s/o What's with all of the swim teams around here?

[Anonymous]

USA Swimming, the regional governing bodies (e.g., PVS), and the local, year-round, competitive club swim teams (e.g., RMSC, NCAP, The Fish, Machine, NOVA, Sea Devils), and the summer leagues (Prince Mont, MCSL, NVSL) have done an excellent job of recruiting an incredibly large base of young age-group swimmers. Swimming is now the second-most popular organized sport in the country for children. Last year (2012), membership in USA Swimming increased to a total of 300,884 active, year-round competitive swimmers across this nation. (Of the less than 50% who self-reported their ethnicity, .5% identified themselves as African American, 1.5% identified as Latino, 2.7% identified as Asian, and 20.1% identified as White).

Swimming's effective recruitment of an incredibly large (if not diverse) population of young swimmers is the single most important reason why U.S. swimming continues to outperform and dominate every other country in the world. First, because when you cast a wide net, you are bound to catch some very good fish. More U.S. children experience organized competitive swimming, at some point in their youth, than all but one other sport (soccer?). And I would argue that those who do engage in organized swimming have a more serious experience of it than those who attempt organized soccer (through AYSO, and local city or county leagues when they are very young).

In addition to catching some of the very best swimmers with the wide net it casts, swimming supports its most talented swimmers through the "subsidies" that the not-so-talented swimmers provide in annual club fees ($3,000+/yr.), and USA Swimming dues (approx. $60/annual to national and club). In almost no other sport does a base almost 300,884 athletes strong help to support through their fees and dues the top-level coaching and competition that USA Swimming does. Gymnasts and figure skaters, for example, often have to pay large, out-of-pocket-fees for their top-level coaching. In part, this is because swimming can be organized on a larger scale (pools are big, staggered practices provide more time still, and the star clubs can hire less-recognized coaches for the junior groups).

Take a top-level area talent competing on the national or world stage. That swimmer commands more of his/her coaches and club's time than $4,000+ they pay in dues every year. In fact, if coaches charged their top-level swimmers by the hours spent, it would be prohibitively expensive for that swimmer. The less-talented but still enthusiastic, competitive swimmer also gets much benefit, but could probably attain the same level of enjoyment and fitness with less hours. In most cases, the majority of competitive swimmers gets less than in value than the $3,000+ in fees they pay annually.

Getting back to the comment above, to which I am responding, I do not know why the same principles of mass support cannot/are not translatable to academic teams on which everyone can compete, or even to other sports which everyone can join.

Must be something in the water, I guess.

[Anonymous]

PP here again.

It is interesting to note that membership in USA Swimming and the year-round competitive swim clubs peaks around the 11-12 age group, with about 35,000 swimmers.

By age 18, a still-sizable 12,000 year-round competitive club swimmers compete under USA Swimming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm actually kind of amazed at how un-diverse swimming is. Only sport I've seen this so far.

Well, I dont know where you are swimming but some of the very best teams in the area are primarily black. Takoma Park has an absolutely amazing team that is at least 75-80% black. Several community pools in PG County and Montgomery Co have phenomemal swim teams that are at least 50% if not more like 99%, black. One of the best area summer leagues is the Prince-Mont league. It has a few DC clubs and then the rest are in PG and MoCo. You may need to get out more.

Oh, and I am a white mom and our NW DC team, MVP Dolphins, is primarily white but also has kids who are black, Hispanic, Asian, quite a nice mix actually and a great group of kids. It is open to any and all who want to join. Practices are in the evenings at the Lab School's indoor. Home meets are also at lab School and on Saturdays. We travel to away meets all around DC, MoCo, and PG. The coaches are really great and it a fun team for all ages. Google it if you are looking for a nice, summer team.

This a NW team? It looks like meets are out in Laurel and far PG? Why? We live near Lab School, but do not want to go all the way out to PG for a meet.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me.

[Anonymous]

Ha!! I grew up in the area and the one sport that was out for the family was swimming.

My dad thought the meets were too frickin early....this from man that coached two out of three of his kids' travel soccer teams and would travel to Canada for tournaments.

Now that I have kids that routinely sleep past 8 am (5 and 7 years) I soooo understand!! My son's swim teacher is trying to recruit him for the team next year and I just laughed at her. With all the craziness with school year sports--I take a fucking break in the summer!!

[Anonymous]

Parents seem to love to insist it takes 30 volunteers to run a neighborhood swim meet ~ run away and don't look back.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure it does take at least 30 volunteers. Most parents that volunteer though don't mind and maybe that is why they become more invested in the whole experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USA Swimming, the regional governing bodies (e.g., PVS), and the local, year-round, competitive club swim teams (e.g., RMSC, NCAP, The Fish, Machine, NOVA, Sea Devils), and the summer leagues (Prince Mont, MCSL, NVSL) have done an excellent job of recruiting an incredibly large base of young age-group swimmers. Swimming is now the second-most popular organized sport in the country for children. Last year (2012), membership in USA Swimming increased to a total of 300,884 active, year-round competitive swimmers across this nation. (Of the less than 50% who self-reported their ethnicity, .5% identified themselves as African American, 1.5% identified as Latino, 2.7% identified as Asian, and 20.1% identified as White).

Swimming's effective recruitment of an incredibly large (if not diverse) population of young swimmers is the single most important reason why U.S. swimming continues to outperform and dominate every other country in the world. First, because when you cast a wide net, you are bound to catch some very good fish. More U.S. children experience organized competitive swimming, at some point in their youth, than all but one other sport (soccer?). And I would argue that those who do engage in organized swimming have a more serious experience of it than those who attempt organized soccer (through AYSO, and local city or county leagues when they are very young).

In addition to catching some of the very best swimmers with the wide net it casts, swimming supports its most talented swimmers through the "subsidies" that the not-so-talented swimmers provide in annual club fees ($3,000+/yr.), and USA Swimming dues (approx. $60/annual to national and club). In almost no other sport does a base almost 300,884 athletes strong help to support through their fees and dues the top-level coaching and competition that USA Swimming does. Gymnasts and figure skaters, for example, often have to pay large, out-of-pocket-fees for their top-level coaching. In part, this is because swimming can be organized on a larger scale (pools are big, staggered practices provide more time still, and the star clubs can hire less-recognized coaches for the junior groups).

Take a top-level area talent competing on the national or world stage. That swimmer commands more of his/her coaches and club's time than $4,000+ they pay in dues every year. In fact, if coaches charged their top-level swimmers by the hours spent, it would be prohibitively expensive for that swimmer. The less-talented but still enthusiastic, competitive swimmer also gets much benefit, but could probably attain the same level of enjoyment and fitness with less hours. In most cases, the majority of competitive swimmers gets less than in value than the $3,000+ in fees they pay annually.

Getting back to the comment above, to which I am responding, I do not know why the same principles of mass support cannot/are not translatable to academic teams on which everyone can compete, or even to other sports which everyone can join.

Must be something in the water, I guess.

Well, it's refreshing to see everyone come together to rally in support of the 1% for a change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm actually kind of amazed at how un-diverse swimming is. Only sport I've seen this so far.

Well, I dont know where you are swimming but some of the very best teams in the area are primarily black. Takoma Park has an absolutely amazing team that is at least 75-80% black. Several community pools in PG County and Montgomery Co have phenomemal swim teams that are at least 50% if not more like 99%, black. One of the best area summer leagues is the Prince-Mont league. It has a few DC clubs and then the rest are in PG and MoCo. You may need to get out more.

Oh, and I am a white mom and our NW DC team, MVP Dolphins, is primarily white but also has kids who are black, Hispanic, Asian, quite a nice mix actually and a great group of kids. It is open to any and all who want to join. Practices are in the evenings at the Lab School's indoor. Home meets are also at lab School and on Saturdays. We travel to away meets all around DC, MoCo, and PG. The coaches are really great and it a fun team for all ages. Google it if you are looking for a nice, summer team.

This a NW team? It looks like meets are out in Laurel and far PG? Why? We live near Lab School, but do not want to go all the way out to PG for a meet.

It is a NWDC team. Members live in Palisades, Kent, Georgetown, Spring Valley, Cleveland Park, Capitol Hill, etc... The league it is in is a top league that is very diverse and very competitive. Lots of Sea Devils kids swim on it in the summer. I like that we go all over the DC area for meets. Yes, they are often far away but I have seen neighborhoods that I would otherwise never have had reason to go see. I have meet some really wonderful people who I might not have otherwise had occasion to meet. Plus, my kids have had a reason to see many different parts of this large city. They get a valuable and easy lesson in sociology - seeing how universal swimming is and yet how varied the DC metro area is in terms of economics, "race," housing stock and neighborhoods. I didn't sign them up for that reason (just because its a team with a fantastic reputation) but it has definitely been a huge plus in my book. I highly encourage you to sign your kids up. It is a great team and a great league.

[Anonymous]

There is also a DC Rec team that is very inexpensive and is part of US Swimming. I think registration is $200. You pay extra for meets. You can get scholarships. And from the pix, nice mix of ethnicities. Meet at Takoma and Capitol Hill pools.