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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Summer swim (and swimming in general) definitely isn't for everyone. You kind of have to drink the Kool Aid, and have the bandwidth for all the volunteering, in order to enjoy it. We love it but completely understand why others don't. But I really wish we didn't have the A meet/B meet thing here. Where I grew up, all of the meets were scored. IM was a regular event for age 11-12 and up, and each age group had a free relay. I'm pretty sure each kid could swim 2 individual events + 1 relay. Each team could enter 3 relays per age group, so everyone got in the lineup somehow even if it was just on a C free relay. It allowed everyone to feel like they were potentially contributing to scoring points for the team. There was so much more cheering and spirit because every team member felt valued. Wednesday night meets were electric... sometimes literally with lightning! If a storm ended the meet early and the score was close, we would go back and finish the meet the next night. Summer swim here feels way less inclusive. The DC area has a knack for making things less fun.[/quote]

I think my kid prefers swimming fly and free in a B meet to swimming one leg of a C relay in an A meet. Is being that kid and watching other kids have two swims plus a relay really better than just going to a B meet where they're an equal part of the team [/quote]

Younger kids didn't really pay much attention to who was swimming in more events unless their parents were talking to them about it. They were too busy playing and eating junk food from concessions. It's more obvious to young kids when they just aren't invited to certain meets. Older kids who only swam in the summer/weren't super committed to swimming had a blast being part of relays. Those are the most fun part of summer swim anyway.

Dual meets were all about the team. Individual glory was for divisionals/all stars and winter swim. If you have a good team culture and parents who don't get too caught up in their own kids' individual success, the swimmers are happy to contribute however they are needed.[/quote]

A suggestion for team culture: A meet swimmers almost always cheer at B meets to help hype up the little kids at our pool.  We have extra treats and prizes for time drops and legal swims at B meets (the prize for A meets is making the meet).  And kids go back and forth between A and B all season.  All of this has helped our team culture a ton.

Finally, we have solid examples of swim parent behavior from the parents of the fastest HS and MS swimmers who wouldn’t be caught dead saying their kid was the best (even if the kid wins all-stars).  They are always the ones cleaning up and doing odd jobs around the pool without asking. It doesn’t always work, we have some crazy parents - when are there not in any activity, lol - but most of time is helps.[/quote]

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