Tell me about summer swim teams
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Anonymous
| My 10 year old is on the waitlist for the school-year team and we believe he will be on it for 2018-2019. In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out if the summer league is feasible for us. 9:00 AM practices on weekdays? How do parents work? Do kids on summer swim teams not go to any camps or are they late to them every day? Or at home with the sitter for the rest of the day? How does this work? |
Anonymous
| Ours has a campers practice at 5 pm for this situation. It's not quite as good/popular as the mornings. |
Anonymous
| If the team only has morning practices, then you get a summer nanny and then do half day camps or drop in camps. |
Anonymous
| Oh but OP remember your duties. It apparently takes 35 adult volunteers to run a swim meet. |
Anonymous
|
Our team has an evening practice option for kids who go to camp. DH and I both work, but we found morning swim team and a babysitter (shared with other teammate friends) worked best for us for the first half of the summer during swim team season. The kids really like it and the pool community that goes with it.
The rest of the summer is covered by camp, family trips, and possibly another week with the sitter. |
Anonymous
| Evening practices. Our pool now has summertime camp for the swimmers too. |
Anonymous
Aren’t the meets on the weekends? |
Anonymous
| Swim team takes a ton of time. Daily practice, lots of volunteering for parents. We have weekly pitch in dinners where you have to bring a dish, Wednesday B meets and Saturday A meets if your child is pretty good. We have a summer sitter who takes my daughter. We do camp and travel in august after swim team is over. |
Anonymous
| Yes on weekends, 35 adult volunteers needed to run a swim meet. |
Anonymous
B meets are during the week. |
Anonymous
Another one who doesn't want to pull her weight. Each lane needs three timers. Yes, it really does take that many people and if everyone pitches in, it's not that long. Don't sign up if you don't want a big commitment. |
Anonymous
| Our child was always so exhausted after camp that they usually didn't want to go to practice afterwards. |
Anonymous
|
Our swim team had evening practices for kids who were at camp during the day, but they assigned young/inexperienced coaches to them, and they definitely weren't the same caliber as the regular practices. And, very few kids attended so our kids missed out on the social bonding that happens when you swim with the same kids every morning. In short, working parents' only real option if they want their kids to have the real swim team experience is getting a summer sitter who can take them in the mornings.
And yes, it does take a lot of volunteers to put on a swim meet. Legit. |
Anonymous
|
It is a huge amount of time and effort.
Our pool has evening practices. I find the whole swim team mentality to be very political. Our team manager is a nightmare mom. Our coaches are really immature. The communication is terrible. I really wish my kids did not like it. It seems to be the same parents who volunteer all the time. |
Anonymous
yes, to all of this. We did just the afternoon practices one summer. Another summer we had a sitter a few mornings a week who just took our son to swim team and then dropped him off at camp late. This summer we are doing a full time sitter so our kids can have the full swim team experience. It does take a lot of volunteers to run meats, but is only really for 6 weeks so not a big deal. We also have a really big swim team so as long as everyone volunteers here and there, it's not that bad. I actually enjoy timing during the meets and find it makes the meets go by quickly. Summer swim team makes for a crazy busy June/July, especially if your kids swim A and B meets, relay team and divisionals, but my kids love summer swim team so it's all worth it. |