My kids love winter swim but it took moving teams. Now they have a great group of friends and are similar levels and they enjoy going to meets and traveling together for the bigger meets like NCSAs.

2 kids who have done winter (club) swim

Kid 1 - took 3 teams to find a team he could at least tolerate - he wanted to swim but didn't like the culture of the other teams. 3rd one he didn't mind, but by the Jan/Feb he was always over it and begging to quit. Swim year round for that team for 2 years and then ended up only swimming summer and HS team (with some loose conditioning swimming with club team in the fall.)

Kid 2 Started with the 3rd team kid 1 tried (most laid back) and really liked it. Made friends, liked the meets, etc. Swam club, summer, and HS.

Neither kid was highly competitive/uber motivated.

The answers are gonna be all over the place. Mine did tear round for 2 years then didn’t want to anymore. It’s fine. She plays soccer and basketball now…

Anonymous wrote:DD is a talented swimmer who absolutely lives for summer swim. In our house we make it clear that the purpose of winter swim is to stay in shape for summer swim. We don't do many meets. We don't practice 3x a week. We let other sports take priority for a few weeks if they have to. We are picky about which coaches she works with and prioritize technique improvements and endurance over racing times.

“We don’t practice 3x a week but prioritize endurance”? Well that’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve read on here in awhile as those you absolutely cannot improve your endurance by swimming 1-2 times per week.

Also after 8th grade you have enough skills in any sport to make it a lifetime pickup sport if you've done it enough years. There is no real need to continue intensely unless your objective is to compete at the high school, college, or national level.

I was surprised how much my DD loved winter club swim. It was a developmental program aimed at 5-8s and the coaching was great. She only did it twice a week and it was a great way to keep her active over the winter.

Most of the late elementary aged kids I know swim 1-2 times a week over the winter with a non-competitive practice group, sometimes associated with a summer swim team and sometimes not. It helps to keep up skills for the summer season and is great for general physical fitness (which helps in other sports). Low stress but enough to stay in shape.

DD is a talented swimmer who absolutely lives for summer swim. In our house we make it clear that the purpose of winter swim is to stay in shape for summer swim. We don't do many meets. We don't practice 3x a week. We let other sports take priority for a few weeks if they have to. We are picky about which coaches she works with and prioritize technique improvements and endurance over racing times.

Anonymous wrote:I think how you approach winter swim makes the difference. The kid has to want it and you have to let them miss practices/meets here and there for fun stuff. As soon as the swim takes priority over life - it becomes less fun.

The kids that end up hating it are the ones with the crazy pushing parents - the ones coaching on the sides, demanding coaches "fix" their kids, etc. That is simply not fun.

The burnout is real in the more competitive swim groups. It's there, waiting, for every child on this path. Not surprisingly, the ones with the crazy pushing parents will have this expedited and potentially more pronounced.

It's going to be different for every child but I think for many the inflection point will be when puberty hits and how this impacts them in the water. This is going to be different for girls vs. boys. Personality, genetics and natural talent will also factor in... success will propel them so anything that hinders success will hamper their desire to continue.

It depends at what level you want to pursue swimming. If you end up committed to the sport and are interested in swimming beyond HS, once you are in 8th grade or so it becomes difficult to also play another sport because you’re in the water 5-6 days a week. We’ve seen MS really be the point where kids start to drop out. The time commitment becomes more, they’ve done it for a few years and it’s lost its luster, they want to pursue another sport, they aren’t seeing the results they want, there are a whole host of reasons that kids quit just like with any sport.

I think how you approach winter swim makes the difference. The kid has to want it and you have to let them miss practices/meets here and there for fun stuff. As soon as the swim takes priority over life - it becomes less fun.

The kids that end up hating it are the ones with the crazy pushing parents - the ones coaching on the sides, demanding coaches "fix" their kids, etc. That is simply not fun.

I don't understand why they don't make winter swim more fun. Also just more race related. Half the time the coaches didn't even know what any of their kids were racing. York Swim is the only group that seems to understand this in Virginia. They have some social events and even a retreat.

Mine did not quit (one is 18 now, swam year round since 3) BUT most did along the way.

Winter swim is just not fun. Even if your child is amazing - it sucks for the parents (boring!) and is a ton of early mornings for the kid. Not at all the team sport that summer swim is.

I used to be a really good swimmer - did junior Olympics and everything. I still get anxiety thinking about winter swim. I was so happy when my parents finally let me quit at 15.

My kids are A meet swimmers. I'll be devastated if they ask to do winter swim. Anything but that!

It's pretty well understood that summer swim is tons of fun and winter swim can be a grind. For kids that have tons of fun in the summer and join a winter team, how many stick it out for the season and year over year? How many drop and just stick to summer swim? Is there an age where kids start dropping to focus on other sports (I imagine when practice schedules significantly ramp up for swim)? How long can kids continue to do multiple sports if they also want to swim?