Anonymous wrote: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.

Can you share where this was?

Attrition is 35%, which appears to be the same across all sports

https://www.teamunify.com/wzasfast/__eventform__/425605_WHY%20DO%20KIDS%20QUIT.doc?team=wzasfast

One of my kids quit club soccer to have more time for club swim (age 12) because he was burned out on soccer, disliked the coach, hated the teammates who couldn’t handle their emotions on the pitch, and is excited to concentrate on swimming and do rec soccer and basketball on the side. Kids quit many sports, and that’s fine. Mine have quit tennis, basketball, crew, ski team, and taekwondo. Swimming the only thing they have stuck to. They love the team camaraderie that surrounds a largely individual sport, and being strong swimmers have enabled them to jump into other water sports and activities like sailing, surfing, wakeboarding, snorkeling, water polo, kiteboarding, etc.

I think swimming is a hard sport for many kids because of its solitary nature and requirement for incredible focus and discipline. But it doesn’t appear to have more dropouts than other sports.

Anonymous wrote:Club swimming is generally the most fun for the kids who are very good at it. I have one swimmer who is in the elite group for age, travels to NCSAs, Zones, and other big meets, has close friendships with others of the same level, and gets a lot of positive feedback and attention from coaches and others. I have another who is still pretty young but seems to be more on the middle track, decent but not a standout. That swimmer doesn’t enjoy it nearly as much and sometimes does t want to go to practice or meets. I can see them quitting after a few more years of this.

This is spot on. My swimmer seems to genuinely love the sport itself but she is also getting to enjoy all club swimming has to offer because she is really good (travel to elite meets, she gets attention from the coaches, she’s formed good friendships with other talented kids from our club as well as from other clubs, etc.). But I can see how swimmers not at that level would get disenchanted or bored with the sport and move on.

Kids quit swimming just like kids quit other sports. My kids are swimmers, so they quit basketball, dance, soccer, etc. along the way. Here's what I've seen: when kids are little, summer swim is what motivates kids to swim; as they get older, they start to enjoy winter swim much more, make friends, socialize w/ their club team, enjoy travel meets, etc. Add to that high schools swim, which kids love, and all aspects of swim become fun. But club/winter swim is what makes kids fast.

Club swimming is generally the most fun for the kids who are very good at it. I have one swimmer who is in the elite group for age, travels to NCSAs, Zones, and other big meets, has close friendships with others of the same level, and gets a lot of positive feedback and attention from coaches and others. I have another who is still pretty young but seems to be more on the middle track, decent but not a standout. That swimmer doesn’t enjoy it nearly as much and sometimes does t want to go to practice or meets. I can see them quitting after a few more years of this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Need? No, but there is a lot of benefit that can come from it. The objective need not be swimming in HS and beyond. Let’s see:

- pushing yourself
- exercise
- setting and meeting personal goals
- surrounding yourself with positive peers
- feeding off of positive peer pressure
- employment (coaching, giving lessons)
- builds confidence
- helps keep teens out of trouble (I better not, I have a meet tomorrow)

Etc.

I don't see a lot of these things being emphasized in winter swim if you are not on a top level practice.

Pp. Kid did intense soccer and swim. Hard to do both. Personally I'd pick one primary sport and then some secondary.things if you have time. But it's dependent on the kid, cost, time and personality.

There is a practice group and team for every kid. You just need to find it. My 10 year old loves year round swim but is also good at it. Certainly that helps with motivation. Does all the meets she needs to. Kids that quit seem to do other stuff. That's ok. It just wasn't for them.

My kids (late elementary) do winter swim and both love it. I think we found the right team for us, and they have made friends there. They don’t currently do other sports. We tried a very low key secondary sport in the spring, but it still felt like too much. This year, they plan to do an afterschool, weekly run club as their secondary sport, but that’s it. They are both excited to focus on swim, and we’re all excited to eat dinner together as a family. Will they burn out at some point? Maybe, and that’s fine. If they do, I don’t think they’ll regret the experience they’ve had and the lifelong skills they’ve learned.

My experience is a lot of kids do low key or somewhat intense winter swim in elementary. By middle school many quit. The low key kids generally move onto other stuff and some portion of the more intense swimmers either burn out or find that the intensity of swim expected at older ages is incompatible with other interests. A few more quit halfway through high school. Some quit all together, some might continue to swim for fun on summer and high school teams.

Some other kids transition from no or really casual winter swim to more intensity in middle school. These are the kids who hit puberty and suddenly realize they can be good and go all in. I have a couple of these though at least one of mine think is on the burn out mid high school trajectory.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

My kids did multiple sports until HS. At that point, they were in a swim group that required full commitment. However, other options were available. Our club, and others, have a HS group meant to accommodate kids who want to continue other sports.

This- the bigger clubs have multiple levels so kids can stay with the club and select the intensity level they want as they get older and refine their priorities (as low as 1x per week minimum for HS aged kids at our club, in the lowest-intensity groups). This is one of the reasons we picked a bigger club for our kid.

Anonymous wrote: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?

My kids did multiple sports until HS. At that point, they were in a swim group that required full commitment. However, other options were available. Our club, and others, have a HS group meant to accommodate kids who want to continue other sports.

Anonymous wrote:My little girl is 9 and has swum club since 7 (NCAP). She thrives on swim. She wants to swim more, but her coach told her that their policy is all 9Us and most 10Us stay at three nights per week. She prefers practices over meets, and loves the yardage. I write this because their seems to some kind of negative tone permeating most of these threads, and I want any new swim parents to know that there are many children who absolutely love to swim club. (We also swim NVSL, Division 1, and we love it for all the reasons summer swim is awesome, especially relays!)

(I’m the poster above.) Ugh, typo: **there seems to be

My little girl is 9 and has swum club since 7 (NCAP). She thrives on swim. She wants to swim more, but her coach told her that their policy is all 9Us and most 10Us stay at three nights per week. She prefers practices over meets, and loves the yardage. I write this because their seems to some kind of negative tone permeating most of these threads, and I want any new swim parents to know that there are many children who absolutely love to swim club. (We also swim NVSL, Division 1, and we love it for all the reasons summer swim is awesome, especially relays!)

Anonymous wrote: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.

Need? No, but there is a lot of benefit that can come from it. The objective need not be swimming in HS and beyond. Let’s see:

- pushing yourself
- exercise
- setting and meeting personal goals
- surrounding yourself with positive peers
- feeding off of positive peer pressure
- employment (coaching, giving lessons)
- builds confidence
- helps keep teens out of trouble (I better not, I have a meet tomorrow)

Etc.