Summer swim brings out the crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

We are supposed to stay the entire meet, and most of the kids have at least one parent volunteering (especially if it’s a home meet). I’ve noticed that those who don’t stay to cheer on relays usually have parents who never volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

That's nice! We are an NVSL team and a good number of swimmers and their families start leaving when they are done swimming. It seems very deflating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

This. It’s crazy to expect 8 and unders and their families to stay until the bitter end of B meets. Most of these parents also jump on 1st half volunteer slots because they know they won’t be there for the entire 2nd half.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

Agree the expectation isn't that kids will stay and cheer to the last race of a B meet, but that's also why B meets are lacking in the same appeal of A meets. It feels like the culture is individual effort and go home, while a Saturday meet just feels so much more team oriented. The parents have the ability to change it, but I don't see that ever happening without significant buy in from coaches, reps and a core of parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

Agree the expectation isn't that kids will stay and cheer to the last race of a B meet, but that's also why B meets are lacking in the same appeal of A meets. It feels like the culture is individual effort and go home, while a Saturday meet just feels so much more team oriented. The parents have the ability to change it, but I don't see that ever happening without significant buy in from coaches, reps and a core of parents.

B meets = PVS opens. You can make it a team oriented like having a theme, "Rock n' Roll Relays" where it's just exclusively relays, but i think most would say B meets are an opportunity for kids to get times so no reason to detract. from that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

Agree the expectation isn't that kids will stay and cheer to the last race of a B meet, but that's also why B meets are lacking in the same appeal of A meets. It feels like the culture is individual effort and go home, while a Saturday meet just feels so much more team oriented. The parents have the ability to change it, but I don't see that ever happening without significant buy in from coaches, reps and a core of parents.

As a family who’s been in every A meet one season and then only B meets the next, I’d agree. We’ve given feedback to team reps in order to make B meet swimmers feel the excitement as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

Coaches and reps need to communicate and set the expectation before the season starts that Saturday meets are team from start to finish. The swimmers, especially the older kids, need to bring in the younger kids and new swimmers to A meets and have them feel a part of the team--screaming and cheering the entire meet and invested in the outcome of races regardless of the score. The culture is built with every new 8&U who participates. I suppose this is appropriate in a thread about summer swim bringing out the crazy. Embrace it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

Right. I get not staying for a B meet, but it seems half our team and their families head out by the time the A meets are done.

[Anonymous]

I wonder whether scoring the B meets would help with the team ethos, or alternatively whether it would work against the more inclusive spirit of B meets. Also, of course, B meet matchups aren't always going to be equal enough to make scoring close or even fair... Just thinking out loud here. Is there ever a good reason to keep score at a B meet?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

Right. I get not staying for a B meet, but it seems half our team and their families head out by the time the A meets are done.

My bad. I completely misread your earlier post. That sucks about your A meets. Are the majority of folks leaving 12U? I think it’s a bit of herding sheep to get the 10U engaged and that burden really falls on the older teens.