS, are there any other clubs? Does he have a path to ever getting into a club if he wants to? He's a multi-sport athlete and has other sports he excels at, but was disappointed not to get into a club for swimming.

As PP said, this is highly dependent on where you live. I lived in Manhattan, and if you weren't on the website when tryout registration opened, you couldn't even get a spot to try out, much less get in. I repeat, even the tryout slots were hard to get. I learned my lesson one year when I went to the website a day after registration opened, and my kids had to wait until the next year. And they usually only had a few spots for 11/12 and 13/14, and some years they had zero spots.

This is why I'm interested in the experience of the PP that I quoted, who seems to be in the DC/MD area. I'm also in MD but my experience has been vastly different. We were also closed out of RMSC tryouts a year ago because I didn't know the registration spots for tryouts would be snapped up so quickly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

I'm super interested in your experience because ours has been that it's hard to get in. While obviously if your kid is excellent, they'll find a spot. But for a kid with a B cut or no cut? I'm not sure how they find a spot at 11.

Granted, my kid is NOT a fast swimmer by any means. He did a low tier club last year as a 9yo and tried out this year as a 10yo for TOLL and RMSC and was denied at both. We're going to do a development program this year 2x/week (in the hopes that it prepares him better than the club he joined - for many reasons we were not particularly happy with the club and the amount of improvement over 5 weeks this summer compared to the zero improvement over the course of the year spoke volumes - so we wanted to try something new this year), but I'm not sure he has a path to joining a club again.

There are a limited number of clubs in MoCo. RMSC, ASA, NCAP are all going to be super competitive and only want kids with A cuts at 11-12. He was already denied at TOLL. Other than JFD/QOSA and SDS, are there any other clubs? Does he have a path to ever getting into a club if he wants to? He's a multi-sport athlete and has other sports he excels at, but was disappointed not to get into a club for swimming.

DP - Look into Machine. They're not in MoCo, but we and many other MoCo families are at the Fairland or UMD sites. They have programs of varying intensity for kids in different age groups. Evals are fairly quick. There are other clubs that practice at Fairland: FAST, PAC. Depending on where in MoCo you are, it's not a bad drive at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

I'm super interested in your experience because ours has been that it's hard to get in. While obviously if your kid is excellent, they'll find a spot. But for a kid with a B cut or no cut? I'm not sure how they find a spot at 11.

Granted, my kid is NOT a fast swimmer by any means. He did a low tier club last year as a 9yo and tried out this year as a 10yo for TOLL and RMSC and was denied at both. We're going to do a development program this year 2x/week (in the hopes that it prepares him better than the club he joined - for many reasons we were not particularly happy with the club and the amount of improvement over 5 weeks this summer compared to the zero improvement over the course of the year spoke volumes - so we wanted to try something new this year), but I'm not sure he has a path to joining a club again.

There are a limited number of clubs in MoCo. RMSC, ASA, NCAP are all going to be super competitive and only want kids with A cuts at 11-12. He was already denied at TOLL. Other than JFD/QOSA and SDS, are there any other clubs? Does he have a path to ever getting into a club if he wants to? He's a multi-sport athlete and has other sports he excels at, but was disappointed not to get into a club for swimming.

I’m not the poster you are responding to, but the MD clubs in addition to SDS and JFD/QOSA that will take a slower or new to club swimming 11 year old are TIBU, the Gears program at Machine, FAST, PAC and Suburban Aquatics. My experience has also been that the bigger more competitive clubs generally won’t take the slower than BB or new swimmers in the 11-12 age group. Those clubs have slower than BB swimmers, but those are kids that started with the club when they were 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

PP, as a swim parent this strikes me as leaving out some key details. I’m not doubting that you found plenty of options for your “not very good” kid at age 11, but there is no way that any of these were top clubs in the area. More likely these were the clubs that take everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

PP, as a swim parent this strikes me as leaving out some key details. I’m not doubting that you found plenty of options for your “not very good” kid at age 11, but there is no way that any of these were top clubs in the area. More likely these were the clubs that take everyone.

Well I think the 'best clubs' and 'top clubs' criteria is pretty meaningless- but NCAP is ranked 2nd in the nation and the top club in the PVS by USA swimming's virtual club championship. https://www.usaswimming.org/times/vcc

I am aware of 4 kids transferring to NCAP this year ranging in age from 12-16. One of them has a couple b cuts and a one bb cut. One of them has an a cut, a couple bb cuts and a could b cuts. the other two have a couple b cuts.

Basically, if the club has room in a practice group- they will take the kid. The clubs want to fill their spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

PP, as a swim parent this strikes me as leaving out some key details. I’m not doubting that you found plenty of options for your “not very good” kid at age 11, but there is no way that any of these were top clubs in the area. More likely these were the clubs that take everyone.

Well I think the 'best clubs' and 'top clubs' criteria is pretty meaningless- but NCAP is ranked 2nd in the nation and the top club in the PVS by USA swimming's virtual club championship. https://www.usaswimming.org/times/vcc

I am aware of 4 kids transferring to NCAP this year ranging in age from 12-16. One of them has a couple b cuts and a one bb cut. One of them has an a cut, a couple bb cuts and a could b cuts. the other two have a couple b cuts.

Basically, if the club has room in a practice group- they will take the kid. The clubs want to fill their spots.

I have a 13YO who is still short of B cuts despite years of steady work, including meets - just not fast (but is realistic and just enjoys the sport). A kid with those times almost can't change clubs.

[Anonymous]

Was about to add FAST PAC and MSSC (now SA) to the list of clubs that tend to have many more slots available for many different skill levels. NCAP and RMSC are not those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

PP, as a swim parent this strikes me as leaving out some key details. I’m not doubting that you found plenty of options for your “not very good” kid at age 11, but there is no way that any of these were top clubs in the area. More likely these were the clubs that take everyone.

Well I think the 'best clubs' and 'top clubs' criteria is pretty meaningless- but NCAP is ranked 2nd in the nation and the top club in the PVS by USA swimming's virtual club championship. https://www.usaswimming.org/times/vcc

I am aware of 4 kids transferring to NCAP this year ranging in age from 12-16. One of them has a couple b cuts and a one bb cut. One of them has an a cut, a couple bb cuts and a could b cuts. the other two have a couple b cuts.

Basically, if the club has room in a practice group- they will take the kid. The clubs want to fill their spots.

Kids that are in HS can definitely transfer to NCAPs Gold 3 group even if they don’t have anything other than B cuts. That’s the group their slowest swimmers get funneled to. If there is space, they will take most swimmers into that group. That’s obviously not the case with their groups that have performance standards that need to be met.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

PP, as a swim parent this strikes me as leaving out some key details. I’m not doubting that you found plenty of options for your “not very good” kid at age 11, but there is no way that any of these were top clubs in the area. More likely these were the clubs that take everyone.

Well I think the 'best clubs' and 'top clubs' criteria is pretty meaningless- but NCAP is ranked 2nd in the nation and the top club in the PVS by USA swimming's virtual club championship. https://www.usaswimming.org/times/vcc

I am aware of 4 kids transferring to NCAP this year ranging in age from 12-16. One of them has a couple b cuts and a one bb cut. One of them has an a cut, a couple bb cuts and a could b cuts. the other two have a couple b cuts.

Basically, if the club has room in a practice group- they will take the kid. The clubs want to fill their spots.

I have a 13YO who is still short of B cuts despite years of steady work, including meets - just not fast (but is realistic and just enjoys the sport). A kid with those times almost can't change clubs.

have you tried? why do you want to change clubs? I see people saying you can't get into a group with performance standards if you don't meet the standards- that's true, but that is true if you started swimming at 7 or if you started at 13.... Now is the assumption that if you had started at 7 the kid would have the performance standards? I guess that's possible. It's also possible that the kid wouldn't- like the PP above who says their kid has had years to steady work.....

[Anonymous]

I would just echo what many of the PP have said. It's not that clubs won't take swimmers that don't already have cuts for say PVS 12&U champs when they try out at 11, it's a space issue. All (all!) clubs have a variety of levels and all (all!) have swimmers of different speeds. The DMV is a swimming "hotspot" and lane space is an issue as there are very few club owned pools (OCCS is actually the only club I can think of that has its' own facility...). Even with those that are county subsidized like RMSC, DCPR (DC Wave) or AAC they don't have unlimited pool usage.

So does this mean you have to enter at 6 or 8/9 (like the original poster is concerned about)? No. But doing something with technique is critical. Good options are out there. They may not be at the pool next door. TIBU is great but in northern MoCo. FAST and SA produce quality, sectional level swimmers but a smaller number since they are smaller clubs at Fairland (eastern MoCo). Tollefson Stroke and Turn plus one of their endurance classes can be a great option to build up skill and some endurance over a club where technique may not be as emphasized. The Silver Spring Y has been a great starting point for many kids club swimming experience.

Not giving in to FOMO or worrying about if it's the best over finding a good fit for your multi-sport athlete are pretty key in the search - getting back to the original poster as they indicated concern over the 3x a week option (my assumption is that other activities are involved, possibly other sports). What is best for you and your swimmer may look very different from what other people tell you is best (even if they tell you it's the best club!) or what your neighbor is doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

I'm super interested in your experience because ours has been that it's hard to get in. While obviously if your kid is excellent, they'll find a spot. But for a kid with a B cut or no cut? I'm not sure how they find a spot at 11.

Granted, my kid is NOT a fast swimmer by any means. He did a low tier club last year as a 9yo and tried out this year as a 10yo for TOLL and RMSC and was denied at both. We're going to do a development program this year 2x/week (in the hopes that it prepares him better than the club he joined - for many reasons we were not particularly happy with the club and the amount of improvement over 5 weeks this summer compared to the zero improvement over the course of the year spoke volumes - so we wanted to try something new this year), but I'm not sure he has a path to joining a club again.

There are a limited number of clubs in MoCo. RMSC, ASA, NCAP are all going to be super competitive and only want kids with A cuts at 11-12. He was already denied at TOLL. Other than JFD/QOSA and SDS, are there any other clubs? Does he have a path to ever getting into a club if he wants to? He's a multi-sport athlete and has other sports he excels at, but was disappointed not to get into a club for swimming.

As PP said, this is highly dependent on where you live. I lived in Manhattan, and if you weren't on the website when tryout registration opened, you couldn't even get a spot to try out, much less get in. I repeat, even the tryout slots were hard to get. I learned my lesson one year when I went to the website a day after registration opened, and my kids had to wait until the next year. And they usually only had a few spots for 11/12 and 13/14, and some years they had zero spots.

This is why I'm interested in the experience of the PP that I quoted, who seems to be in the DC/MD area. I'm also in MD but my experience has been vastly different. We were also closed out of RMSC tryouts a year ago because I didn't know the registration spots for tryouts would be snapped up so quickly!

PP again. Yes it can be nuts. They used to release the tryout signup for our old ny club on signup genius, where there is a comment section. The comments in there reflected the paucity of spots. People wrote things like “Tara took swim lessons with ex-Olympian xxxx yyyyy last summer and she is a determined and fierce competitor.” Tara is 7 years old. “Hudson’s older brother is already on the team and qualified for JO’s this year”. “Felicia is excited to try out and will be a dedicated teammate with swim as her primary sport”.

That being said, if you are keen to join a specific club, consider becoming an official with your current club. Teams love to take swimmers with officials as parents.

It does suck. We moved to a place where you can basically sign up for the team and there is plenty of lane space and it’s been so nice. The parents are also much nicer and laid back because they didn’t have to run a gauntlet to get on the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also find the posts about not being able to 'get in' later weird. This has not been my experience at all, and my kids are not very good. One of my kids joined club swim at age 11, and had plenty of options. Started out swimming 2 days a week, eventually stepped up to 3 days.
I've seen many kids who are not great swimmers switch clubs, both from small clubs to big clubs (e.g. NCAP) and from big clubs to smaller clubs. And by not great swimmers I mean might have a b cut in their best stroke, but mostly have no cuts.
The clubs like RMSC and AAC that are subsidized by the government and cheaper are harder to get into- but I have also seen kids joining these clubs- this is where it helps to be a super strong swimmer. Although it also helps to be on top of registration deadlines, etc- and move quickly.
I had another kid who opted to join club swimming at 7. For this kid, they loved going to meets and motivated from meets. So club was a real advantage over a stroke clinic. Its really about what works for your kid and your family- but in my opinion, FOMO is always a bad reason to join something- although it is often the prevailing reason here in the slightly crazy DMV.

PP, as a swim parent this strikes me as leaving out some key details. I’m not doubting that you found plenty of options for your “not very good” kid at age 11, but there is no way that any of these were top clubs in the area. More likely these were the clubs that take everyone.

Well I think the 'best clubs' and 'top clubs' criteria is pretty meaningless- but NCAP is ranked 2nd in the nation and the top club in the PVS by USA swimming's virtual club championship. https://www.usaswimming.org/times/vcc

I am aware of 4 kids transferring to NCAP this year ranging in age from 12-16. One of them has a couple b cuts and a one bb cut. One of them has an a cut, a couple bb cuts and a could b cuts. the other two have a couple b cuts.

Basically, if the club has room in a practice group- they will take the kid. The clubs want to fill their spots.

I have a 13YO who is still short of B cuts despite years of steady work, including meets - just not fast (but is realistic and just enjoys the sport). A kid with those times almost can't change clubs.

have you tried? why do you want to change clubs? I see people saying you can't get into a group with performance standards if you don't meet the standards- that's true, but that is true if you started swimming at 7 or if you started at 13.... Now is the assumption that if you had started at 7 the kid would have the performance standards? I guess that's possible. It's also possible that the kid wouldn't- like the PP above who says their kid has had years to steady work.....

Is it realistic for a kid to have A cuts at 11 if they’ve been doing FINS or two days a week TOLL as a 9-10? I think that would be a very rare kid.