If your 7 year old DS can truly swim 1 length of the pool without stopping or otherwise struggling they should be able to be on the team. However, I would consider whether they can truly do it. I will never forget an 8 year old with questionable ability being allowed to swim on the team and having to be rescued midway through a 25 free because he started panicking and couldn’t stay above water. Do not force your kid into a level they are not ready for, that is a recipe for disaster.

Anonymous wrote:I am in a division A team (MCSL) with over 250 kids and OP’s kid would have made team. As long as he can swim free across the pool, he’s in the swim team.

Same, but our pool is Division B. Also, what pool has an hour practice for 8&U this time of year? Ours are 30 mins until school is out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is summer swim? That is utter and complete bull crap OP. He doesn't have to make it through an hour practice on Day 1 like he's training for the olympics. He swims what he can at the practice and builds stamina by swimming in daily hour-long practices. This is the actual point of summer swim. To have kids like this on the team.

OP here. It's good to hear this! I don't see why they wouldn't give him the option to train with the team either.

This makes me so mad for your son! Our pool has a good team, and the only requirement is you need to be able to do a 25 without touching the bottom, but it could be doggy paddle or a combo of floating on your back! How is he supposed to build up stamina without getting to practice? 2 of my kids went from barely doing that 25 to winning races by the end of the season. That’s kind of the point of summer swim! I’d complain to your board bc the coach doesn’t get it.

This is nonsense. At our pool if they can swim 25 yards, they can do summer swim. So what if he can't make all the laps at first? How is he going to build stamina? I would raise holy hell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is summer swim? That is utter and complete bull crap OP. He doesn't have to make it through an hour practice on Day 1 like he's training for the olympics. He swims what he can at the practice and builds stamina by swimming in daily hour-long practices. This is the actual point of summer swim. To have kids like this on the team.

OP here. It's good to hear this! I don't see why they wouldn't give him the option to train with the team either.

Ask more Questions about pre team. At our pool the pre team ends up swimming in meets when they are ready and so he could even move to team practices later in the summer.

Anonymous wrote:I am in a division A team (MCSL) with over 250 kids and OP’s kid would have made team. As long as he can swim free across the pool, he’s in the swim team.

Same, D1 NVSL. This is not a good way to get kids excited about the team. I'd talk to the team rep.

I am in a division A team (MCSL) with over 250 kids and OP’s kid would have made team. As long as he can swim free across the pool, he’s in the swim team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you say you joined the pool last summer. Did you talk to the coach, other parents, or observe the swimmers last summer or within the last year? And where did you son take his swim classes over the past year? It seems like this failure is a shock to you but if you’ve been a member and know lots of other 7yo on the team already it seems like you would have at least known he might not have made it? Or if you have a relationship with the coach, try to talk to him and get DS to join the lowest group.

Not blaming you at all but based on your own details this doesn’t seem to make sense.

Well, I was under the impression that if you can make it across the pool safely you can be on the team. He only gained that skill over the summer last year. I know the smaller kids on team look really good but didn't think that would exclude his participation. So I encouraged him to try out for the team this summer thinking that. He takes class at public swim center and is still learning breast and fly.

Define participation.

At our NVSL pool, there is swim team and pre-team (aka developmental team) which is mostly the 8U who are still learning to get across the pool. Regardless of the 'team', they can participate in all the team activites and are encouraged to sign up for B meets.

Now i do know of parents of 8U on the development team who sometimes are frustrated that their kid isn't moved up to the regular team because of inability to keep pace with the practice groups, etc. But it's something solvable as long as the kid is willing to improve and there are chance to move up during the season.

Anonymous wrote:My 6 year old barely made the big team this year after a year on pre-team. At our MCSL pool they just have to make it across confidently to be in 8U. Practices until school is out are 30 min. I will say he came out completely exhausted after the first practice yesterday. Like collapse tired.
We do have 6,7,8 year olds on pre team as well.

How is one 30 minute swim team practice getting him to collapse tired if he’s been in 30 minutes lessons?

On our team, the biggest difference between competition team and Dev team is that for the dev team they only swim one meet at the end of the year. And their practices are 45 min instead of an hour. Otherwise it's the same, with the goal to build stamina, focus on skill.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you say you joined the pool last summer. Did you talk to the coach, other parents, or observe the swimmers last summer or within the last year? And where did you son take his swim classes over the past year? It seems like this failure is a shock to you but if you’ve been a member and know lots of other 7yo on the team already it seems like you would have at least known he might not have made it? Or if you have a relationship with the coach, try to talk to him and get DS to join the lowest group.

Not blaming you at all but based on your own details this doesn’t seem to make sense.

Well, I was under the impression that if you can make it across the pool safely you can be on the team. He only gained that skill over the summer last year. I know the smaller kids on team look really good but didn't think that would exclude his participation. So I encouraged him to try out for the team this summer thinking that. He takes class at public swim center and is still learning breast and fly.

Our pool states they have to be able to make it across the pool and tread water to be able to try out for the team but are not guaranteed a spot. Do you know if other kids of a similar age and level didn’t make it on the team? I’ve noticed a big uptick in the number of swimmers at our pool and it seems they start at younger ages.

My 6 year old barely made the big team this year after a year on pre-team. At our MCSL pool they just have to make it across confidently to be in 8U. Practices until school is out are 30 min. I will say he came out completely exhausted after the first practice yesterday. Like collapse tired.
We do have 6,7,8 year olds on pre team as well.

Most teams have an option like junior team, or just letting kids join practice until they build the stamina (could only do half practice for a while). If it’s a small team maybe they don’t have the staff to facilitate it.

Anonymous wrote:This is summer swim? That is utter and complete bull crap OP. He doesn't have to make it through an hour practice on Day 1 like he's training for the olympics. He swims what he can at the practice and builds stamina by swimming in daily hour-long practices. This is the actual point of summer swim. To have kids like this on the team.

Maybe it’s a popular program and at capacity this summer. In which case it makes sense they would take the stronger swimmers and try to retain the rest through the precomp level.

Anonymous wrote:OP you say you joined the pool last summer. Did you talk to the coach, other parents, or observe the swimmers last summer or within the last year? And where did you son take his swim classes over the past year? It seems like this failure is a shock to you but if you’ve been a member and know lots of other 7yo on the team already it seems like you would have at least known he might not have made it? Or if you have a relationship with the coach, try to talk to him and get DS to join the lowest group.

Not blaming you at all but based on your own details this doesn’t seem to make sense.

Well, I was under the impression that if you can make it across the pool safely you can be on the team. He only gained that skill over the summer last year. I know the smaller kids on team look really good but didn't think that would exclude his participation. So I encouraged him to try out for the team this summer thinking that. He takes class at public swim center and is still learning breast and fly.