Summer swim brings out the crazy

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:On big teams a lot of younger kids could care less about A meets

Agree. When they are younger, there are just as many non-A kids as A kids. They all have a good time. It's about 13+ where the divide starts. The kids at A meets and all the adjacent extra meets spend hours and hours together. Of course they are a clique. The social dynamics of older kids also get more complicated. At our large higher division pool, most non-A meet teens just drop out.

I hazard to say older kids drop out of swim there are a multitude of reasons including other interests like other sports where there's a big summer season component (e.g., lacrosses, baseball), other camps. I don't know that i would pin the the reason why older kids drop out solely based on "oh, I'm not fast enough to swim in A meets".

Long time summer swim parent here. I don't know. The same names show up year after year for the A meet. You can watch them age through the team. If what you were saying was the main cause and it had zero to do with being in A meets, an equal proportion of the A kids would end up dropping out. Seems kind of notable that the A meet kids all stay and the B meet kids mostly drop out as teens.

It is what it is. It's a structure that creates 2 different experiences kids are having. What teenager is going to keep hanging around to spend a long evening at a B meet with a silly theme and go to some pep rallies. Most of them aren't. The B meet swimmers who stick around as teens on our team end up junior coaches. Which that makes sense to me. A paid job and leadership opportunity.

Do the same names appear at A meets year after year because those are the kids who do year round swim? While other kids do travel baseball, travel hockey, lacrosse, etc. Because that's what it seems like at our pool - and the older kids drop out because they're busy with other commitments rather than being disappointed in not going to B meets.

At the very strong pools there are plenty of kids doing year round swim who still don't make A meets. I don't think kids at any age drop out because they are disappointed about not going to B meets. I think they start to not feel part of the team and cliques form just because they are not there for a lot of meets. Some B meet kids have strong friendships and still keep on with it.

We have 54 club swimmers on our team and trust me - there are MANY of them that don’t make the A meets.

Right. The summer swim clique includes some swimmers who don’t do club swim. It’s all about the parents who are brown nosers and take over all the volunteer positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On big teams a lot of younger kids could care less about A meets

Agree. When they are younger, there are just as many non-A kids as A kids. They all have a good time. It's about 13+ where the divide starts. The kids at A meets and all the adjacent extra meets spend hours and hours together. Of course they are a clique. The social dynamics of older kids also get more complicated. At our large higher division pool, most non-A meet teens just drop out.

I hazard to say older kids drop out of swim there are a multitude of reasons including other interests like other sports where there's a big summer season component (e.g., lacrosses, baseball), other camps. I don't know that i would pin the the reason why older kids drop out solely based on "oh, I'm not fast enough to swim in A meets".

Long time summer swim parent here. I don't know. The same names show up year after year for the A meet. You can watch them age through the team. If what you were saying was the main cause and it had zero to do with being in A meets, an equal proportion of the A kids would end up dropping out. Seems kind of notable that the A meet kids all stay and the B meet kids mostly drop out as teens.

It is what it is. It's a structure that creates 2 different experiences kids are having. What teenager is going to keep hanging around to spend a long evening at a B meet with a silly theme and go to some pep rallies. Most of them aren't. The B meet swimmers who stick around as teens on our team end up junior coaches. Which that makes sense to me. A paid job and leadership opportunity.

Do the same names appear at A meets year after year because those are the kids who do year round swim? While other kids do travel baseball, travel hockey, lacrosse, etc. Because that's what it seems like at our pool - and the older kids drop out because they're busy with other commitments rather than being disappointed in not going to B meets.

At the very strong pools there are plenty of kids doing year round swim who still don't make A meets. I don't think kids at any age drop out because they are disappointed about not going to B meets. I think they start to not feel part of the team and cliques form just because they are not there for a lot of meets. Some B meet kids have strong friendships and still keep on with it.

Yes one of my kids is done year because even though they are a 2 stroke A meet swimmer who never really felt part of the age group clique because they don’t swim year round. They do two other sports very seriously and they just felt it wasn’t worth the time of it’s not fun.

My other kids division only has a a few ok year round swimmers and a lot of just good all round athletes and they are still having a great time at the A meets. It is what it is, I don’t have any gripes and I understand the dynamic of the club kids being super close friends.