Anonymous
Post 01/20/2022 12:12     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:


Right, that sounds like a far inferior experience to me

What pool has this amazing coaching experience? At our pool the kids have a great time and just being in the water helps them improve, but the coaches are doing very little actual coaching because there are so many kids. My kid learned technical skill from the county stroke and turn clinics and then joining a club. They still love the whole summer swim experience though.


In MCSL most of the large teams offer practices for around three hours in the morning and two to two and a half in the evening. Same coaching staffs for both. This is pretty standard with 160 kid teams. Approximately 5x20 kid practices and then preteam with not all 160 making it every day. Also the upper half of MCSL the typical coaching staff budget is between 20k-30k which is why it’s not an issue to fund a staff for both. Team dues anywhere from 100-200$ per swimmer


So all of the dues go to the staffing budget? How do you pay for team expenses? (lane lines, mats, banquet, pep rallies, treats, breakfasts, etc)


Yes. Usually 150 per kid on the team and then the preteam of 30 kids at about half the price covers most of coaching salaries. Fundraisers, meet concessions and money from friday night team dinners covers the rest of what is needed. Team breakfasts are all provided by team parents, banquet families pay per head and that also helps cover trophies and awards.

If really needed the the pool can chip in, but for the most part large teams running in this model are self sufficient. I would advise shooting for the middle tier of the 20-30k coaching budget, but I know a lot of teams cut it close. Either a very expense Head Coach and top assistant, or too many assistants in order to give reps children a job
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2022 16:58     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Summer swim is discriminatory to working parents.


Guess what? The world does not revolve around working parents.


Seriously! We are working parents and instead of sending our kids to various summer camps we get a nanny for the summer. It works out great and is totally doable.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2022 12:18     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Summer swim is discriminatory to working parents.


How? Go to afternoon camp practices, meets on weeknights and weekends. Please only do so if you can volunteer, as required.


This is the dumbest complaint ever. Not everything works for everyone. Move along if it doesn't work for you or find a pool that offers a schedule that is more attractive your family. Discriminatory? Trust me (1) most 8 yr olds don't want to be in camp all day and then come to swim practice every day; (2) if you kid really wants to swim, you will figure out a way to make it work by hiring a sitter or by working poolside during practice a couple of times a week (3) kids older than 12 don't want to go to camp anyway and summer swim helps keep them busy while their parents are working, so it becomes a working parents' friend when kids are older. Making some SAHM vs working parent controversy over summer swim is stupid. The VAST majority of parents in this area work at some point during their kids 10 years on the summer swim team. Stop whining about how the world is discriminating against you figure out what works for you family.


I will second this. We are a working family and I save most of my leave to use in chunks during the summer. Neither of us had telework situations. One year my husband and I shifted our hours so that I went in zero dark early to get out of work early (at my desk at 5am-ish to be done by 3) he was able to go on late at 1030. So he took them to morning practice and dropped them off at camp after. I would be able to pick them up and get them to evening meets. We now hire people to help us out and the kids are older. But we went out of our way to make it work - most parents on the team had to do the same. They either had au pairs or sitters. We have like three families that have SAHM/D situations but that is because they are teachers.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2022 10:14     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Summer swim is discriminatory to working parents.


How? Go to afternoon camp practices, meets on weeknights and weekends. Please only do so if you can volunteer, as required.


This is the dumbest complaint ever. Not everything works for everyone. Move along if it doesn't work for you or find a pool that offers a schedule that is more attractive your family. Discriminatory? Trust me (1) most 8 yr olds don't want to be in camp all day and then come to swim practice every day; (2) if you kid really wants to swim, you will figure out a way to make it work by hiring a sitter or by working poolside during practice a couple of times a week (3) kids older than 12 don't want to go to camp anyway and summer swim helps keep them busy while their parents are working, so it becomes a working parents' friend when kids are older. Making some SAHM vs working parent controversy over summer swim is stupid. The VAST majority of parents in this area work at some point during their kids 10 years on the summer swim team. Stop whining about how the world is discriminating against you figure out what works for you family.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2022 09:31     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:


Right, that sounds like a far inferior experience to me

What pool has this amazing coaching experience? At our pool the kids have a great time and just being in the water helps them improve, but the coaches are doing very little actual coaching because there are so many kids. My kid learned technical skill from the county stroke and turn clinics and then joining a club. They still love the whole summer swim experience though.


In MCSL most of the large teams offer practices for around three hours in the morning and two to two and a half in the evening. Same coaching staffs for both. This is pretty standard with 160 kid teams. Approximately 5x20 kid practices and then preteam with not all 160 making it every day. Also the upper half of MCSL the typical coaching staff budget is between 20k-30k which is why it’s not an issue to fund a staff for both. Team dues anywhere from 100-200$ per swimmer


So all of the dues go to the staffing budget? How do you pay for team expenses? (lane lines, mats, banquet, pep rallies, treats, breakfasts, etc)
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2022 07:19     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Our pool offers an afternoon practice, but it's staffed by the high school aged junior coaches. Only a few kids attend it.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2022 07:09     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Anonymous wrote:Summer swim is discriminatory to working parents.


How? Go to afternoon camp practices, meets on weeknights and weekends. Please only do so if you can volunteer, as required.
Anonymous
Post 01/18/2022 22:00     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If they don’t offer it, you need to push your team to have later afternoon practices for pre-team/full team as an option. Carpooling, too, and you do pick up if that’s still too early. There are ways to do it, and summer swim was great fun for our kids.


This would be a nonstarter at many/most pools. They aren’t going to shut down the pool to general membership at the busiest time of day.


It’s a smaller group that needs the evening session and you can get by with using a few lanes. Our pool is big so using a few lanes a few nights a week is NBD. But it would depend on the pool size.


Question. Are your coaches now coaching both morning and evening? That is a lot of hours. Or do your head coaches only do morning. That would be a tremendous cost to do both.


I wanted to ask the same thing. Coaches would be working 4-5 hours in the morning before the pool opens and then come back and work 5 to 8 pm? We have two head coaches and six lane coaches in the morning. I can't imagine being able to afford an evening cadre as well without doubling our fees. Even as it stands now we have to do a LOT of fundraising to pay our coaches.


Well, the SAH parents will just have have their fees doubled, I guess. After all "working families" have spoken. It's all about them.


No - swim team costs the same. You have 150 kids on your team paying. I have 175 paying because I have 25 doing the evening that you lost by not offering evening. And the fees from the extra 20 cover the extra money for evening coaching.


It costs the fees of 150 kids to run morning training, but only the cost of 25 kids to run the evening training? Either you are stiffing the evening coaches, or the kids at evening training are getting a far inferior experience.


Not PP, but out pool has evening training for kids whose parents worked. It's shorter and the lanes were more crowded. Instead of our adult coaches, it was overseen by teen coaches (who obviously make far less) with fewer coaches per swimmer.


Right, that sounds like a far inferior experience to me

What pool has this amazing coaching experience? At our pool the kids have a great time and just being in the water helps them improve, but the coaches are doing very little actual coaching because there are so many kids. My kid learned technical skill from the county stroke and turn clinics and then joining a club. They still love the whole summer swim experience though.


In MCSL most of the large teams offer practices for around three hours in the morning and two to two and a half in the evening. Same coaching staffs for both. This is pretty standard with 160 kid teams. Approximately 5x20 kid practices and then preteam with not all 160 making it every day. Also the upper half of MCSL the typical coaching staff budget is between 20k-30k which is why it’s not an issue to fund a staff for both. Team dues anywhere from 100-200$ per swimmer
Anonymous
Post 01/18/2022 19:24     Subject: Summer swim if work in office
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If they don’t offer it, you need to push your team to have later afternoon practices for pre-team/full team as an option. Carpooling, too, and you do pick up if that’s still too early. There are ways to do it, and summer swim was great fun for our kids.


This would be a nonstarter at many/most pools. They aren’t going to shut down the pool to general membership at the busiest time of day.


It’s a smaller group that needs the evening session and you can get by with using a few lanes. Our pool is big so using a few lanes a few nights a week is NBD. But it would depend on the pool size.


Question. Are your coaches now coaching both morning and evening? That is a lot of hours. Or do your head coaches only do morning. That would be a tremendous cost to do both.


I wanted to ask the same thing. Coaches would be working 4-5 hours in the morning before the pool opens and then come back and work 5 to 8 pm? We have two head coaches and six lane coaches in the morning. I can't imagine being able to afford an evening cadre as well without doubling our fees. Even as it stands now we have to do a LOT of fundraising to pay our coaches.


Well, the SAH parents will just have have their fees doubled, I guess. After all "working families" have spoken. It's all about them.


No - swim team costs the same. You have 150 kids on your team paying. I have 175 paying because I have 25 doing the evening that you lost by not offering evening. And the fees from the extra 20 cover the extra money for evening coaching.


It costs the fees of 150 kids to run morning training, but only the cost of 25 kids to run the evening training? Either you are stiffing the evening coaches, or the kids at evening training are getting a far inferior experience.


Neither. There are way more kids and coaches in the morning. Fewer kids and fewer coaches in the evening. It's not an identical program in the evening. It is a much smaller group and I guarantee it would be the same if any of you did it at your pool.

Our pool is the exact opposite, there are way more kids that show up in the evening. They practically beg kids to come in the morning because there are less kids, more opportunity for coaching, a longer practice (1 hour instead of 45 minutes), but most parents that work prefer the evening instead of taking their kid to practice at 7 am and then running them to camp.