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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just read through this thread as I used to swim (but my kids do not) so many posts brought back memories of my summers from many, many years ago.

I am in a way relieved to hear of all the drama these days with summer swim, club level swim, etc. My kids play soccer competitively and I often wish that they had gotten into more "objective" sports where the decision for advancement is not based on a coach's subjective observation but an objective measure like a clock. It is almost a relief to hear that even in a time-based sport like swimming the parent drama exists![/quote]

My kids do soccer and swim. I find soccer less stressful. The way they evaluate players is definitely more ambiguous, but my oldest seems to come out on the good side of that at least for now. He is a hard worker, unselfish, and really hustles on defense so I think that those things work in his favor as opposed to a kid with an ego always asking to play up front. And in a team sport there is at least some appreciation that they all have different roles to play and that they have to play as a team to succeed. Not too many politics yet, maybe we have been lucky.

The way summer swim is done here really does pit friends against each other, and certain parents egg it on. I get very annoyed when I hear my friend’s kid talking smack to mine and hearing their parents try to motivate them to specifically beat my kid in races. I tell my kids it’s about doing your own best times and however that plays out in the ladder is what it is. The A meet/B meet structure creates a haves vs. have nots dynamic that goes against the message that summer swim is for fun. And sending out the ladder is nice for transparency but bad for parents who obsess over everyone else’s times. I loved summer swim as a kid but as a parents it’s kind of a love/hate.
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All the sports have ways they go about stratifying kids and playing favorites.  The problem with team sports are you have to have scout teams/players.  What I didn't like about soccer is they automatically decline penalties if there is no advantage for stopping play, and all of the coaches kids just happened to know where they could get away with nasty fouls.  We had to sit and watch a former head coaches daughter play striker, but couldn't out run a turtle, game after game wide open path to the goal getting run down and tackled.  In the end they just wanted to practice tackling on my daughter.  Even though she scored a goal as striker in the two minutes she played it all season.

I agree about the B meets.  If you don't make an A meet you're clearly getting less value out of the activity.  [b]In our team the A meet kids seldom go to team practices or talk to the other kids.  Even when they do go to practices they have special lanes only year round swimmers can swim in.  [/b]Coaches don't even respect speed my DD had a better time trial time but they skipped her in line for the A meets.

Save your money and get a pool membership.  Just another day at the competitive spa.[/quote]

Come on. Is this for real? special lanes only for year-round swimmers. Even among year-round swimmers, there's a diverse range of abilities.[/quote]

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