Experience with NCAP - Georgetown Prep location

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any insight/experience to share on NCAP’s Georgetown Prep location? DD is 9 and is really excited about doing club swim for the 2021-2022 season since Covid prevented her from joining a club this past year. She’s a good swimmer, A meet level for her age, but she’s obviously not been in any type of intense setting yet. We’ve cobbled together programs to keep her in the water this past year, but none have been competitive and she’s usually been the strongest swimmer in her age group, so she hasn’t really experienced other kids being better than her which we know she will with any of the big clubs. We are still trying to sort through all of the club swimming options to see what would be the best fit, so any insight/advice is appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Have you tried out yet? NCap isn’t registering new swimmers until June 1, and returning families are given priority. Ncap won’t take a new swimmer without an assessment first, though if your DD is an A swimmer, I suspect she will be fine. We are at a different NCap location but know the GP coach, who is very nice. NCap in general is pretty intense- there is an unspoken expectation that your swimmer will be at all meets and not miss too much practice. There are some very, very fast swimmers, which can be intimidating to some kids. We came from a different club and the coaching in general is vastly superior, but the club itself is huge, so you won’t meet many people except who is in your immediate location. It’s a good team for a kid who thrives on competition- good luck!

[Anonymous]

The Georgetown Prep site is excellent, with strong coaching across the groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried out yet? NCap isn’t registering new swimmers until June 1, and returning families are given priority. Ncap won’t take a new swimmer without an assessment first, though if your DD is an A swimmer, I suspect she will be fine. We are at a different NCap location but know the GP coach, who is very nice. NCap in general is pretty intense- there is an unspoken expectation that your swimmer will be at all meets and not miss too much practice. There are some very, very fast swimmers, which can be intimidating to some kids. We came from a different club and the coaching in general is vastly superior, but the club itself is huge, so you won’t meet many people except who is in your immediate location. It’s a good team for a kid who thrives on competition- good luck!

Thanks! She hasn’t tried out yet, the website says registration starts May 1st (although that might be for the returning kids), so we were planning on reaching out to the coach for her age group to see about scheduling her tryout or finding out when open tryouts were going to be held. DD is competitive and she has been excited to start participating in meets since Covid wiped out what would have been her first year competing, but we have given her the heads up that there are kids in this club who will be faster, some a lot faster, than her so that she isn’t shocked/discouraged by that. The website doesn’t give a lot of info on what the time commitments are. If you know, how many times a week do the youngest kids practice and how often do they have meets?

[Anonymous]

When does she turn 10? We are with a different club now (moved) but number of days a week will depend on her practice group. If she is getting USAS A times at 9 she will have no problem with try outs and will be in one of the higher practice groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried out yet? NCap isn’t registering new swimmers until June 1, and returning families are given priority. Ncap won’t take a new swimmer without an assessment first, though if your DD is an A swimmer, I suspect she will be fine. We are at a different NCap location but know the GP coach, who is very nice. NCap in general is pretty intense- there is an unspoken expectation that your swimmer will be at all meets and not miss too much practice. There are some very, very fast swimmers, which can be intimidating to some kids. We came from a different club and the coaching in general is vastly superior, but the club itself is huge, so you won’t meet many people except who is in your immediate location. It’s a good team for a kid who thrives on competition- good luck!

Thanks! She hasn’t tried out yet, the website says registration starts May 1st (although that might be for the returning kids), so we were planning on reaching out to the coach for her age group to see about scheduling her tryout or finding out when open tryouts were going to be held. DD is competitive and she has been excited to start participating in meets since Covid wiped out what would have been her first year competing, but we have given her the heads up that there are kids in this club who will be faster, some a lot faster, than her so that she isn’t shocked/discouraged by that. The website doesn’t give a lot of info on what the time commitments are. If you know, how many times a week do the youngest kids practice and how often do they have meets?

PP here- the youngest kids (right now anyway) practice three-four times a week. This may be different in the summer- last year they practiced a lot more in the summer months. They've been practicing outdoors all year, btw and probably will continue doing so until December. The typical meet schedule is once a month, sometimes two depending on the season, but again with Covid there have been very few meets. Meets are LONG and used to be sort of far away (outside Beltway or UMD) and both weekend days. Parents are expected to volunteer. Not sure if you have other kids, but we do so this can get a little hairy at times. As with all youth sports, the commitment and intensity rises as the kid does. May 1 is the returning family date, but I'd contact GP coach now to get on her radar. Our squad only took one new person last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried out yet? NCap isn’t registering new swimmers until June 1, and returning families are given priority. Ncap won’t take a new swimmer without an assessment first, though if your DD is an A swimmer, I suspect she will be fine. We are at a different NCap location but know the GP coach, who is very nice. NCap in general is pretty intense- there is an unspoken expectation that your swimmer will be at all meets and not miss too much practice. There are some very, very fast swimmers, which can be intimidating to some kids. We came from a different club and the coaching in general is vastly superior, but the club itself is huge, so you won’t meet many people except who is in your immediate location. It’s a good team for a kid who thrives on competition- good luck!

Thanks! She hasn’t tried out yet, the website says registration starts May 1st (although that might be for the returning kids), so we were planning on reaching out to the coach for her age group to see about scheduling her tryout or finding out when open tryouts were going to be held. DD is competitive and she has been excited to start participating in meets since Covid wiped out what would have been her first year competing, but we have given her the heads up that there are kids in this club who will be faster, some a lot faster, than her so that she isn’t shocked/discouraged by that. The website doesn’t give a lot of info on what the time commitments are. If you know, how many times a week do the youngest kids practice and how often do they have meets?

PP here- the youngest kids (right now anyway) practice three-four times a week. This may be different in the summer- last year they practiced a lot more in the summer months. They've been practicing outdoors all year, btw and probably will continue doing so until December. The typical meet schedule is once a month, sometimes two depending on the season, but again with Covid there have been very few meets. Meets are LONG and used to be sort of far away (outside Beltway or UMD) and both weekend days. Parents are expected to volunteer. Not sure if you have other kids, but we do so this can get a little hairy at times. As with all youth sports, the commitment and intensity rises as the kid does. May 1 is the returning family date, but I'd contact GP coach now to get on her radar. Our squad only took one new person last year.

Thanks, all of this is helpful. We do have 1 other child so we know this is going to end up being a time commitment and require some juggling, but our other child is not into sports so at least we don’t have multiple competing sports schedules! We knew that most clubs didn’t take new kids last year, so we were also thinking there would probably be some spots in her age group with kids aging up and younger swimmers like her (she just turned 9) not able to join last year. I will reach out to the coach for her age group about the tryout process, but if you’re familiar do they do the tryouts for all prospective new swimmers at once or would she have a tryout and then not hear until later in the summer if she made it? I know things are probably different in this Covid-era. DD swam outside until about November and is outside again now, so that is something she’s at least used to. What is the environment like, is everyone just a crazed parent or are the other parents enjoyable to be around, do the kids get along and enjoy being part of the team?

[Anonymous]

Where is she practicing now if not a club?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is she practicing now if not a club?

Fins. They normally use GP’s facilities too, but since they haven’t been able to they did an outdoor program that went until November and another one that started in March that will go through Memorial Day and the start of MCSL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried out yet? NCap isn’t registering new swimmers until June 1, and returning families are given priority. Ncap won’t take a new swimmer without an assessment first, though if your DD is an A swimmer, I suspect she will be fine. We are at a different NCap location but know the GP coach, who is very nice. NCap in general is pretty intense- there is an unspoken expectation that your swimmer will be at all meets and not miss too much practice. There are some very, very fast swimmers, which can be intimidating to some kids. We came from a different club and the coaching in general is vastly superior, but the club itself is huge, so you won’t meet many people except who is in your immediate location. It’s a good team for a kid who thrives on competition- good luck!

Thanks! She hasn’t tried out yet, the website says registration starts May 1st (although that might be for the returning kids), so we were planning on reaching out to the coach for her age group to see about scheduling her tryout or finding out when open tryouts were going to be held. DD is competitive and she has been excited to start participating in meets since Covid wiped out what would have been her first year competing, but we have given her the heads up that there are kids in this club who will be faster, some a lot faster, than her so that she isn’t shocked/discouraged by that. The website doesn’t give a lot of info on what the time commitments are. If you know, how many times a week do the youngest kids practice and how often do they have meets?

PP here- the youngest kids (right now anyway) practice three-four times a week. This may be different in the summer- last year they practiced a lot more in the summer months. They've been practicing outdoors all year, btw and probably will continue doing so until December. The typical meet schedule is once a month, sometimes two depending on the season, but again with Covid there have been very few meets. Meets are LONG and used to be sort of far away (outside Beltway or UMD) and both weekend days. Parents are expected to volunteer. Not sure if you have other kids, but we do so this can get a little hairy at times. As with all youth sports, the commitment and intensity rises as the kid does. May 1 is the returning family date, but I'd contact GP coach now to get on her radar. Our squad only took one new person last year.

Thanks, all of this is helpful. We do have 1 other child so we know this is going to end up being a time commitment and require some juggling, but our other child is not into sports so at least we don’t have multiple competing sports schedules! We knew that most clubs didn’t take new kids last year, so we were also thinking there would probably be some spots in her age group with kids aging up and younger swimmers like her (she just turned 9) not able to join last year. I will reach out to the coach for her age group about the tryout process, but if you’re familiar do they do the tryouts for all prospective new swimmers at once or would she have a tryout and then not hear until later in the summer if she made it? I know things are probably different in this Covid-era. DD swam outside until about November and is outside again now, so that is something she’s at least used to. What is the environment like, is everyone just a crazed parent or are the other parents enjoyable to be around, do the kids get along and enjoy being part of the team?

At 9 she really won’t be one of the youngest swimmers, especially by 21-22 season. She might start with 2-3 days a week but it will depend on level (not sure if you meant A level summer meets or actual A times). Also they will look at her stroke development, etc. Other parents are a mixed bag, like anywhere else, but there are definitely normal, level-headed people who are not banking on their kids being Olympians. Hope she loves it, good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks, all of this is helpful. We do have 1 other child so we know this is going to end up being a time commitment and require some juggling, but our other child is not into sports so at least we don’t have multiple competing sports schedules! We knew that most clubs didn’t take new kids last year, so we were also thinking there would probably be some spots in her age group with kids aging up and younger swimmers like her (she just turned 9) not able to join last year. I will reach out to the coach for her age group about the tryout process, but if you’re familiar do they do the tryouts for all prospective new swimmers at once or would she have a tryout and then not hear until later in the summer if she made it? I know things are probably different in this Covid-era. DD swam outside until about November and is outside again now, so that is something she’s at least used to. What is the environment like, is everyone just a crazed parent or are the other parents enjoyable to be around, do the kids get along and enjoy being part of the team?

They try out with the other kids to see if she can keep up with the sets- ASA is the only club I know that makes new kids try out with new kids. There are a few crazy parents but they're pretty nice even when they're crazy lol. It's a great group for the most part, don't worry and good luck! My child loves it and frankly helped her get through the pandemic esp since she wasn't in in-person learning. NCap figured things out better than MCPS if you ask me!