Reply to Competitive (Club) Swimming -- At what point is it fine for a child to leave a longtime sport?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]At what point is it fine for a child to leave a longtime sport?

At the time that the child decides that the child doesn't want to do it anymore.[/quote]

Bingo!

The last thing I'd want to do is force my kid to keep doing a time consuming, somewhat high pressure competitive activity that they were not interested in.

I'm surprised the question even has to be asked.[/quote]

Some children are ambivalent about swimming -- they may love the social aspect and short-term accomplishments, but be discouraged by their plateaus and long-term potential.  Also, leaving is easier said than done when the clubs encourage you to return, and it is one of the main extracurricular activities that your child has poured their time, energy, and friendships into year after year.  It would be doable indefinitely if the programs did not cost so much, or require such a time commitment (15-25 hours/week) to accomplish your long-term goals.  For those swimmers who might never get there, I agree that the time might be better spent on other pursuits.

Keep in mind that a middle-of-the-pack swimmer -- no matter how positive, committed, hard-working, and devoted to their sport over the years -- will not beat out her or his faster teammate for the same college admission spot.  Given how many truly great, even excellent, top-level swimmers we have in "this town", I would encourage those club swimmers with less potential to find those things that they are relatively better at, and to use their free time to work at those things in the long term.  After all, we could use a few more DC area standouts in baseball, theater, debate, chess, vocal and instrumental music, science, math, public service, art, football, and writing.  [/quote]

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