Elite Swimming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid has futures times, I would ask your coach for help, and start emailing places where you might live. Any team (maybe not the ones run by county) will be salivating to take your kid, I promise

Really? Everyone on my DDs team has futures times, that is expected at that level I thought?

I doubt that…. Not every kid has a futures cut, especially boys. My swimmer graduated with winter juniors cut but got his first sectional cut in 9th grade. A 14 year old boy with a futures cut is elite.

Oh, I missed the age 14. Everyone in my DDs group is in HS. Maybe all but 1 or 2 kids have at least futures cuts I think.

Where does your child swim?

[Anonymous]

I would not pick a neighborhood based on swimming. Pick a school and then investigate the clubs that are close. There are a lot of great swim clubs in this area. Also, I was at summer J. Nats with my DC and I'd take a look to see which clubs could field a relay and start your research there. However, I honestly don't think that the club makes much difference, the coach fit is more important. My DC was with a large, well respected club in this area but really didn't like the coaches who coached the top groups. Moved to a smaller team and has done much better.
USASwimming makes it easy to switch clubs. I agree with the above posters -- get your current coaches involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid has futures times, I would ask your coach for help, and start emailing places where you might live. Any team (maybe not the ones run by county) will be salivating to take your kid, I promise

Really? Everyone on my DDs team has futures times, that is expected at that level I thought?

I doubt that…. Not every kid has a futures cut, especially boys. My swimmer graduated with winter juniors cut but got his first sectional cut in 9th grade. A 14 year old boy with a futures cut is elite.

Oh, I missed the age 14. Everyone in my DDs group is in HS. Maybe all but 1 or 2 kids have at least futures cuts I think.

A lot of the big clubs have different levels in HS. At our club you have to have a Futures cut in order to get into certain training groups.

[Anonymous]

OP, it’s important to know that, for example? NCap Prep is really known for freestyle (mid to long distance) at 15 and over. We know lots of kids who quit or switched at 15, 16 bc their needs weren’t being met even though the coach is very famous.

ASA is smaller and not on those USA Swimming lists but has a lot of fast girls making cuts at Junior Nationals, etc

NCap West, AAC or RMSC is probably your best bet for a group of very fast boys unless your kid is a fast 500/1000/1500 freestyler, then you *might* consider NCap Prep, but we know so many people who detest that coach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, it’s important to know that, for example? NCap Prep is really known for freestyle (mid to long distance) at 15 and over. We know lots of kids who quit or switched at 15, 16 bc their needs weren’t being met even though the coach is very famous.

ASA is smaller and not on those USA Swimming lists but has a lot of fast girls making cuts at Junior Nationals, etc

NCap West, AAC or RMSC is probably your best bet for a group of very fast boys unless your kid is a fast 500/1000/1500 freestyler, then you *might* consider NCap Prep, but we know so many people who detest that coach

I would not recommend AAC for an elite swimmer. I don't think that the training is there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That list is meaningless- if you get a bad site/coach no level compensates

Go meet all the coaches and go join a practice then decide

Meeting all the coaches only helps if coaches stay forever, which they don't.

If the USA Swimming levels were meaningless they wouldn't exist. You can go to the USAS web site to see what these designations mean -- the criteria are quite specific -- and if it doesn't matter to you, then ignore. For me, the Safe Sport one is the most important.

Safe Sport is a joke. The recognition of it is meaningless. There are good people that are swim coaches and there are creeps. This area has both.

I'm guessing your team has failed to what is needed. Not a good look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That list is meaningless- if you get a bad site/coach no level compensates

Go meet all the coaches and go join a practice then decide

Meeting all the coaches only helps if coaches stay forever, which they don't.

If the USA Swimming levels were meaningless they wouldn't exist. You can go to the USAS web site to see what these designations mean -- the criteria are quite specific -- and if it doesn't matter to you, then ignore. For me, the Safe Sport one is the most important.

Safe Sport is a joke. The recognition of it is meaningless. There are good people that are swim coaches and there are creeps. This area has both.

I'm guessing your team has failed to what is needed. Not a good look.

In the list the PP gave only 2 clubs had the Safe Sport seal or whatever. Neither of those clubs is elite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid has futures times, I would ask your coach for help, and start emailing places where you might live. Any team (maybe not the ones run by county) will be salivating to take your kid, I promise

The bolded. Ask your child's coach, who is presumably (hopefully) far more knowledgeable than people here. At the very least, s/he can tell you what to look for, if not give direct recommendations.

[Anonymous]

All coaches have to be Safesport certified for USAswimming (I think). The safeport designations just mean that the parents also need to take it. At our club they have a team intrasquad meet and play the video and then had all the parents sign a sheet. That doesn't really seem like training, more like gaming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it’s important to know that, for example? NCap Prep is really known for freestyle (mid to long distance) at 15 and over. We know lots of kids who quit or switched at 15, 16 bc their needs weren’t being met even though the coach is very famous.

ASA is smaller and not on those USA Swimming lists but has a lot of fast girls making cuts at Junior Nationals, etc

NCap West, AAC or RMSC is probably your best bet for a group of very fast boys unless your kid is a fast 500/1000/1500 freestyler, then you *might* consider NCap Prep, but we know so many people who detest that coach

I would not recommend AAC for an elite swimmer. I don't think that the training is there.

I guess you didn’t watch the last Olympics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it’s important to know that, for example? NCap Prep is really known for freestyle (mid to long distance) at 15 and over. We know lots of kids who quit or switched at 15, 16 bc their needs weren’t being met even though the coach is very famous.

ASA is smaller and not on those USA Swimming lists but has a lot of fast girls making cuts at Junior Nationals, etc

NCap West, AAC or RMSC is probably your best bet for a group of very fast boys unless your kid is a fast 500/1000/1500 freestyler, then you *might* consider NCap Prep, but we know so many people who detest that coach

I would not recommend AAC for an elite swimmer. I don't think that the training is there.

I guess you didn’t watch the last Olympics?

Torri Huske is an outlier for that club. There are kids that are so talented and/or athletically gifted that the coaching level doesn’t matter as much. Lydia Jacoby is from Alaska, not exactly a hotbed of elite swimming, but she is so talented that it didn’t matter that she didn’t get elite training. However, there are a whole bunch of talented kids for whom the right training and coaching does make a difference, whether you are talking about getting to swim in college or beyond that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it’s important to know that, for example? NCap Prep is really known for freestyle (mid to long distance) at 15 and over. We know lots of kids who quit or switched at 15, 16 bc their needs weren’t being met even though the coach is very famous.

ASA is smaller and not on those USA Swimming lists but has a lot of fast girls making cuts at Junior Nationals, etc

NCap West, AAC or RMSC is probably your best bet for a group of very fast boys unless your kid is a fast 500/1000/1500 freestyler, then you *might* consider NCap Prep, but we know so many people who detest that coach

I would not recommend AAC for an elite swimmer. I don't think that the training is there.

I guess you didn’t watch the last Olympics?

Torri Huske is an outlier for that club. There are kids that are so talented and/or athletically gifted that the coaching level doesn’t matter as much. Lydia Jacoby is from Alaska, not exactly a hotbed of elite swimming, but she is so talented that it didn’t matter that she didn’t get elite training. However, there are a whole bunch of talented kids for whom the right training and coaching does make a difference, whether you are talking about getting to swim in college or beyond that.

Agree that she is an outlier. Also AAC simply doesn't get its elite groups in the kinds of meets that other clubs do that produce better results. They barely participate in travel meets and when you look at their top swimmer ranks and times, they just don't stack up. I also think that Machine is a great option and soon will be the DC area's top club.

[Anonymous]

The Princeton coach told us they respect Machine the most out of all the DMV teams - and they currently have NCap swimmers on their team!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Princeton coach told us they respect Machine the most out of all the DMV teams - and they currently have NCap swimmers on their team!

That seems to be a weird statement when they don’t have any Machine swimmers on either their men’s or women’s team.

[Anonymous]

I’m just telling you what they told us 🤷🏻‍♀️