Do A meet families ever take vacation during summer swim season?

[Anonymous]

Our team has plenty of kids missing A meets for various reasons. In DCs age group, several top swimmers who would absolutely swim A meets have been out for one or more this summer for vacations, other sports, club swim related training OOS, etc. Some of these kids go to - and do well at - All Stars, and this is not a lower division team.

[Anonymous]

No we don’t. But only true for die hard pool families. Also depends on the kids. If they want to skip meets, they will, but run the risk of losing their spot in the A meet because others are working hard and getting faster.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention high point awards here. If you have a top swimmer in the age group, and they could be a contender for your team’s age group & gender high points award, they might want to be at every A meet so they don’t lose the chance at that. It sounds kind of intense, but if they’re a kid who’s worked really hard and is really fast, they could care about trying for that. My kid does. And honestly, it would be a trophy that reflects a lot of effort.

[Anonymous]

At ours some definitely do. MCSL Division K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best summer swimmers are year-round swimmers. Year-round swimmers tend to take vacations in August because that's when clubs take a 2-3 week break. No serious swimmer goes on vacation for 2 weeks in July. But some A meet swimmers are probably not particularly serious, so you might catch a break there.

That doesn't work for high school kids playing a fall sport. We take vacation in early July and deal with an upset coach. It's what works best for our family

We’ve been swimming year round for 15 years. I can think of one best club swimmers who take off before August. jy has the championship long course meets and July/August has Zones and Futures. If your child is still doing two sports in HS, he’s likely not one of the best. Almost all best club swimmers take off after the last big club meets in the summer.

[Anonymous]

No and that’s why we are now swimming anymore.

[Anonymous]

We try not to miss relay carnival because my kids love it and one of them made all stars a couple summers ago. They both compete in other sports so one kid will miss two of five of the meets. The other one will make all the meets but if he wants to skip one I am fine with it. He is in various sports camps during the summer and some of them are a grind so swimming on Saturday becomes unappealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hoping my B meet kid can get a chance to swim in the A meet.

All my kids swim A and we're getting ready to leave for 2 weeks. Good luck to your kids filling in, swim fast and have a blast!

[Anonymous]

For lower division teams, A meet family vacations decimate the teams, especially the relays, resulting in losses to weaker teams.

It is what it is. That's why we're a lower division team, and we're OK with that.

[Anonymous]

Do what's right for your family. That should be your only consideration.

[Anonymous]

All stars this year is during Futures so there will be a lot of scratches with the best 15-18 kids not doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Don't listen to them, plenty of A meet swimmers leave because these meets don't mean much to them whatsoever. No matter how much you think it matters to the star NCAP swimmers, they really don't.

Star NCAP families aren’t taking vacation in June or July regardless and many of them do in fact care about their Summer teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For lower division teams, A meet family vacations decimate the teams, especially the relays, resulting in losses to weaker teams.

It is what it is. That's why we're a lower division team, and we're OK with that.

This is true - our lower division team loses meets whenever one of our larger families goes on vacation. There is occasionally a little grumbling about it from some of the more invested parents, but generally everyone is chill about it. In our case, it only creates A meet possibilities for swimmers in a couple of deep age groups; in other cases it results in empty lanes and swim-ups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Don't listen to them, plenty of A meet swimmers leave because these meets don't mean much to them whatsoever. No matter how much you think it matters to the star NCAP swimmers, they really don't.

Star NCAP families aren’t taking vacation in June or July regardless and many of them do in fact care about their Summer teams.

Agree. Plus, as a PP mentioned, kids are going for the high point award so they don’t want to miss a meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Don't listen to them, plenty of A meet swimmers leave because these meets don't mean much to them whatsoever. No matter how much you think it matters to the star NCAP swimmers, they really don't.

Star NCAP families aren’t taking vacation in June or July regardless and many of them do in fact care about their Summer teams.

Agree. Plus, as a PP mentioned, kids are going for the high point award so they don’t want to miss a meet.

It's also Long Course season and many up-and-coming swimmers need times in various events. Hence, many families (including ours) wait until August to go on vacation.