Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RMSCs invite in December is the best meet in the area sans NCAP, but NCAP doesn’t make sense for a team that is just starting. It’s also a 20-ish minute drive from McLean to Germantown with no traffic (like for a 6 AM warmup).

I live down the street from Tuckahoe. GISC is 19 miles. That's not 20 minutes, regardless of the traffic, and this meet is a thursday-sunday meet.

We can agree to disagree about what constitutes the "best meet." I am a huge fan of Winter Classic.

The best meet stuff is funny because unless you are a family who has switched clubs a lot you have likely not attended every meet. I know we certainly haven't. So how can anyone say which is "the best".

Anonymous wrote:

RMSCs invite in December is the best meet in the area sans NCAP, but NCAP doesn’t make sense for a team that is just starting. It’s also a 20-ish minute drive from McLean to Germantown with no traffic (like for a 6 AM warmup).

I live down the street from Tuckahoe. GISC is 19 miles. That's not 20 minutes, regardless of the traffic, and this meet is a thursday-sunday meet.

We can agree to disagree about what constitutes the "best meet." I am a huge fan of Winter Classic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Interesting that Marlins are inviting them to meets but not the Winter Classic, so they have to travel to RMSC’s winter champs meet.

Looking at a map, RMSC is 20 miles closer to Tuckahoe than Stafford is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Interesting that Marlins are inviting them to meets but not the Winter Classic, so they have to travel to RMSC’s winter champs meet.

It’s funny, the one or two posters with a bone to pick keep bringing up the meet schedule. They have a pretty robust schedule with many different clubs around the area hosting.

I’m sure it will take a while for Hydra to build out their roster and offerings, but sounds like the “no meets” bit is over!

RMSCs invite in December is the best meet in the area sans NCAP, but NCAP doesn’t make sense for a team that is just starting. It’s also a 20-ish minute drive from McLean to Germantown with no traffic (like for a 6 AM warmup).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Interesting that Marlins are inviting them to meets but not the Winter Classic, so they have to travel to RMSC’s winter champs meet.

The Marlins meets are their mini meets, besides IMX which all of the east coast gets an invite to that meet. They have one AAC meet which is the LC meet in January. The bulk of their meets are OCCS invites which is FAR for McLean/Tysons. And RMSC serve as their champs meets. The rest is ICSA filler which requires a lot of travel.

Winter classic has a pretty set invite list locally. It is usually the out of town participants that vary year to year.

Oh and to add Machine hosts the other good winter champs meet and they will not be inviting them any time soon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Interesting that Marlins are inviting them to meets but not the Winter Classic, so they have to travel to RMSC’s winter champs meet.

The Marlins meets are their mini meets, besides IMX which all of the east coast gets an invite to that meet. They have one AAC meet which is the LC meet in January. The bulk of their meets are OCCS invites which is FAR for McLean/Tysons. And RMSC serve as their champs meets. The rest is ICSA filler which requires a lot of travel.

Winter classic has a pretty set invite list locally. It is usually the out of town participants that vary year to year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. They're definitely in sales mode. I don't know if that means they are struggling. Seems pretty normal to me they'll take a couple years to build. I wouldn't jump ship with my kid until I'd seen them in action a year. I think they'll get little kids mostly.

I agree that it’s salesy and a little gimmicky. The testimonials are strange for the swimming world for sure.

They’re super strange considering 90% of it took place at York and they conveniently leave it out

Anonymous wrote:The RFP process was shady at best and I’d argue Tuckahoe could have handled this with Machine more professionally than they did. But, can we all move on? I’m not about to root against a club when a bunch of young swimmers would be the collateral damage. Let’s hope they all prove us wrong.

FYI - There’s a lot more to this than how Tuckahoe handled this with Machine. But of course no one wants the kids to suffer. How does this thread affect them exactly?

The RFP process was shady at best and I’d argue Tuckahoe could have handled this with Machine more professionally than they did. But, can we all move on? I’m not about to root against a club when a bunch of young swimmers would be the collateral damage. Let’s hope they all prove us wrong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Interesting that Marlins are inviting them to meets but not the Winter Classic, so they have to travel to RMSC’s winter champs meet.

I wouldn't read too much into that, but also wouldn't expect a future invite unless a current team drops out. With the format of that meet, it's simply full.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Its not awful- but its not great. If you live in Arlington or Mclean (which is presumably primarily where they are drawing swimmers from) most of the meets are a LONG way away. For the fall, with the exception of the Marlins mini meet for 8 and under, all meets are a minimum of 45 minutes, without traffic.
There are no meets at the St. James, Providence, Oak Mont, GMU, etc. Those are all the closer pools that host meets.

On the positive side it’s not a huge disaster either like so many other strings on DCUM have predicted in the past.

It’s their first year, why don’t you give them some grace to see how they like the meets. Maybe they will make changes in the future, maybe not. If the families who are swimming for Hydra are happy why does it matter to anyone else?!

If you’re interested in the meet schedule and want to learn more about membership I’m sure you can reach out on their website.

Well, as predicted there are no York, Machine or NCAP meets on their schedule. Those are the biggest teams in NOVA. Also noticed there is no Makos and they host a lot or meets. The swimming/coaching world is small…

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Most are actually OCCS. Which isn’t exactly local.

And there are a good number in Maryland, beyond their winter champs.

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Interesting that Marlins are inviting them to meets but not the Winter Classic, so they have to travel to RMSC’s winter champs meet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone tell me if there is a decent number of swimmers signed up? Their instagram makes it seem like... they're struggling...

Are there any senior-level swimmers? The location is convenient but want my kid to have a good cohort to train with.

I have a senior swimmer who will be there for evening practices. I know of several other kids same age who will also be there for the same practices. From the talk among parents, sounds like a solid group of kids so far with mix of abilities/speed.

Are there outdoor blocks? How do the evening practice kids practice starts without blocks?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It appears their winter champs will be RMSC and it looks like they will be swimming mostly Marlins and AAC meets. So not too bad.

Its not awful- but its not great. If you live in Arlington or Mclean (which is presumably primarily where they are drawing swimmers from) most of the meets are a LONG way away. For the fall, with the exception of the Marlins mini meet for 8 and under, all meets are a minimum of 45 minutes, without traffic.
There are no meets at the St. James, Providence, Oak Mont, GMU, etc. Those are all the closer pools that host meets.

On the positive side it’s not a huge disaster either like so many other strings on DCUM have predicted in the past.

It’s their first year, why don’t you give them some grace to see how they like the meets. Maybe they will make changes in the future, maybe not. If the families who are swimming for Hydra are happy why does it matter to anyone else?!

If you’re interested in the meet schedule and want to learn more about membership I’m sure you can reach out on their website.