Freeloading swim team parents suck

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Never ceases to amaze me how adults continue to find ways to ruin kids activities in the pursuit of “success”. Congratulations on taking the fun out of literally everything.

Do tell what job is ruining summer swim.

Because the adults (yes that includes the league) have created this bureaucracy around what should be a pretty simple and fun competition and made it such that the only kids who can be involved in it are those kids and families who are willing to sacrifice everything at the altar of the swim team. As previous posters have said, this isn’t the olympics. This isn’t just sports, I’m hard pressed to come up with a single kids activity that parents haven’t organized the joy out of.

Which jobs can you do away with an run a valid meet?

Multiple posters have pointed it out but you all keep coming back with “it’s not valid” - they are 10 years old - nothing they do is valid. You must have 3 timers because how will Larlo make all stars if there’s a glitch with the timing on summer swim and if he doesn’t make all stars then he won’t get into Stanford and he’ll be a sign spinner on Rockville Pike. You’d be amazed at how much fun kids have when the adults get out of the way. Summer swim should be the fun swim. You are not alone in this. Check out a pinewood derby with the Scouts one time to also see how grown ups ruin kids stuff. It doesn’t HAVE to be the way it is. You all choose to make it this way either because you are overly invested in your kids, have no other way to make friends or really think you can create someone great through sheer force of will. Grey athletes are born not built.

I’m following now for fun and what I’ve learned is that concessions aren’t necessary but a fundraiser. So I’ll say that can go. Do what every other rec league does. Up the fee to participate or make kids individually fund raise and parents can opt out of that by paying.

It can't go as most teams need the money and the point of summer swim is to make it affordable and accessible to all kids. And, if you are at a meet 4-5 hours its nice to have a snack or even buy things like water.

Except that there are parents here saying they would rather pay a fee and opt out of volunteering, and people saying that couldn’t work because all the jobs are needed. Seems like a team could set their opt out fee to cover the lost earnings from concessions.

Similarly that money could go to touch pads.

You’re gonna redo all the area pools to have touch pads? Mmmmkay.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Something is fundamentally wrong with the structure of this activity when there's this much division and b*tching.

It’s DC parents. They’re all about complaining and martyrdom.

Outside of this board, I haven’t heard any of it. All of the parents that I know like summer swim and most kids seem to love it

This whole thing is enlightening for me.

I wonder how much of this over organizing and crazy adherence to rules has to do with the DC area’s private pools’ shameful history of racism and segregation.

You always need rules to keep out the “wrong” type of people.

As mentioned before, a meets are USA Swimming sanctioned meets. USA swimming rules require this people at every meet:

4 Minimum Number of Officials Required for Dual Meets 1 Referee, who may also act as a stroke and turn judge
1 Starter
1 Other Stroke and Turn Judge (may be the Starter)
1 Announcer
3 Timers per lane (one minimum if automatic timing equipment with touchpads is used) 1 Administrative Official
1 Place Judge
Relay Take-off Judges (if applicable)
Marshal(s) (number determined by the LSC)

You forgot the most important rule:

No black people.

Have you seen the DC Wave team? They don’t count?
I would say that making swim available at a reasonable price is the BEST thing that can happen. Statistics show black children drown at about a five times higher rate than white children.

[Anonymous]

Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

Pool name and start time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

how? we have a very large pool (~250 swimmers) and B meets against similarly sized teams take about 3 1/2 hours. Our B meets start at 6 (warmups start at 5) and we don't have sufficient lights to continue a meet after sunset, so that caps it. Sometime IMs get scratched because of time, but I've never seen a stroke not get in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NoVa swim team skeptic turned believer here. I am an introvert. I grew up poor in a northeastern city that had just one public pool 10 miles from my house; we never visited. I did t even learn to swim until I was 12. We don’t live in a subdivision with an HOA; I live in an old house in an area of Fairfax County that’s seen a development boom and has lots of McMansions. My spouse and I are both socially awkward government workers. If all I knew of summer swim was reading this thread, I would NEVER have signed my child up for swim. I am SO glad I did - it is my child’s most joy-filled activity and I have come to love volunteering.

Mind you, I was intimidated at every level. Our closest pool is a Div 2 NVSL team. The neighborhood is wealthy and full of seemingly cliquey SAHM’s. My kid didn’t go to the neighborhood school. I didn’t know anyone. But it was less than $200 to join both swim and dive! That’s nothing for HOURS of instruction! My kid didn’t have private coaching or do year round swim, and we had vacations planned during the season, so I didn’t expect to do A Meets. I’m Hugely busy at work and in grad school. My spouse has medical issues preventing being able to volunteer at meets, so it all fell on me. I dreaded all but my kid’s smile at being on a team.

It’s now near the end of the season and I am SO sad. I have come to llove it as much as my kid does! I hated doing concessions and meet clean up…it was too hard to be a newbie for those. I found my niche as a timer. It’s the best antidote to my constant work stress and Ben g tethered to my phone. I HAVE to be 100% in the moment. I love cheering g on the kids. I love getting triples and bonding with the other timers. And my kid has just blossomed and even swam in A meets and won a relay carnival race! We facedNO pressure or deck I stink for having to bring of town for meets. Everyone is SO supportive of the kids.

I still find some of it cringey… my kid and I are total awkward ducks at pep rallies. We don’t enjoy dress up, face paint, or cutesy stuff. Chalk drawings seem pointless. But I can see why people love that stuff.

My kid loves saving ribbons with times from every meet to track growth over time. It’s made my kid a Goal setter and SO proud of growth. The jr coaches have made my kid so happy by praising and noticing so much growth.

I was daunted by 15 hours required volunteering. I considered just letting them take my check. But I now have well over 20 hours in and have really enjoyed most of them. So grateful I tried this before reading this thread and hope otger parents aren’t turned off.

I agree with all of this. I love summer swim and as do my kids. It is seriously their favorite time of the year. They love swimming, but also love the social aspect of swim team; hanging out with the older kids, traditions before and after meets, fun Friday practices (pancake breakfast, raft day, diving for coins). We plan our summer vacations so we don's miss meets. We are committed.

My husband and I volunteer a ton and overall I don't mind. I too enjoy timing and having something to do during the meets. At the same time I am at the point in the season where I am tired. I work full time and rushing to get to the B met to time when there are parents who have never volunteered for a singe meet sitting there chatting with their friends is frustrating. Our team doesn't have a requirement for volunteer hours because they don't want it to prohibit kids from being on swim team, but i am so ready for that policy to change.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

We have 200 kids and do five events. At our home pool with have tons of lights so don't have those limitations.

If your meets are taking that long then you all are not running them efficiently. Even at some really poorly run meets we run 3 1/2 hours tops. But most of the time if CoC is doing well we are out in under three hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

There is no way a B meet runs over 6 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something is fundamentally wrong with the structure of this activity when there's this much division and b*tching.

It’s DC parents. They’re all about complaining and martyrdom.

Outside of this board, I haven’t heard any of it. All of the parents that I know like summer swim and most kids seem to love it

This whole thing is enlightening for me.

I wonder how much of this over organizing and crazy adherence to rules has to do with the DC area’s private pools’ shameful history of racism and segregation.

You always need rules to keep out the “wrong” type of people.

As mentioned before, a meets are USA Swimming sanctioned meets. USA swimming rules require this people at every meet:

4 Minimum Number of Officials Required for Dual Meets 1 Referee, who may also act as a stroke and turn judge
1 Starter
1 Other Stroke and Turn Judge (may be the Starter)
1 Announcer
3 Timers per lane (one minimum if automatic timing equipment with touchpads is used) 1 Administrative Official
1 Place Judge
Relay Take-off Judges (if applicable)
Marshal(s) (number determined by the LSC)

You forgot the most important rule:

No black people.

Have you seen the DC Wave team? They don’t count?
I would say that making swim available at a reasonable price is the BEST thing that can happen. Statistics show black children drown at about a five times higher rate than white children.

DC Wave is awesome! Love that team. Also, the best swimmers in my kids’ age groups are black. No doubt swimming has a history of being less inclusive and I hope this changes as these great athletes continue to improve. It is great for the sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

There is no way a B meet runs over 6 hours.

Hmmm. The last one we were at, the kids had to be there at 5:20 for warmups, meet started at 6. Lasted well past 10:30. Two large swim teams. And I heard about a meet between two other big teams that had to end at 10:30 and they swam IM first and had only reached breast-stroke. All the older breaststroke kids and butterfly kids just had to go home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

There is no way a B meet runs over 6 hours.

Small (5-6 lane pools) and large swim teams = super long B meet. Some pools are more efficient than others, some don't combine heats, sometimes there is a weather delay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

There is no way a B meet runs over 6 hours.

Hmmm. The last one we were at, the kids had to be there at 5:20 for warmups, meet started at 6. Lasted well past 10:30. Two large swim teams. And I heard about a meet between two other big teams that had to end at 10:30 and they swam IM first and had only reached breast-stroke. All the older breaststroke kids and butterfly kids just had to go home.

Ok so you are including warm-up time. A meeting that goes 6-10:30 is 4.5 hours I don't count the time before the meet starts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

There is no way a B meet runs over 6 hours.

Hmmm. The last one we were at, the kids had to be there at 5:20 for warmups, meet started at 6. Lasted well past 10:30. Two large swim teams. And I heard about a meet between two other big teams that had to end at 10:30 and they swam IM first and had only reached breast-stroke. All the older breaststroke kids and butterfly kids just had to go home.

Ok so you are including warm-up time. A meeting that goes 6-10:30 is 4.5 hours I don't count the time before the meet starts.

That is time they have to be there. It counts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aw man 15 hours of volunteering would be so sweet. We have to do five events. Our B meets are 6+ hours each!

There is no way a B meet runs over 6 hours.

Hmmm. The last one we were at, the kids had to be there at 5:20 for warmups, meet started at 6. Lasted well past 10:30. Two large swim teams. And I heard about a meet between two other big teams that had to end at 10:30 and they swam IM first and had only reached breast-stroke. All the older breaststroke kids and butterfly kids just had to go home.

Ok so you are including warm-up time. A meeting that goes 6-10:30 is 4.5 hours I don't count the time before the meet starts.

That is time they have to be there. It counts.

the only ones there for the entirety of a B meet are the ones swimming IMs. If you don't want to be there that long, don't have your kids swim IMs. The little just swimming free and back are out relatively quickly. My kids love the meets that go that late because they get to swim around with their friends during taredown and cleanup

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I hate timing- I suspect I have poor reflexes and am always worried about messing it up. Happy to work concessions though.

I love timing! I really do not like S&T - so unhappy when I have to DQ a little kid.

Love this about the range of volunteer jobs. Our reps always tell us there's something for everyone. I love S&T, hate timing and clerk of course. Have never tried concessions.

There really is. If parents hate the pressure of timing or S&T they can marshal. If they don't want to stand around in the sun they can do awards which literally involves putting stickers on ribbons. yet, there are still parents who chose to do absolutely nothing at every single meet.

Exactly! I posted up thread, but I love being clerk of course. I get to know the kids and other parents, stay busy, and can keep an eye on my kids. Standing or sitting for hours is no good for me physically, but the moving around associated with CoC works well.

I'll probably get certified for S&T once all of my kids are swimming, because it sounds interesting and I'm also good at letting kids and parents down easy if I have to DQ them. And I can handle parents who might protest

I do Stroke and Turn in NVSL and while I hate DQing a kid, they don't know it's me. I write the slip and talk about it with the ref and then it goes to the table and team ref. There's something wrong with how the team is run if you're ever approached by parents or coaches about your DQ call. Those questions are directed to the ref. After B meets, I will engage with parents of kids I know well to explain why their kid DQed or I'll talk to the coaches to explain exactly what I saw on one of our kids so they can work on fixing it. Most of the time, the coaches see it too and don't question it.

Good to know. I'm making assumptions based on having grown up here (MoCo, my kids swim for an MCSL team) and playing sports and seeing what the parents are like. Our team is pretty chill, but some of the others against we compete are... not.

As for issues around racism (I know, separate post), historically, yes, it's an issue, and I'm sure still is in many communities. We live in a racially/ethnically/SES diverse area, and our team reflects that.