Frustrated with how our swim team takes over the pool

[Anonymous]

Seems like there are three requests you could make to the pool board that would dramatically improve your experience without unnecessarily limiting the swim team.

1) no bill horns at the pre rallies
2) don’t allow people to save tables before the opening of the pool
3) increase the amount of shaded tables.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:curious about the pep rally, what does that entail? I've never heard of that but it sounds like other pools do that too.

Friday early evening for some period of time (up to an hour) the team does some type of "bonding" activity (usually run by the older swimmers and junior coaches) and then everyone screams and yells some chants. There is social hour for parents at the same time (which I have never attended...no idea how many go).

We have been a part of two different swim teams and one did pep rallies and one did not.

[Anonymous]

EVERY summer!

Join the team, it’s fun. Kids love it. It creates lifelong memories.

Tons of pools in MoCo do it and there is an NVSL league also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EVERY summer!

Join the team, it’s fun. Kids love it. It creates lifelong memories.

Tons of pools in MoCo do it and there is an NVSL league also.

Or they don't love it! Which is fine too!

What is the point of this post. The OP has a toddler. You don't need to pimp the swim team out to her quite yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am wondering if our pool is unusual or this is truly how all summer swim teams work.

Pool opens at 11 (swim team morning practice is before then on weekdays). When you arrive at the official open of the pool, nearly every covered table has already been claimed by a swim team family who was there for practice.

Pool is not closed but largely taken over by both swim and dive team afternoon practices M-Th from 3:30-7:15 (multiple age groups so it takes a long time) and a shorter one on Fridays.

In addition, the pool is closed or partially closed for meetings every week at least twice for multiple hours.

Also there is a LOUD pep rally every Friday afternoon at the end of the short practice. This happens even in the middle of other events announced to the community.

The pool is closed other times for other special team building events.

It is frankly hard to find a time the pool won’t be over run by some sort of swim team event which generally involves a lot of bullhorn usage. It seems to increase every year and this year it’s just reached a tipping point for me this year. I have very fond memories of summer swim growing up but it was just a couple hours every morning and one meet a year.

This is why I quit paying $$$ for High Point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s more than our pool does, but we don’t have afternoon swim practices. Fortunately the season is pretty short. I think it ends around 7/20? One more month and they’ll be gone!

And so will half the summer!

[Anonymous]

It doesn’t sound like you are getting your money’s worth, Op. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EVERY summer!

Join the team, it’s fun. Kids love it. It creates lifelong memories.

Tons of pools in MoCo do it and there is an NVSL league also.

You're making swim team participants look bad, so best to shut up, PP.

[Anonymous]

The competitive swim team mentality applied to small children who can't swim is ridiculous. Gym pools are no better. They are overrun with summer camp kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Yes. That’s normal. Join the swim team.

I am not going to do that, but I was frankly embarrassed trying to meet up with friends who have toddlers to admit that basically we could swim for an hour or so before their kids needed to go home to nap or we could deal with the bullhorns. And we would not be able to get a table under shade until the swim team families decided to leave.

Wouldn't the toddlers need to go home for nap time anyway? Or you think the pool should be so quiet that they can nap there?

Ours is not as extreme - there is a very active swim team but it's a larger space (multiple pools), it's rarely closed for their events, and we can't have bullhorns due to community noise restrictions. But it's very fun and festive. This is my kid's first year doing it but we went all the time in the toddler/preschool years and it was a lot of fun - they actually loved watching the pep rallies and stuff too.

If it's a neighborhood pool, the focus is going to swim team and kid activities. Not sorry but that's how it goes - kids need to be out and active and burning off energy, a high-strung adult can find othet things to do. Some nap time toddlers who don't even belong to the pool (per the post that you wanted to bring them as guests) are not the pool's primary focus. This isn't some Caribbean resort designed for lounging around.

Most members at any pool are not participating in swim team. Also, guess what most kids are probably not on the swim team either. Why do you think the team makes sure to get swim team parents on the board? This is a minority group that is VERY invested and spends a lot of time at the pool, so they care more and do what they need to do to make sure they can use the pool how they want to use the pool.

If there are that many people that are as resentful as you think, run a different set of board members on a platform of cancelling swim team

You can probably figure out why this doesn't typically happen, but I'll spell it out. The people who are willing to give their time to be on a pool board (which sucks as a job) are swim team parents who are doing it out of self-interest as it will benefit their kid(s) directly, the reason many people do things in this life. Even if you do get non-swim team people to run, the swim team reps email the team and tell people who to vote for and round up votes to ensure the person is elected. Swim team families are paying attention, engaged, and motivated to vote which involves showing up in person to fill out and submit a ballot.

Canceling swim team is not necessary. Basic consideration just helps.

Our balloting is by e-mail. Who has to vote in person anymore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like there are three requests you could make to the pool board that would dramatically improve your experience without unnecessarily limiting the swim team.

1) no bill horns at the pre rallies
2) don’t allow people to save tables before the opening of the pool
3) increase the amount of shaded tables.

Our pool requires the team to clear the deck after practice and wait for the pool to officially open. It allows the lifeguards to do a safety sweep before opening. Coaches help with compliance.

[Anonymous]

We've been members at our neighborhood pool for 20yrs. Neither of our kids wanted to do summer swim (and since we both have FT jobs, we never really pushed it - practices are convenient for kids in camp.) There does seem to be a divide that opens up during the swim/dive season where the team stuff feels over the top. Maybe because the requirements for parental volunteering are so heavy, it seems like some people (parents, not kids) take it a little too seriously. I remember feeling furious that we were asked to leave the baby pool because the team was having its end-of-season banquet around the main pool.

At the same time, it's half the summer and you can totally avoid most of the hype without too much difficulty.

[Anonymous]

My kids didn't do swim/dive/tennis team bc i worked and couldn't get them there. This was in a neighborhood with a neighborhood pool and no real, close by, option. We used to try to go up to the pool after work only to find out there's a meet/closed for special practice. Absolutely pissed me off. Until I realized come mid July all these swim team fanatics are done with the pool and we would literally have it to ourselves for the next month and a half.

[Anonymous]

Try a different or bigger pool until you find the tight one. Off the top of my head there are like 7 pools close to us that we have access to. The takeover seems to happen at smaller pools or private ones.

[Anonymous]

Buy some land and open a pool.
DMV has a pool shortage