Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll echo wanting to see more team bonding too.

Other things:
1. Please for the love of god make the website send an auto email when sign up opens for a meet and then a day before it closes - we continually end up having to ask the coach to waive deadlines because we don’t “live” on the site and don’t know when sign up has opened.

2. More specific technique guidance to individual kids. Current coach does this well. Coaches for the younger years totally did not.

You all don't get emails? Teamunify has an automatic notification.

I know no club that does technique work with little kids - it is a shame. Some summer programs do better.

It’s good to know it’s not just our club I guess then.

Thanks re: Teamunify - maybe it’s user error on my part but no clue where this lives (nor why it wouldn’t be set to automatically send the notifications).

When I was age 9-12 I was lucky to have a club swim coach who was big on camaraderie and fun. I remember there being team dinners and parties at the pool. We even had an all night party one year where we slept in sleeping bags in the multi purpose room and played in the pool in the middle of the night. It was so fun and I’m sure it was a factor in sticking with swim through the early years and creating that bridge to the later years where it gets more serious. Clubs should really be more focused on retention than results before age 12, but most of them have it backwards. Being a 9 year old superstar should not be the goal. A 9 year old who is average can become an amazing 18 year old swimmer if you can keep them in the sport. But not if you lose them by 12 because it’s so boring and not social.

Anonymous wrote:I’ll echo wanting to see more team bonding too.

Other things:
1. Please for the love of god make the website send an auto email when sign up opens for a meet and then a day before it closes - we continually end up having to ask the coach to waive deadlines because we don’t “live” on the site and don’t know when sign up has opened.

2. More specific technique guidance to individual kids. Current coach does this well. Coaches for the younger years totally did not.

You all don't get emails? Teamunify has an automatic notification.

I know no club that does technique work with little kids - it is a shame. Some summer programs do better.

I’ll echo wanting to see more team bonding too.

Other things:
1. Please for the love of god make the website send an auto email when sign up opens for a meet and then a day before it closes - we continually end up having to ask the coach to waive deadlines because we don’t “live” on the site and don’t know when sign up has opened.

2. More specific technique guidance to individual kids. Current coach does this well. Coaches for the younger years totally did not.

Anonymous wrote:Is this club or summer? My kids do RMSC and they do nothing fun after minis. It’s all about the individual, nothing about team bonding or fun. Summer swim is different. It’s all about fun and winning and cheering as a team. We do tie dye, weekly team dinners, donuts at morning practices. We have game nights and water gun fights. There is water polo and fun games at practices. There is a lot of camaraderie amongst the kids. Older kids hanging with the younger ones. It’s very cute.

My kids do RMSC too and there is some limited fun/team bonding activities now that they are in higher/older practice groups. Occasional water polo after a big meet, weird relays during practice, potlucks, secret Santa. Nothing like summer swim fun and it’s heavily coach dependent, but I was pleasantly surprised that as the intensity ratcheted up the team bonding did too.

Anonymous wrote:Is this club or summer? My kids do RMSC and they do nothing fun after minis. It’s all about the individual, nothing about team bonding or fun. Summer swim is different. It’s all about fun and winning and cheering as a team. We do tie dye, weekly team dinners, donuts at morning practices. We have game nights and water gun fights. There is water polo and fun games at practices. There is a lot of camaraderie amongst the kids. Older kids hanging with the younger ones. It’s very cute.

I mean the title of the thread says club…
Everyone knows that club swim is run very differently than summer swim. We are with a big club though and my kid’s practice group has bonding activities, etc. and for the most part there is a good sense of camaraderie and a lot of the kids have become really close. I’ve actually noticed that the biggest downer on team morale are the kids whose parents are forcing them to stay with it. They don’t try hard, don’t show up to meets or practices the way the other kids do, etc. and their attitude drags everyone down.

Is this club or summer? My kids do RMSC and they do nothing fun after minis. It’s all about the individual, nothing about team bonding or fun. Summer swim is different. It’s all about fun and winning and cheering as a team. We do tie dye, weekly team dinners, donuts at morning practices. We have game nights and water gun fights. There is water polo and fun games at practices. There is a lot of camaraderie amongst the kids. Older kids hanging with the younger ones. It’s very cute.

Coaching. Our coaches in the tween age groups have not been great at our NCAP location—they act like they’re coaching adults. More support at meets. Help the kids focus and strategize on their goals a little beforehand. I’m not a swim coach, and the club take great pains to tell parents not to get involved, but from what I can tell, DC gets very little coaching. It’s been pretty terrible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Club swim is a focus on individual performance, but for the amount of time that kids are there I do wish there was a little focus on fun or camaraderie, especially at the 12 and under.

Not the same as summer swim but occasionally cut practice short for in water games or team dinner poolside (by practice group not the entire club) or something else.

It’s actually one of the reasons we left NCAP for York. Actual team activities and bonding.

This type of thing is Coach dependent. We are with NCAP and team activities and bonding are part of the program in my DCs practice group. I know that is not the case with similar practice groups at the other sites though.

That might be an NCAP thing where this type of thing is site dependent since each site runs independently. With smaller clubs like York they will do some bonding across locations. Things like annual bowling party etc. We like it but at least for my kid who is aging up to the 9-10 group this year, it still hasn’t meant they have made close friends in swim and the meets are still very independent. For the seniors it very well may be different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Club swim is a focus on individual performance, but for the amount of time that kids are there I do wish there was a little focus on fun or camaraderie, especially at the 12 and under.

Not the same as summer swim but occasionally cut practice short for in water games or team dinner poolside (by practice group not the entire club) or something else.

It’s actually one of the reasons we left NCAP for York. Actual team activities and bonding.

This type of thing is Coach dependent. We are with NCAP and team activities and bonding are part of the program in my DCs practice group. I know that is not the case with similar practice groups at the other sites though.

Anonymous wrote:Club swim is a focus on individual performance, but for the amount of time that kids are there I do wish there was a little focus on fun or camaraderie, especially at the 12 and under.

Not the same as summer swim but occasionally cut practice short for in water games or team dinner poolside (by practice group not the entire club) or something else.

It’s actually one of the reasons we left NCAP for York. Actual team activities and bonding.

Anonymous wrote:Club swim is a focus on individual performance, but for the amount of time that kids are there I do wish there was a little focus on fun or camaraderie, especially at the 12 and under.

Not the same as summer swim but occasionally cut practice short for in water games or team dinner poolside (by practice group not the entire club) or something else.

Are you sure there are no water games happening? They usually incorporate water games into some practices at most clubs.

Anonymous wrote:Club swim is a focus on individual performance, but for the amount of time that kids are there I do wish there was a little focus on fun or camaraderie, especially at the 12 and under.

Not the same as summer swim but occasionally cut practice short for in water games or team dinner poolside (by practice group not the entire club) or something else.

After a coaching change, this is something that happened on my DC’s club team and it really made a difference in terms of the kids enjoying practice and the experience of swimming year round. Because there was more camaraderie they enjoyed the meets much more too. Instead of kids individually staring at their screens between events they would cheer each other on and have fun together.

Club swim is a focus on individual performance, but for the amount of time that kids are there I do wish there was a little focus on fun or camaraderie, especially at the 12 and under.

Not the same as summer swim but occasionally cut practice short for in water games or team dinner poolside (by practice group not the entire club) or something else.

If you could improve things on your swim team, what would you do to make it better?