Summer swim brings out the crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I can see both sides. Posting a ladder removes the parent or swimmer needing to hate-watch B meet events to see whether they kept their spot on the relay. Posting a ladder should remove a situation like what someone posted above about the team rep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I had no idea there were pools where people didn't post a ladder. We have a few kids (and, yes, sadly a few parents) who stalk the ladder postings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Agree. Also a team rep. In my experience, coaches seed individual events and relays to maximize points/place. Reps review the entries to ensure they accurately reflect the ladder. It's about as objective as it gets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I had no idea there were pools where people didn't post a ladder. We have a few kids (and, yes, sadly a few parents) who stalk the ladder postings.

Listen, it is very hard for the 4 and 5 spot kid, especially when they flip flop every week. I have seen the situation many times where the 8 year old on the relay for two meets gets beaten by .2 seconds and now is the understudy (alternate) on the divisional and all star relay team. It’s hard for kiddos, even if it is fair. So “stalking” is harsh.

[Anonymous]

There a middle ground with the ladder where you just post the top 10 (or whatever number 5 or above) in each event so that people can’t see who is at the bottom, but there is some transparency to the selection for A meets.

[Anonymous]

We've heard that a lot of pools don't post their ladders. We've been concerned that it will be perceived as a lack of transparency and foster rumors of favoritism over times (even though the rationale for not posting one is actually well-intentioned).

[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.

This 100%. The best parents are the 14+ club swimmers' parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've heard that a lot of pools don't post their ladders. We've been concerned that it will be perceived as a lack of transparency and foster rumors of favoritism over times (even though the rationale for not posting one is actually well-intentioned).

Our pool does not post the ladder and I don't like it. I have a kid who pretty much lives on the bubble (sometimes in A meets and sometimes not) and it makes it very hard to tell what is actually going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've heard that a lot of pools don't post their ladders. We've been concerned that it will be perceived as a lack of transparency and foster rumors of favoritism over times (even though the rationale for not posting one is actually well-intentioned).

As a former team rep, I fully agree. Neither the coaches nor the reps need parents wondering if their kid is being unfairly left out.

[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. Do we have crazy 10u parents? A few, but by u12-14 they have usually seen the light.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Posting the ladder is a big indicator of bad culture and feeds the crazy parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've heard that a lot of pools don't post their ladders. We've been concerned that it will be perceived as a lack of transparency and foster rumors of favoritism over times (even though the rationale for not posting one is actually well-intentioned).

Our ladder is not posted. Parents know the NVSL times and will watch B times and sort of "know" where their kid is in the line up. Parents will ask the team rep all the time where their kid and she will tell them they are number three or number seven, etc. But doesn't name the other swimmers. The idea is just to encourage the swimmer to improve their time.

Just ask the rep.

[Anonymous]

They really should start all this in mid June once school lets out.

[Anonymous]

Division 6 team - ladder is not posted. I have never heard anyone even ask about a ladder. We are a very relaxed team and one I am proud to be a part of!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This 100%. The best parents are the 14+ club swimmers' parents.

True, but even the club 11-12 and 13-14 parents can be pretty cool (at least for girls). They all know that summer swim is just for fun. DD isn't attending summer swim practices because they conflict with her club swim practices. She will go to the spirit nights and other team activities, but the coaches know she has club commitments. This frees them up to coach the 8 & U and 9-10s who aren't club swimmers.

It's all good as long as the kids are having fun. Summer swim parents aren't swimming, so they need to get over themselves.