Our club team practice group has a really, really tight group of 9-10 year olds, and most of them go at least 3 mornings/week to LC practice (8:30-10). They love to hang out together. None go to summer swim afterward. But all of them go to summer swim practices on Fridays and on days with things like relay carnival/relay all stars. Every one of the 9-10 girls and most of the 9-10 boys made 12U LC Champs, which fall during NVSL Divisionals, so that may be a tricky week knowing which practice to attend (plus going to College Park on Thursday and Friday). Also, our team practices in a LC pool all summer.

My opinion as a former D1 swimmer is that doing club on top of summer team at age 10 is a recipe for burnout. The kids who can make All Stars at 10 and under have a lot of natural talent and/or are bigger and stronger than other kids. If a kid is on the bubble and hopes to make it the following year, then club/winter swim is the time to put in the work. It might pay off the following summer, or maybe the year after. Swimming is a long game. 10 going on 11 is the earliest I would talk about long term goal setting in this way. Before that is just too young for most kids. It should just be fun before then. So much will change between 10 and 14 and you really can’t predict which kids will stay on an elite path, which will fall off, and which will emerge as they get older. True enjoyment of the sport is the foundation and hard work is the bricks. Some of the fast young kids do not love it and they will eventually get passed by the kids with above average talent who are willing to put in the work because they love the sport.

Anonymous wrote:While clubs focus on LC during summer, most kids who swim club ar not actually practicing in LC pools unless they are in higher performing levels and, for most, summer teams, the practices are not intense enough for kids who really want to swim fast/be at the top.

Overall kids who do club swim only attend summer practice on days they don't do club practice or if they do club every day show up later in practice/don't do the full summer practice.

Kids should not be doing double practices multiple days a week.

I wish this was true of our D1 pool. The A meet kids that do club swim do both club swim early in the morning and then summer swim team practice later that morning. It’s crazy. And they say our summer swim practice is harder than the club practice. Summer swim is supposed to be fun, but it’s not at our D1 pool. Your kids get yelled at if they’re chatting with friends at the wall during breaks. 🙄

While clubs focus on LC during summer, most kids who swim club ar not actually practicing in LC pools unless they are in higher performing levels and, for most, summer teams, the practices are not intense enough for kids who really want to swim fast/be at the top.

Overall kids who do club swim only attend summer practice on days they don't do club practice or if they do club every day show up later in practice/don't do the full summer practice.

Kids should not be doing double practices multiple days a week.

I have a 9 year old that will likely make AS without training for club in the summer. Not sure it matters that much at younger ages. Plus it's fun. Summer swim keeps them going at the younger ages.

My kids swim club in the summer. Mostly they just go to club practices but sometimes they’ll go to regular practices too (especially if not going to club that day). I think the younger one started swimming club in the summer around age 9 or 10. I was pretty lukewarm about it at that age. It’s a more intense practice, so yes, I think helps them be fast, but the whole reason they swim is because being part of the summer team is so fun and such a community, so I prefered them to keep going to team practices. The short course/long course thing doesn’t play in too much for us. While they’re training for LC over half their club practices are still in SC pools.

I think this depends on the kid and the coaching quality at each. I mean the overlap is only about a month and a bit so it’s not a big deal. If 9-10s in NVSL are still doing 25BK it’s probably ok because I would be concerned about their timing getting mixed up on the SCY vs SCM pools for the BK turns for anything longer.

My kids do both and are on the younger side (11, 12, 13). Club is working on LCM and the practices and pacing they are working on does not help them for summer meets, which is sprints.

If your kid did Club all year they should be fine to compete in 50s in the summer without too much in the way of conditioning.

Summer Club is usually focused on Long Course (at least ours is), so it actually is quite different training than Summer Swim.

I feel like this question is a little late because the club season winds down over the next few weeks unless your kid is swimming at Zones. My swimmer does club in the summer, and practices with the summer team maybe 1-2x per week (those days are usually doubles). The summer team practice is nothing compared to the club practice for my swimmer, so yours probably would get more out of club practice, but I would definitely make sure your kid has the desire to do both over the summer because summer swim should be fun.

DC, 10, is hoping beyond hope to make All Stars for the first time ever. We traditionally don't do club swim over the summer, and just pivot to our community summer team.

I'm realizing this probably means a significant drop-off in the intensity of practices. if DC hopes to make All Stars should they continue club swim over the summer, and if they do, do people do two-a-days or just skip summer team practice the days they have club practice?

Have zero desire to burn DC out or create an overuse injury, but also want to be sure we clueless non-swimming parents don't impede goals.