Anonymous
07/23/2015 07:30
Subject: I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:We did the Fox Mill Woods team for 2 years. Oh my god. What a mess of wacky, self-focused, crazy moms who hyper-focus on their little snowflakes. Especially the ladies who have been working the swim team for years. Yeah we opted out of the crazy this year. And it's been a wonderful summer. It wasn't like this when I was a kid. I am sad for my DD to miss out on what I thought would be a good experience, but it wasn't a healthy environment.
we are not on swim team, but wow what a scene... Those moms are insane. There is definitely a mentality that it's their pool and we are allowed to use it. So no one talks to us because we are not part of the cool club.
Anonymous
07/21/2015 15:59
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
We greatly enjoy our MCSL swim team (Division G). We love that our kids get at least 1 hour of exercise every day at the pool and have a group of friends of all ages.
Our kids swim 2x per week in the winter and so usually qualify for A meets (at least at their age.) They'd need to ramp that up to qualify for A meets as they get older.
I greatly admire the kids who do other sports and then just show up to swim in the summer. It takes courage to get out there and swim a race. They make the best of it and swim mainly in the B meets.
Our coaches are young and make it fun with trivia contests, FunDay Monday, pep rallies, raffles, etc. At our end-of-season banquet, the coaches share a fun anecdote about every child and give them a cute little "award."
We are fortunate that our house is just 1.5 blocks from the pool and so my kids walk or bike to and from practice. When we bought our house, we didn't realize how much we'd use the neighborhood pool but it's been a godsend to have it so close.
Our kids swim 2x per week in the winter and so usually qualify for A meets (at least at their age.) They'd need to ramp that up to qualify for A meets as they get older.
I greatly admire the kids who do other sports and then just show up to swim in the summer. It takes courage to get out there and swim a race. They make the best of it and swim mainly in the B meets.
Our coaches are young and make it fun with trivia contests, FunDay Monday, pep rallies, raffles, etc. At our end-of-season banquet, the coaches share a fun anecdote about every child and give them a cute little "award."
We are fortunate that our house is just 1.5 blocks from the pool and so my kids walk or bike to and from practice. When we bought our house, we didn't realize how much we'd use the neighborhood pool but it's been a godsend to have it so close.
Anonymous
07/21/2015 13:07
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
My own kids enjoyed the challenge of beating their own personal best times.
We try to focus our kids on improving their times, i.e., faster times at end of summer than at time trials, and not being too concerned about who won the heat.
Anonymous
07/21/2015 12:36
Subject: I hate almost everything about summer swim team
swallowing all that pool water over the years can't be good ~
Anonymous
07/21/2015 11:53
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I also dislike the culture among the parents. It feels a lot like a fraternity and sorority.
+ 1
I didn't realize joining a community pool was going to be like going back to high school, and that my perfectly nice non-team member child would be on the social dud list. This is just so fucking weird and cliched. Can't wait to get away from this $700 summer of watching a bunch of little snots and their nasty parents hang out together.
Are you at CST? Sounds like it.
Anonymous
07/21/2015 11:50
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I passed on swim team with my kids. I actually didn't ask them if they wanted to join, but swim team sounds brutal- practice everyday and marathon meets on Saturday. I can get there being such a commitment for a high school team, but on our neighborhood team most of the team is under 10-years-old. FWIW, and I am an exercise nut, swimming is the most boring form of exercise on the planet. I know it's great for your body, low impact...etc, but swimming bores me to tears.
Summer Swimming is one of the least brutal sports out there. practice usually runs 45 minutes to an hour depending on your age. The marathon swim meets? Start at 9 am and usually around 11:15 am.
Sounds like your misconceptions are keeping your kids from trying something they might enjoy.
You're lucky. Our Saturday meets are much longer. If it's a home meet, kids have to be in the pool for warm-ups at 7:20 and the meet can easily go until 12/12:30
Anonymous
07/21/2015 08:04
Subject: I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Needing so many volunteers shows that the adults are very inefficient.
I was just a runner at our meet. It is not inefficient. You need three timers per lane. Runners, clerks. It's pretty efficient. Just takes a lot of people.
Name another sport where at least 24 people are needed to judge the 6 competitors participating at one time.
Summer (recreational) swimming is a great program, but compared to other sports it's insane how seriously the judging part of it is.
Anonymous
07/20/2015 07:38
Subject: I hate almost everything about summer swim team
We did the Fox Mill Woods team for 2 years. Oh my god. What a mess of wacky, self-focused, crazy moms who hyper-focus on their little snowflakes. Especially the ladies who have been working the swim team for years. Yeah we opted out of the crazy this year. And it's been a wonderful summer. It wasn't like this when I was a kid. I am sad for my DD to miss out on what I thought would be a good experience, but it wasn't a healthy environment.
Anonymous
07/20/2015 07:32
Subject: I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Sat swim meets are far less brutal than the Monday night meets. However, with my kids in a D1 pool and over 300 kids on the team, the chances are slim to none that we will have Saturday swimmers unless we commit to heavy training over the winter. So, we go to Monday meets for hours to watch our kids spend less than 2 minutes in the pool.
Anonymous
07/19/2015 21:25
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I passed on swim team with my kids. I actually didn't ask them if they wanted to join, but swim team sounds brutal- practice everyday and marathon meets on Saturday. I can get there being such a commitment for a high school team, but on our neighborhood team most of the team is under 10-years-old. FWIW, and I am an exercise nut, swimming is the most boring form of exercise on the planet. I know it's great for your body, low impact...etc, but swimming bores me to tears.
Summer Swimming is one of the least brutal sports out there. practice usually runs 45 minutes to an hour depending on your age. The marathon swim meets? Start at 9 am and usually around 11:15 am.
Sounds like your misconceptions are keeping your kids from trying something they might enjoy.
+100 You spend a longer time sitting around watching nothing happen at a little league game.
You seriously have no experience with baseball, which is not surprising. After 7, the kids can hit 200 feet throw 40, 50, 60 miles and hour and turn double plays. There is very little sitting around.
Plus the setting is far more pleasant than a hot concrete pool deck.
Anonymous
07/19/2015 20:55
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I passed on swim team with my kids. I actually didn't ask them if they wanted to join, but swim team sounds brutal- practice everyday and marathon meets on Saturday. I can get there being such a commitment for a high school team, but on our neighborhood team most of the team is under 10-years-old. FWIW, and I am an exercise nut, swimming is the most boring form of exercise on the planet. I know it's great for your body, low impact...etc, but swimming bores me to tears.
Summer Swimming is one of the least brutal sports out there. practice usually runs 45 minutes to an hour depending on your age. The marathon swim meets? Start at 9 am and usually around 11:15 am.
Sounds like your misconceptions are keeping your kids from trying something they might enjoy.
+100 You spend a longer time sitting around watching nothing happen at a little league game.
You seriously have no experience with baseball, which is not surprising. After 7, the kids can hit 200 feet throw 40, 50, 60 miles and hour and turn double plays. There is very little sitting around.
Anonymous
07/19/2015 19:03
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I passed on swim team with my kids. I actually didn't ask them if they wanted to join, but swim team sounds brutal- practice everyday and marathon meets on Saturday. I can get there being such a commitment for a high school team, but on our neighborhood team most of the team is under 10-years-old. FWIW, and I am an exercise nut, swimming is the most boring form of exercise on the planet. I know it's great for your body, low impact...etc, but swimming bores me to tears.
Summer Swimming is one of the least brutal sports out there. practice usually runs 45 minutes to an hour depending on your age. The marathon swim meets? Start at 9 am and usually around 11:15 am.
Sounds like your misconceptions are keeping your kids from trying something they might enjoy.
+100 You spend a longer time sitting around watching nothing happen at a little league game.
Anonymous
07/19/2015 16:48
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I passed on swim team with my kids. I actually didn't ask them if they wanted to join, but swim team sounds brutal- practice everyday and marathon meets on Saturday. I can get there being such a commitment for a high school team, but on our neighborhood team most of the team is under 10-years-old. FWIW, and I am an exercise nut, swimming is the most boring form of exercise on the planet. I know it's great for your body, low impact...etc, but swimming bores me to tears.
Summer Swimming is one of the least brutal sports out there. practice usually runs 45 minutes to an hour depending on your age. The marathon swim meets? Start at 9 am and usually around 11:15 am.
Sounds like your misconceptions are keeping your kids from trying something they might enjoy.
Anonymous
07/19/2015 08:57
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
Anonymous wrote:My kids don't pay any attention to their times. This is their 3rd year, and they are 7 and 9. They do want to "win" their heat and have fun swimming. I don't want them to get all wrapped up in their time since they do summer swim team just for fun, and I'm glad they get practice swimming
this is typical, and a reasonable - and yet there needs to be 3 timers? one from each team, and another one - because maybe 2 parents can't handle this task!
it's silly & not reasonable. this is neighborhood swim team, not the olympics.
You have 3 timers because there are times when 1 of the times can be pretty far off. If you have two times that are more or less the same - you can throw out the off time and get an accurate result. My own kids enjoyed the challenge of beating their own personal best times.
Anonymous
07/19/2015 08:38
Subject: Re:I hate almost everything about summer swim team
I'm glad I passed on swim team with my kids. I actually didn't ask them if they wanted to join, but swim team sounds brutal- practice everyday and marathon meets on Saturday. I can get there being such a commitment for a high school team, but on our neighborhood team most of the team is under 10-years-old. FWIW, and I am an exercise nut, swimming is the most boring form of exercise on the planet. I know it's great for your body, low impact...etc, but swimming bores me to tears.