I've got a 7 year old girl who just joined a competitive swim team in the NYC area and I'm curious if people have thoughts/tips/advice on how to be a supportive parent (and how to get through the apparently interminable meets).
Not a parent but I was on teams as a kid and I do some coaching:I've got a 7 year old girl who just joined a competitive swim team in the NYC area and I'm curious if people have thoughts/tips/advice on how to be a supportive parent (and how to get through the apparently interminable meets).
This is a really good bit of advice. I'd take it a step further, however, and if she decides freestyle is her favorite, it might help to encourage her to work on one of the others as her specialty. For two reasons:Have your daughter pick a stroke and take ownership of it as her "favorite," (probably her best stroke)
This is absolutely true and pretty closely matches my experience. I was happiest when I was able to play baseball in the summer in addition to swimming. Once I had to quit baseball, my drive and desire plummeted. Add in the two-a-days that came with high school and club team practices and I was out by my junior year.As someone who swam from age 7 through the NCAA, it's a sport with a ton of burnout - there are few sports that can be a bigger time commitment. If my parents didn't listen when I wanted to try out for baseball/crew/ski team/etc. at various points when I was in school, I may have grown to hate swimming. Everyone needs a break. People who grow up swimming both LCY/SCM seasons every single year lose their childhood.
Thanks for this-and thanks again to everyone for their thoughts.This is a really good bit of advice. I'd take it a step further, however, and if she decides freestyle is her favorite, it might help to encourage her to work on one of the others as her specialty. For two reasons:
1) I don't know about other coaches, but my coach would always do sets where you were required to pick a non-freestyle stroke for the set. If she doesn't develop one of those strokes, she will be absolutely miserable until she masters one of those.
2) If she develops a non-freestyle stroke, it really opens up her ability to join the more competitive medley relay teams. I was always a middling swimmer (ages 8-16) and never really wanted to get out of my freestyle comfort zone. But I worked at it and by the time I got to high school, I was serviceable enough at butterfly that I was the butterfly leg on the A team medley relay in our district championship meet, as a sophomore.
Fairly close to my experience in teams, and over the years I changed specialties/favorites more than once thanks to having that base of skill. So her coach's philosophy has got my endorsement, for what it's worth.Thanks for this-and thanks again to everyone for their thoughts.
According to the coach their big goal for all the swimmers under age 12 is to get every kid to develop their form and technique in every stroke; they try and avoid any specialization in distances/strokes until kids are 12. Don't know if that's a normal approach but they seem to know what they're doing and it's logical enough for me.
Next challenge for the pup: swim a 100 yards in a race! (She only did 25 yard races at her first meet).
Next challenge for the dad: get from Brooklyn Heights to West Nyack by 7:30 am on a Saturday morning!
Compare her times to college times to see where she comes in on the spectrum of that team. Obviously she can expect some improvement with advanced training, but it will give you a sense of where she stands at the outset (unlike in a team sport where you're kind of flying blind and relying on variable subjective evaluations).I have a daughter who swims competitively, she is a sophomore in high school. She won four state titles this past fall. HS is the easy part, club swim is 8-9 practices a week?!?! Crazy.
The college recruiting letters have come, question is how much money does swim give?!?!? D1 coaches can't officially reach out to June 15 of your sophomore year. We shall find out.
Solid advice, many thanks. This is all new to me, appreciate it.Compare her times to college times to see where she comes in on the spectrum of that team. Obviously she can expect some improvement with advanced training, but it will give you a sense of where she stands at the outset (unlike in a team sport where you're kind of flying blind and relying on variable subjective evaluations).
Women's teams have 14 scholarships to break up and use - but remember that includes divers. And only the highest-level programs are fully funded. If you're looking at a mid-major program that could be more like 8 scholarships across the whole women's team.
Welcome aboard!Never even noticed this thread before now, but swim parent here (not intentionally, happened by accident and hasn't stopped).
Yeah my kids' HS swim team, despite doing really well in state meets and sending some kids off to major D1 programs, never really got the publicity from the school that team sports got. I think that's pretty common. HS swimming in general is weird as mentioned above though since it's usually a downgrade from the competition the club swimmers see. Some schools realize this (my kids' school was one) and made the club swimmers attend like one practice a week knowing they were swimming many more hours for their club teams. Some school coaches treated it as the most important thing ever and required the kids to attend all the HS practices in addition to whatever they were doing with the club team which not surprisingly led to some kids saying screw off to the HS team.My son gets down at times, because he sees his friends competing in "team" sports like baseball, hockey, football, etc. and getting the accolades, while he's a swimmer and a golfer, so that part can be a bit depressing at times. Even when at practice with other kids, it's a pretty solitary endeavor, whereas synchronized swimming is completely team oriented.
I agree with every word of this. My son LOVES the meets. Just absolutely loves them. Because that's pretty much the one time where he feels like he's a part of something. None of the other kids in school care or probably even know that he got his first varsity letter as a 7th grader, but the kids on his team do, and when he has seniors and juniors that he respects cheering him on and high fiving him when he gets out of the pool, you can see the excitement. The practices are another story though. Get in the pool and swim, and swim and swim. Particularly with the pandemic where the kids were literally ushered out of the building immediately after practice, but even before that, there just isn't much comradery particularly for the club team where kids are from many, many towns (and the club team is 12 months a year, while the school team is about 2.5 months). When the school team is in season, it's really different, he's got at least one meet a week, the team gets together for a pre-meet pasta dinner, pre-meet breakfast, etc. His school coach has done a wonderful job creating an environment where they all enjoy each other's success, but also to foster a team that doesn't have bullies (swimming is weird in that kids my son's age and girls can compete with kids 3-4 years older) and the older kids aren't jealous of the younger ones who are beating them. But with the club team, there might be 1-2 straight months without a meet, it's just practice and practice and more practice. I never played an individual sport, so I can totally relate to his wanting to be a part of a team sport, but I also try to explain to him that if he sticks with it, as you said, college is a completely different environment. You'll have best friends who are your teammates, you'll share everything with them, you'll live with them, etc. He just needs to get there (and he needs to fucking eat). If he ever wanted to quit, my wife and I would absolutely let him, but we tell him if he did, it's not going to be so he can spend an extra 20 hours a week on the Xbox, and then he remembers the meets and sees the trophies and medals, and he moves on.Yeah my kids' HS swim team, despite doing really well in state meets and sending some kids off to major D1 programs, never really got the publicity from the school that team sports got. I think that's pretty common. HS swimming in general is weird as mentioned above though since it's usually a downgrade from the competition the club swimmers see. Some schools realize this (my kids' school was one) and made the club swimmers attend like one practice a week knowing they were swimming many more hours for their club teams. Some school coaches treated it as the most important thing ever and required the kids to attend all the HS practices in addition to whatever they were doing with the club team which not surprisingly led to some kids saying screw off to the HS team.
Throughout club and high school though you're right, it doesn't really feel like a "team" sport except when you had end of season meets and the points/standings mattered. I'm not sure there's anything louder than a pool during a battle for 1st/2nd on the last leg of a relay. Most of the other meets, although scores are kept, don't impact the season so it's all about how you did vs. your seed time.
When my daughter started swimming in college it still felt the same way for meets except for the year end championship but the difference in the team aspect was night and day. I didn't play a sport in college so maybe the cohesion is there for all sports but her school's team is roughly 60 kids and to say they are a close knit group would be an understatement. They have a bunch of "swim apartments" off campus and the apartments just roll to the next group of sophomores when seniors leave, it seems like every waking hour outside the pool is still spent with their swim friends and dating within the group is pretty much the norm and has the lovely term "swimcest" attached to it. Given that their schedules are a lot different than a normal college student and there's a certain mentality that goes with swimming endless laps for hours on end it kind of makes sense that they'd be a close group but I can't imagine a better environment for my daughter to have for her college career.
Almost six years later, the 7 year old is now 13 and just swam a 4:41 400m free and a 5:23 400m IM, both pretty close to sectional cuts. I know it's been a while but from my perspective that escalated quickly...I've got a 7 year old girl who just joined a competitive swim team in the NYC area and I'm curious if people have thoughts/tips/advice on how to be a supportive parent (and how to get through the apparently interminable meets).
Close? Holy crap! What are the actual cut off times?!? The free time would have made the age groups for my son's league.Almost six years later, the 7 year old is now 13 and just swam a 4:41 400m free and a 5:23 400m IM, both pretty close to sectional cuts. I know it's been a while but from my perspective that escalated quickly...
Sectionals are like 437 for 400m and 520 for 400 IM-it’s basically a high level meet for high school aged swimmers so getting close as a 13 year is something we’re happy withClose? Holy crap! What are the actual cut off times?!? The free time would have made the age groups for my son's league.
My 13 y/o son is on a club team and did not make the age group cut offs but he would have with that 400M time. He had a meet this past weekend (short course) where he had a 5:01:52 on the 400Y IM. He's improved dramatically since joining the club team 2 years ago. Starting next year they split the team up into gold and silver groups and because he didn't make any of the age group cut times he's in the silver. He doesn't know yet because he just went to sleep away camp on Sunday but he's going to be crushed when he finds out.
Machines, the both of them! Very exciting.Just saw this thread again, we need more swim parents. Lol. My son's high school relay team, 4x100 and 4×50 both got All Nepsac honors, finishing 3rd in each, to finish his high school season. He swam the fly for both, and because he was a freshman, he became the first freshman boy in school history in any sport to get all nepsac which is pretty cool. He hasn't done a ton of meets during long course season, because of camp, golf, etc and practices take a 4 week break. Hes back at it starting next week, 6xs a week for his club team. He's grown about 4 inches this year, so he's almost 6-1, but holding strong at 125 pounds. Coach wants to kill him, because he has the best technique of any swimmer on his club team and swims past kids, but loses ground in the turns due to a lack of strength. Wish I could lipo som shot off my waist and give it to him. Just needs to eat.
My daughter competed at the US Junior Olympics (after her team won the east coast championships in Binghampton, NY, which got them into Nationals in Buffalo where they qualified for JO's). She's only 12, and she was competing at the 15U level. In the figures (individual event for synchro), she finished 51 out of about 400, but 7th among 12 year olds nationwide, and her two team routines were 9th and 10th. She was the first alternate for the acrobatic team that finished 2nd. She's heading to Oregon and Texas in the next few months.
Onward we go.
Holy cow! You must be so proud. Can you DM met her name so I can track on meet mobile?My daughter got a D1 scholarship for swimming! She is entering her senior year of high school and committed last October. She's the only kid I know that turned down two Ivy offers for another non-Ivy school but she had a bad experience on the official visit at one, and the other didn't feel right. I give her credit for being her own person. I believe the formal sign date is this November.
Nice accomplishments for them both, congrats!Just saw this thread again, we need more swim parents. Lol. My son's high school relay team, 4x100 and 4×50 both got All Nepsac honors, finishing 3rd in each, to finish his high school season. He swam the fly for both, and because he was a freshman, he became the first freshman boy in school history in any sport to get all nepsac which is pretty cool. He hasn't done a ton of meets during long course season, because of camp, golf, etc and practices take a 4 week break. Hes back at it starting next week, 6xs a week for his club team. He's grown about 4 inches this year, so he's almost 6-1, but holding strong at 125 pounds. Coach wants to kill him, because he has the best technique of any swimmer on his club team and swims past kids, but loses ground in the turns due to a lack of strength. Wish I could lipo som shot off my waist and give it to him. Just needs to eat.
My daughter competed at the US Junior Olympics (after her team won the east coast championships in Binghampton, NY, which got them into Nationals in Buffalo where they qualified for JO's). She's only 12, and she was competing at the 15U level. In the figures (individual event for synchro), she finished 51 out of about 400, but 7th among 12 year olds nationwide, and her two team routines were 9th and 10th. She was the first alternate for the acrobatic team that finished 2nd. She's heading to Oregon and Texas in the next few months.
Onward we go.