Not Good Enough for Swim Teams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you really want your son to swim and be successful you need to support him with driving at least for a year. I know families who drove for 2-3 years to more remote clubs just for their kids get better and be offered convenient times closer to home. US champions drive to specific coaches over 40 min because those coaches can make them do superior times, and week nights is not a bad idea for pre-teens. Training late pm is more easier on teens than 5am practices offered by most local teams, certainly gives more time for homework and friends after school. You seem like you don’t want to sacrifice your own convenience for your son

I’m asking for recommendations. Do you have some? It’s hard to say yes with vague, non specific recommendations.

Can you drive to McLean and Gaithersburg? If yes shoot me a message at [e-mail]. I can’t name the coaches or programs here

You don't need to do all this. You have to wonder why they cannot share here.

Maybe parents just don’t want to share coaches or teams classes info online? It would be pretty unethical to write here who’s better or offers better price/value than Toll or JFD, or RMSC. Coaches and programs are sensitive to that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know some families that liked Tollefson and some that thought it was a huge waste of money. It probably depends on the coach.

All of the groups are either really good or really bad depending on the coach. I used to wonder what was the issue posted here with RMSC till we got that coach I am sure everyone is referring to. That coach is a huge weak link.

There are 2 spooky dinosaurs coaches at 2 different rmsc sites, so it must be one of those

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you really want your son to swim and be successful you need to support him with driving at least for a year. I know families who drove for 2-3 years to more remote clubs just for their kids get better and be offered convenient times closer to home. US champions drive to specific coaches over 40 min because those coaches can make them do superior times, and week nights is not a bad idea for pre-teens. Training late pm is more easier on teens than 5am practices offered by most local teams, certainly gives more time for homework and friends after school. You seem like you don’t want to sacrifice your own convenience for your son

I’m asking for recommendations. Do you have some? It’s hard to say yes with vague, non specific recommendations.

Can you drive to McLean and Gaithersburg? If yes shoot me a message at [e-mail]. I can’t name the coaches or programs here

You don't need to do all this. You have to wonder why they cannot share here.

OP again. I did not post this. I emailed you ling_fu

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highly recommend Tollefsen for stroke and endurance. It’s expensive but gives excellent instruction.

Do kids move from here to swim team? And, yes, it's crazy expensive!

[Anonymous]

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Thank you for this thoughtful reply. What you say make sense. I will do this with him. My child is adopted and his of his bio birth parents were Div 1 athletes when he was born. Sadly neither I nor his dad are athletes!

Ah, understood! We also are adoptive parents. There are many ways that we are very similar to our kids but there are a couple where we're not … and sports is it for me. I can't dribble a basketball to save my life but one of our kids plays D1. I most definitely CAN, however, cite the rules for all levels of basketball from 4-5 through college, and I can talk strategy/tactics with you all day long if you have a mind to be bored to death by a basketball mom. It is a life!

It also may help you to know that my favorite swim coach couldn't swim a lick. It was a pleasure working with him because of his enthusiasm and intense desire to support me no matter what. He would read articles describing techniques and then discuss them with me but he was a firm believe in letting strokes develop in swimmers given their natural body predispositions (or something like that). So I adapted what made me go faster, and dropped what didn't. I guess what I'm trying to say is that your athletic ability (or not) should not be an impediment to your enthusiasm to support your son.

I think you're getting a lot of great advice here. Take up the offers some folks are giving you. Start subscribing to some of the swim magazines. Get ready to drive a lot and to sit at the side of the pool. I love what you're doing to try to help your son! Good luck!

Thanks! You sound like someone I'd love to have as a friend. And, I can so relate to your first paragraph! All of what you've shared really.

I appreciate all of the feedback provided! Thanks all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, when you say he 'has some form issues" are you saying is not legal in all four strokes?

Because if he is at a least legal, there are several options.

Thanks. He is legal (I believe) in all but butterfly. He struggles w butterfly. Looks horrible. The dolphin movement is a challenge. He’s not flexible in that way.

OK then, based on where you live, you should look up The Capitol Sea Devils Age Group 3 and Bronze development groups, both expect him to be legal in three strokes, and both have 12 year olds.

Are sea devils age group 3 and bronze development group separate groups? I looked at website and see must be legal in all 4 strokes, even if you can only do the last one for 25 meters. Am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

I think AG3 and Bronze are for different age groups, OP. It's also next to impossible to get your preferred location and time IME. They are usually full with clinic swimmers - kids who move up from the clinic program and get first crack at registration. you may be looking at a 6:30 a.m. practice in D.C. if your child really wants to join a team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you really want your son to swim and be successful you need to support him with driving at least for a year. I know families who drove for 2-3 years to more remote clubs just for their kids get better and be offered convenient times closer to home. US champions drive to specific coaches over 40 min because those coaches can make them do superior times, and week nights is not a bad idea for pre-teens. Training late pm is more easier on teens than 5am practices offered by most local teams, certainly gives more time for homework and friends after school. You seem like you don’t want to sacrifice your own convenience for your son

I have to agree about the driving. So many families I know drove their kids 30-40 minutes to more remote NCAP or RMSC locations in the hopes they could get their preferred location and times in 2-3 years. Most did but it was a long 2-3 years!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highly recommend Tollefsen for stroke and endurance. It’s expensive but gives excellent instruction.

Do kids move from here to swim team? And, yes, it's crazy expensive!

To my knowledge, no. The kids who take the stroke and endurance classes are not usually kids they look at for swim team. It's a really small team. The guy who runs it wasn't very nice about it either when I asked this question, and my child was 7 at the time. He had already concluded DD didn't have enough "talent."

[Anonymous]

To make it to a swim team at 12 a boy needs to have at least B-BB times for lower level groups, A competitive groups, multiple AA-AAA times for an intense program/fast lanes. Toll stroke and turn won’t give you that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know some families that liked Tollefson and some that thought it was a huge waste of money. It probably depends on the coach.

All of the groups are either really good or really bad depending on the coach. I used to wonder what was the issue posted here with RMSC till we got that coach I am sure everyone is referring to. That coach is a huge weak link.

There are 2 spooky dinosaurs coaches at 2 different rmsc sites, so it must be one of those

No, older ones are actually better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you really want your son to swim and be successful you need to support him with driving at least for a year. I know families who drove for 2-3 years to more remote clubs just for their kids get better and be offered convenient times closer to home. US champions drive to specific coaches over 40 min because those coaches can make them do superior times, and week nights is not a bad idea for pre-teens. Training late pm is more easier on teens than 5am practices offered by most local teams, certainly gives more time for homework and friends after school. You seem like you don’t want to sacrifice your own convenience for your son

I have to agree about the driving. So many families I know drove their kids 30-40 minutes to more remote NCAP or RMSC locations in the hopes they could get their preferred location and times in 2-3 years. Most did but it was a long 2-3 years!

This is what we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think AG3 and Bronze are for different age groups, OP. It's also next to impossible to get your preferred location and time IME. They are usually full with clinic swimmers - kids who move up from the clinic program and get first crack at registration. you may be looking at a 6:30 a.m. practice in D.C. if your child really wants to join a team.

Didn't mean this to be critical of SDS. The woman who does the evaluations is very nice and I liked the coaches a lot, but couldn't make the locations/times work. If you can get your child on to the team it sounds like it could be a good fit for your child. We have heard from friends who strongly recommend SDS that it is more relaxed than many other clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you really want your son to swim and be successful you need to support him with driving at least for a year. I know families who drove for 2-3 years to more remote clubs just for their kids get better and be offered convenient times closer to home. US champions drive to specific coaches over 40 min because those coaches can make them do superior times, and week nights is not a bad idea for pre-teens. Training late pm is more easier on teens than 5am practices offered by most local teams, certainly gives more time for homework and friends after school. You seem like you don’t want to sacrifice your own convenience for your son

I have to agree about the driving. So many families I know drove their kids 30-40 minutes to more remote NCAP or RMSC locations in the hopes they could get their preferred location and times in 2-3 years. Most did but it was a long 2-3 years!

It’s also not just driving but how many school days you have to drive, at what time of the day and for which length of workout. If you drive 30 min each way for 1hr 15 min workouts 6 times a week, two of which are at 5am before school, that’s far worse than driving 40 min for a more remote team that gives 2 hrs long workouts. Your swimmer gets the same pool time in 3 days that he could get with daily driving in 6-7 days at a closer location. I know families who hire drivers from Baltimore to Virginia for 4hrs long doubles in fast lanes. The swimmers are Futures qualifiers because their parents did the right choices and didn’t drive for 1hr long sharks and minnows games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you really want your son to swim and be successful you need to support him with driving at least for a year. I know families who drove for 2-3 years to more remote clubs just for their kids get better and be offered convenient times closer to home. US champions drive to specific coaches over 40 min because those coaches can make them do superior times, and week nights is not a bad idea for pre-teens. Training late pm is more easier on teens than 5am practices offered by most local teams, certainly gives more time for homework and friends after school. You seem like you don’t want to sacrifice your own convenience for your son

I’m asking for recommendations. Do you have some? It’s hard to say yes with vague, non specific recommendations.

Can you drive to McLean and Gaithersburg? If yes shoot me a message at [e-mail]. I can’t name the coaches or programs here

You don't need to do all this. You have to wonder why they cannot share here.

OP again. I did not post this. I emailed you ling_fu

Didn’t receive any emails it’s [e-mail]