Summer swim brings out the crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We belong to a double digit division pool and the people who want this job are crazy, in my opinion. They want the control of sitting in the seeding meetings, having power, and bossing people around.

They forget that summer swim is supposed to be fun and honestly make it the very opposite of fun. To the point where good people no longer want to participate in the club because of the crazy drama!

I agree. People don’t want to volunteer in the key roles anymore because of drama and uncivilized behavior from other key volunteers who are on power trips. On the other end, we don’t want the clueless parents who have no understanding about swimming to serve as team reps either. Our pools team reps do not have club swimmers, A meet swimmers, and were never swimmers. They really don’t know what they are doing, or truly care. But they are friends with the other key volunteers and leadership and so that’s why they got the position. Summer swim has become a miserable experience because of so many horrible parents in the DMV.

[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.

Oh yeah, those coveted volunteer positions that everyone fights over

Lemme guess, you are a family who thinks you shouldn’t have to volunteer like everyone else for some reason.

Lol. Getting volunteers is like pulling teeth. Which are the coveted positions? Are you one of the pools with table workers in the air conditioning??

I’m well aware. So are all the other parents. We don’t want to volunteer at meets and events with the snobby, immature, cliquey, gossipy, drama filled volunteer “leaders” who do take over the head positions. They do “covet” these positions (because they need a life and) because they want influence so their kids are favored or hired as coaches. They are on power trips. In my years of experience, normal parents don’t want to be around or volunteer with the crazy swim parents.

So you can't stand there and time because the other parents are gossipy? Sounds like you are making excuses.

I have actively volunteered on my kid's team for the last 10+ years. Here is another newsflash for you, if anything my kid gets worse treatment as a result because I have butted heads with the coach a few times.

Sounds like your pool has less drama than others. That’s right. People are not volunteering because of how other adults behave and treat people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We belong to a double digit division pool and the people who want this job are crazy, in my opinion. They want the control of sitting in the seeding meetings, having power, and bossing people around.

They forget that summer swim is supposed to be fun and honestly make it the very opposite of fun. To the point where good people no longer want to participate in the club because of the crazy drama!

What’s a seeding meeting? Aren’t the fastest kids for each stroke put in the race and seeded according to their published seedtime?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We belong to a double digit division pool and the people who want this job are crazy, in my opinion. They want the control of sitting in the seeding meetings, having power, and bossing people around.

They forget that summer swim is supposed to be fun and honestly make it the very opposite of fun. To the point where good people no longer want to participate in the club because of the crazy drama!

What’s a seeding meeting? Aren’t the fastest kids for each stroke put in the race and seeded according to their published seedtime?

The league has a seeding meeting every pre-season to assign teams to a division. The team reps attend this meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We belong to a double digit division pool and the people who want this job are crazy, in my opinion. They want the control of sitting in the seeding meetings, having power, and bossing people around.

They forget that summer swim is supposed to be fun and honestly make it the very opposite of fun. To the point where good people no longer want to participate in the club because of the crazy drama!

Agreed I see crazy stuff when the reps kid is 5th / 6tg on the ladder and somehow swimming that stroke at the A meet. Weird
What’s a seeding meeting? Aren’t the fastest kids for each stroke put in the race and seeded according to their published seedtime?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We belong to a double digit division pool and the people who want this job are crazy, in my opinion. They want the control of sitting in the seeding meetings, having power, and bossing people around.

They forget that summer swim is supposed to be fun and honestly make it the very opposite of fun. To the point where good people no longer want to participate in the club because of the crazy drama!

What’s a seeding meeting? Aren’t the fastest kids for each stroke put in the race and seeded according to their published seedtime?

The league has a seeding meeting every pre-season to assign teams to a division. The team reps attend this meeting.

There is a seeding committee that does all that work. Team Reps simply attend the pre-season meeting and are told what division their pools are in, as well as the scheduled for meets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We belong to a double digit division pool and the people who want this job are crazy, in my opinion. They want the control of sitting in the seeding meetings, having power, and bossing people around.

They forget that summer swim is supposed to be fun and honestly make it the very opposite of fun. To the point where good people no longer want to participate in the club because of the crazy drama!

Agreed I see crazy stuff when the reps kid is 5th / 6tg on the ladder and somehow swimming that stroke at the A meet. Weird
What’s a seeding meeting? Aren’t the fastest kids for each stroke put in the race and seeded according to their published seedtime?

yep saw this happen too this past weekend

[Anonymous]

There is a seeding meeting every week…before the A Meet to decide on the swimmers and what events they are swimming.

What pool should do is allow the events to be selected by the coach(es), but at many pools the team reps get their tentacles into the seeding to favor their own kids.

[Anonymous]

We’re in D1 and I love that the most about our pool. The coaches make the choices. Not the reps and they are unapologetic about it.

Less drama with the goal being to win the meet. Sometimes your kid swims an event they love, sometimes not but the goal is the most points so the team can win as a team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a seeding meeting every week…before the A Meet to decide on the swimmers and what events they are swimming.

What pool should do is allow the events to be selected by the coach(es), but at many pools the team reps get their tentacles into the seeding to favor their own kids.

yep

[Anonymous]

NVSL makes MCSL look like a day at the beach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We belong to a double digit division pool and the people who want this job are crazy, in my opinion. They want the control of sitting in the seeding meetings, having power, and bossing people around.

They forget that summer swim is supposed to be fun and honestly make it the very opposite of fun. To the point where good people no longer want to participate in the club because of the crazy drama!

I wonder if we’re on the same team. Our former team rep was ousted by some power hungry crazy parents. It’s very clear that there is drama on the team.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Ugh I felt this yesterday. Another mom
Pointing out that her daughter moved up a lane. Just have fun it’s just summer swim.

WHY? Just why. I will never understand that level of crazy.

I just drop my kids off and leave. why bother with the nonsense?

This is the way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re in D1 and I love that the most about our pool. The coaches make the choices. Not the reps and they are unapologetic about it.

Less drama with the goal being to win the meet. Sometimes your kid swims an event they love, sometimes not but the goal is the most points so the team can win as a team.

That’s how it should be. Head coach should be the only one seeding the A meet no parents should involved, because the parents aren’t qualified, it’s not their place, and because of favoritism or personal bias.

Also pointing out that seeding the A meet is done weekly by the team (should be done only by the coach), with the goal to win the meet and using the fastest times of available swimmers. That is different than the “seeding” that the league does each year to determine what division a team should be in. There is a seeding committee in each league, usually made up of team reps and other league volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh I felt this yesterday. Another mom
Pointing out that her daughter moved up a lane. Just have fun it’s just summer swim.

WHY? Just why. I will never understand that level of crazy.

I just drop my kids off and leave. why bother with the nonsense?

This is the way.

Because the adult nonsense affects all the kids and the whole team. The kids not chosen as coaches, chosen for A meets, included in social activities, included on the end of season awards video or social media, and more. The same kids are favored over and over because of the parent influence. Not to mention that the awful adults gossip to their children, which is then spread to other children.