I hate almost everything about summer swim team

[Anonymous]

OP back. If it were 20 hours all summer like some posters say it would be a non-issue. But it is 20 hours some weeks.

After reflection, I think the issue is that even after 8 years we haven't really connected with the other families. We don't live near the pool, and my kids go to a different school. Spending 20 hours in a week with a group of people you consider friends would be okay, but this is a drag. One of my kids would be much happier if they knew more people. We are going to try to switch to a pool closer to home.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Anyone have experience with DC's summer swim and/or the DC Wave developmental team?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP back. If it were 20 hours all summer like some posters say it would be a non-issue. But it is 20 hours some weeks.

After reflection, I think the issue is that even after 8 years we haven't really connected with the other families. We don't live near the pool, and my kids go to a different school. Spending 20 hours in a week with a group of people you consider friends would be okay, but this is a drag. One of my kids would be much happier if they knew more people. We are going to try to switch to a pool closer to home.

This explains a lot. If you don't live near the pool so kids can't bike or walk and don't know other parents to carpool with, you end up having to go to every practice. That's why you're spending 20 hours a week at the pool. You should definitely switch pools, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP back. If it were 20 hours all summer like some posters say it would be a non-issue. But it is 20 hours some weeks.

After reflection, I think the issue is that even after 8 years we haven't really connected with the other families. We don't live near the pool, and my kids go to a different school. Spending 20 hours in a week with a group of people you consider friends would be okay, but this is a drag. One of my kids would be much happier if they knew more people. We are going to try to switch to a pool closer to home.

This explains a lot. If you don't live near the pool so kids can't bike or walk and don't know other parents to carpool with, you end up having to go to every practice. That's why you're spending 20 hours a week at the pool. You should definitely switch pools, OP.

That's sorta an important detail you left out Op. Why dont/didn't you join a pool in your neighborhood or at least one in your kids' school pyramid.

[Anonymous]

At our pool the parents of the older kids attended the majority of the meets with their kids. It was a summer tradition to go and socialize with the other parents that they knew and cheer on their kids.

And...

There were even some swim team families that would go to the pool on no meet evenings to socialize, kick back and order pizza or grill while their kids swam and played. They loved being outside and they lived at the pool during the summer.

[Anonymous]

^And before someone asks....it was a combination of both WOHPs and SAHPs who lived at the pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6 weeks? Memorial day through all stars is 9 weeks, some weekends both days.

Practice starts after Mem Day, but meets are still 2 weeks off. It's 8 Saturdays, including time trials, which should zip along quickly, divisionals and All-Stars. There are 2 possible weekends where it's both days: relays and all-stars. If your kids are having a good time, you can't suck it up for a total of 20 hours max?

Weallll - it's not quite the same in all of the leagues. In NVSL, we have the Saturdays like you describe through All-Stars. But then there are the Monday evening B meets (our team did 3 this season), Wednesday evening Relay Carnivals (our team has 3 this year), plus the IM Invitational which is also on a Monday evening. So we've had a meet schedule of this since July 4th: Saturday/Monday/Wednesday/Thursday(due to a rescheduled relay carnival)/Saturday/Monday/Wednesday/Saturday/Monday. If you're at a small pool, then many of the parents end up having to volunteer at EVERY event. At our B meet last night, the kids and parents were feeling the burn out. This is where you really need a Team Rep and a Coach and fellow team members/parents who can keep people going! Add on top of that the "drama" of competitive swimming for the kids of ALL ages - in the A meets one week, bumped the next.... Don't get me wrong, I love summer swim and truly think the benefits more than outweigh the downsides. But I can see how some/many parents look at it and think, "Are you kidding me? Is this really what I want for my summer? What in the hell did I get myself into?"

That is insane. Sounds like you live in a neighborhood in which the swim team leaders don't know how to just say no. Sounds like they say yes to every hair-brained idea. We only have 2 meets a week -- all ages, abilities and strokes -- and one relay carnival and one all-star meet the entire season. We skip the relay carnival because it is well, just...dumb. Heck if I'm going to be out there baking in the hot sun all the time. Not healthy.

[Anonymous]

I loved swim team as a kid, but todays teams, no. We dropped. What I did not like (in addition to all the other things mentioned) was that the team was HUGE. It had 75% under 10, and so many under 8. Just waiting and waiting and waiting for all of them to swim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP back. If it were 20 hours all summer like some posters say it would be a non-issue. But it is 20 hours some weeks.

After reflection, I think the issue is that even after 8 years we haven't really connected with the other families. We don't live near the pool, and my kids go to a different school. Spending 20 hours in a week with a group of people you consider friends would be okay, but this is a drag. One of my kids would be much happier if they knew more people. We are going to try to switch to a pool closer to home.

Same here. After driving them back and forth, I did not want to also do volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am nauseated by the number of volunteers - it is said - is needed to run a swim meet.

How many?

Why?

45 or so. You need to set up, staff clerk of course (4 or so), stroke and turn judges plus starter/referee means about 10, timers are 3 to a lane times 6 lanes plus head timer, results needs about 8 (lots of ribbons at B meets), then clean up. There could easily be 250+ kids in a B meet.

That sounds nuts. Surely, most of this could be outsourced?

Most people would prefer to keep costs low instead of paying someone else to do it.

If you don't want to volunteer our pool let's you pay a fee. I might do that next year so I can actually see my kid swim and not waste my entire evening which I could be billing hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am nauseated by the number of volunteers - it is said - is needed to run a swim meet.

How many?

Why?

45 or so. You need to set up, staff clerk of course (4 or so), stroke and turn judges plus starter/referee means about 10, timers are 3 to a lane times 6 lanes plus head timer, results needs about 8 (lots of ribbons at B meets), then clean up. There could easily be 250+ kids in a B meet.

That sounds nuts. Surely, most of this could be outsourced?

Most people would prefer to keep costs low instead of paying someone else to do it.

If you don't want to volunteer our pool let's you pay a fee. I might do that next year so I can actually see my kid swim and not waste my entire evening which I could be billing hours.

I don't consider volunteering a waste of my evening. It shows my daughter that I care about her and her team, and that it takes work from everybody to make things happen. It's also how I get to know other parents and feel less on the margins of the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate how the average swimmers have to sit around and listen to the names of the star swimmers and the advice to the star swimmers at the daily practices. It is not a team sport but they call it a team. I am new to this whole swim team thing so didn't appreciate this in advance.

Not everyone is a winner. Maybe it should motivate your kid enough to become a star swimmer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP back. If it were 20 hours all summer like some posters say it would be a non-issue. But it is 20 hours some weeks.

After reflection, I think the issue is that even after 8 years we haven't really connected with the other families. We don't live near the pool, and my kids go to a different school. Spending 20 hours in a week with a group of people you consider friends would be okay, but this is a drag. One of my kids would be much happier if they knew more people. We are going to try to switch to a pool closer to home.

Same here. After driving them back and forth, I did not want to also volunteer.

Of course you don't. Best that others do all that time-consuming volunteer work that you are obviously too busy and important to do

[Anonymous]

Needing so many volunteers shows that the adults are very inefficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Needing so many volunteers shows that the adults are very inefficient.

I was just a runner at our meet. It is not inefficient. You need three timers per lane. Runners, clerks. It's pretty efficient. Just takes a lot of people.