We have 13.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our 8&unders basically can’t make it down the lane unless they drag themselves via the gutter. Their parents are very hands-off annd don’t seem worried. I really feel the generational difference even though my kid is only a few years older- we are as overbearing and involved as they are indifferent. We would have had those kids in 5 days/week private lessons and asking the coach to put them in lane 2 away from the wall.

This is the group that was locked down while the kids were babies or very young toddlers so it was hard to get into the swing of signing up for swim lessons and getting out of the house. My friend with a rising 1st grader has said as much.

🙄 I hope you realize how ridiculous this post is, PP. There are a huge number of fast 8 & unders who learned to swim just fine, though evidently none of them ended up at your pool. There is absolutely no “generational difference” at our pool or within my kid’s swim club (putting aside the fact that gen alpha spans kids ages 1-15).

+1 this is a crazy generalization and absolutely doesn’t apply at our pool. We have a huge crop of 8 and unders, many of them very strong. My kid is pretty slow but still has one more year in 8 and unders and will do the summer team’s winter program to hopefully get consistently legal in breast and fly. But we fill our breast and fly lanes at A meets with the faster kids. So I think this is luck of the draw at some pools.

Anonymous wrote:Mom of an 8 year old here. Could this be a covid thing? Our pools were all closed until dd was 5/6 and she didn't learn how to swim until then.

My dd is very tall, good muscles and loves to run/be active. I'm struggling with how to help her with her swimming and she keeps getting DQ'd. Other than for swim practice, our pool is only open for laps 8-10pm. She has to be at swim at 7am, so that's too late. I think the morning practice needs to be longer to help build more muscles.

None of our 8 and unders are poorly behaved like the pp said. They all do what they're told.

Your math does not add up. An 8 year old was 3 during the summer of 2020. Some indoor pools re-opened for stroke and turn in early 2021. Summer leagues ran as usual in summer of 2021. Pools were not closed until your kid was 5-6, which would have been 2022-2023.

Mom of an 8 year old here. Could this be a covid thing? Our pools were all closed until dd was 5/6 and she didn't learn how to swim until then.

My dd is very tall, good muscles and loves to run/be active. I'm struggling with how to help her with her swimming and she keeps getting DQ'd. Other than for swim practice, our pool is only open for laps 8-10pm. She has to be at swim at 7am, so that's too late. I think the morning practice needs to be longer to help build more muscles.

None of our 8 and unders are poorly behaved like the pp said. They all do what they're told.

8 DD is the only one with a legal fly on the team for 8u girls. She will be guaranteed to swim that event and the medley relay, which means she can only swim one other event every meet. Gonna be a long summer.

Our 8 U boys situation has been struggling the last couple of years. Overall we have more girls than boys.

The girls are pretty competitive. We have few boys and none of them swim in the winter.

Anonymous wrote:Our 8&unders basically can’t make it down the lane unless they drag themselves via the gutter. Their parents are very hands-off annd don’t seem worried. I really feel the generational difference even though my kid is only a few years older- we are as overbearing and involved as they are indifferent. We would have had those kids in 5 days/week private lessons and asking the coach to put them in lane 2 away from the wall.

This is the group that was locked down while the kids were babies or very young toddlers so it was hard to get into the swing of signing up for swim lessons and getting out of the house. My friend with a rising 1st grader has said as much.

Uh, you don't need 5 days a week lessons for a 6 or 7 year old in order to get them off the wall. You just need a coach who properly encourages and does endurance swims at the end of each lesson until they can do it. My kid was in weekly lessons and did "two minute swims" every week until she could competently complete the length of the pool without stopping. If the kids are getting good technique training, this happens on its own because once the stroke "clicks" the kids realize it's actually easier and more pleasurable to just swim the length of the pool instead of hanging off the wall.

Also, my kid was 2 when Covid hit and did not even start swim lessons until she was 4 because the pandemic totally upended our plans. So at 4 wouldn't even put her face in the water initially and starting from scratch. By six she had a clean freestyle and backstroke. She's seven now and her breast stroke is also legal, only just start working on fly. She's super fast in free. We are not overbearing, she's just a good swimmer and very coachable -- listens and is able to make small adjustments and doesn't get frustrated and just really likes being in the water.

So I think your pool just has a group of 8&Us who aren't there yet, but also at that age isn't that the whole point of summer swim? By the end of the summer they will be better. That's the developmental group for a reason. Calm down.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think coaches spend much time with 8 and under, honestly. Our kid (7) swims year round. Coaches don’t get in water. Tells us kid is legal in three strokes with a “close” butterfly. Does weekend stroke and turn. DQs in breast every summer B swim meet (feet turned in). They never say anything to her or help her work on it. Does other strokes in A meets. No real coaching there, either.

Have you tried asking the coaches to do a 1:1 private lesson? We have some high school kids who are very good who do this and it has helped my 8 and under immensely.

I agree. We actually have a great pool of 8 and Unders. Where we are "lacking" is in that 10-11 range. All those kids that missed 5 and 6 year old swimming. Admittedly, our pool TANKED their Covid response.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our 8&unders basically can’t make it down the lane unless they drag themselves via the gutter. Their parents are very hands-off annd don’t seem worried. I really feel the generational difference even though my kid is only a few years older- we are as overbearing and involved as they are indifferent. We would have had those kids in 5 days/week private lessons and asking the coach to put them in lane 2 away from the wall.

This is the group that was locked down while the kids were babies or very young toddlers so it was hard to get into the swing of signing up for swim lessons and getting out of the house. My friend with a rising 1st grader has said as much.

🙄 I hope you realize how ridiculous this post is, PP. There are a huge number of fast 8 & unders who learned to swim just fine, though evidently none of them ended up at your pool. There is absolutely no “generational difference” at our pool or within my kid’s swim club (putting aside the fact that gen alpha spans kids ages 1-15).

Yeah I am not totally buying this either. DC recently turned 8. They were a couple months shy of 3 when lockdown started. They had been doing toddler swim lessons for a while and I think they were in a class where a parent didn't get in anymore. Of course that ended and did not start back up until much later when indoor pools opened up. But our summer pool did open in 2020 and we could sign up for a 90 min time slot a couple times per week. Did that religiously to get out of the house. DC was a little fish and diving underwater to get toys that summer when they had just turned 3. Passed the swim test as a just turned 5 year old. Swam in the mini group at a club this past year at 7.

Anyone with a 7 or 8 year old right now had the chance to get their kids in the water before COVID and literally years after that. Sounds like your pool just has a group of parents that didn't really prioritize it for whatever reason, but plenty of others did. We have some good little 6 and 7 year olds on our team.

Anonymous wrote:Our 8&unders basically can’t make it down the lane unless they drag themselves via the gutter. Their parents are very hands-off annd don’t seem worried. I really feel the generational difference even though my kid is only a few years older- we are as overbearing and involved as they are indifferent. We would have had those kids in 5 days/week private lessons and asking the coach to put them in lane 2 away from the wall.

This is the group that was locked down while the kids were babies or very young toddlers so it was hard to get into the swing of signing up for swim lessons and getting out of the house. My friend with a rising 1st grader has said as much.

🙄 I hope you realize how ridiculous this post is, PP. There are a huge number of fast 8 & unders who learned to swim just fine, though evidently none of them ended up at your pool. There is absolutely no “generational difference” at our pool or within my kid’s swim club (putting aside the fact that gen alpha spans kids ages 1-15).