rw-Has anyone ever done the swim team thing?

My brother's little girl (age 9) is a very talented swimmer.  She is on some type of advanced swim team.  She practices around 4 times a week and my brother has to get up at all kinds of ungodly hours for meets all over the state at the crack of dawn on weekends.  I don't know how intense your team would be, but it takes a real commitment to keep up with all of it, from what I understand.

Deb W.

Yes dh told me about the waking up thing. Rather like showing dogs...lots of pre dawn arisings and driving thru BFE type places LOL! We'd start with something pretty basic like the Y's team most likely.

 My son did it for many years, although it was just a summer program at that time.  It takes a HUGE amount of time and commitment from both them and me.  They had 2 hour practices daily, sometimes twice.  Every weekend was an all day meet both Sat and Sun.  Most of the meets involved travel, sometimes quite far.  But we had a blast going to them...guess you could call it  our vacations.  We hosted one meet a year, and that was a lot of work.  So you can see where it also gets a bit expensive.  He ate like a horse as he used a huge amount of calories.  He was also in excellent physical condition.  All in all, it was a fun way to spend the summer, but it does require more time than any other sport. 

PS, the dolphin-y stroke is called the butterfly...  :)

marty_ga

PS, the dolphin-y stroke is called the butterfly...  :)

Thanks Marty! I am a land critter and the water holds very little fascination but a ton of fear...for me LOL. So I am happy Lily enjoys it so much. Eli does too but he is more about splashing around and playing than learning anything at this point.

The Y here seems more casual..the require you attend at least 1-2 meets a season but don't require you do all of them...at least 2-3 practices per week but don't require all of them, etc. Seems like maybe a good starting point to get used to the whole idea and give Lily time to see if she can keep up with that or keep her interest going...

marty_ga

They had 2 hour practices daily, sometimes twice.  Every weekend was an all day meet both Sat and Sun.  Most of the meets involved travel, sometimes quite far. 

This is true.  As she ages and presumably advances, she could be in the elite group of swimmers that work harder than everyone else.  As it was, I was only in HS swim team for 3 years and we had practice after school, with the best kids having practice in the morning, too. At least two hours each practice.  If for some reason we couldn't be in the pool because of weather, we were doing strength training and cardio - one year we even went to the gym before going to the pool for practice.  You swam hard every time - and you were not allowed to whine or complain - you swam even when you felt like you were going to peuk - in fact there was a bucket available at the end of the lanes if you felt you would peuk.

Some of the most fun I had in HS was as part of the swim team - and they were all good kids, no drug heads (although I presume some did pot, I never saw it, tho.)  Expect her to eat like a horse - she'll be hungry from working out so much. (haha! After I wrote that, I just read it in Marty's response above, too funny!)  It's true.

Anyway, since you're looking for feedback on Y-type swimming for elementary school kids, I can't really answer, but I can ask my friends (from swim team) who were the types to have started early on.  BTW, those are the kids who went on to state swim meets because they got good.

The gear is cheaper - a $40 swimsuit, goggles, and cap - than most other sports.  Travel was usually a community thing - either a bus, or a mom or two or five would cart us all around.  If she's the kind of girl to stick to her committments, she could do really well.  If not, she could just have fun. :)

My two were on the swim team when they were little.  There was a lot of traveling, but not out of state ... mainly in the greater Sacramento area and once in awhile the bay area. What I remember mainly was that there was usually a nice shady place to sit in the bleachers or a nice grassy slope to park it on. Usually the pool complexes had at least three pools ... the diving tank, the swimming (lap) pool and the baby pool.  There are 6 years  between my two, so if #2 got antsy while #1 was doing his thing, I could always go to the baby pool with him.

Joyce

 I did swim team as a kid and loved it. I was on the non-competitive level (because I was crap at it :P) but I really did enjoy it. :)

If you haven't, check out http://www.metro-aquatics.org/ - it's one of the regional non-school affliated groups and Brent (who runs the organization) is awesome.

 (Also, I help maintain their website. :P)

 That does bring up another point.  My son was a decent swimmer when he joined...at maybe 8...but not terribly competitive at the sport.  We stuck with it because he enjoyed it, we didn't have a pool and it's hot in GA, and it was a good way to keep the summer interesting.  Over a few years, his swimming got better in form, resulting in faster times, and then the competitiveness kicked in.  The 11-12 age group was great fun, and by 15-16 it was awesome to watch these young men (and women!!!).  If you don't go to the meets, you will miss out on a lot!  I always felt like they were my extended family!

BTW, this was a club started and abandoned by the city, taken over by parents, and finally semi-supported by the city rec dept.  

Also, looking forward....my son passed his lifeguard course without blinking an eye...and got a job managing a city pool and paid much higher than the average high school senior....as did most on the team.

marty_ga

Also, looking forward....my son passed his lifeguard course without blinking an eye...and got a job managing a city pool and paid much higher than the average high school senior....as did most on the team.

miranadobe

marty_ga

Also, looking forward....my son passed his lifeguard course without blinking an eye...and got a job managing a city pool and paid much higher than the average high school senior....as did most on the team.

 Funny you should mention that - the friend I asked for input is now a director at a YMCA in Augusta, GA!

A lot of the kids on our HS swim team, end up being beach lifeguards.

BF's dad coaches our HS swim team, and his little bro is on the team. It mostly seems like what everyone else has said, lots of travel and long meets. Paige is right though, the majority of them are really close and really good kids.

I will cross fingers that she is interested, if only for the sake of you slipping in some pics of the hunky lifeguard!

sl2crmeg

BF's dad coaches our HS swim team, and his little bro is on the team.

Kind of off-topic, but I'm curious where they train now.  We used to go to Aqua Park in Edgewater, with Coach Stearns, since he owned the place.

Meanwhile, the person I mentioned above (who was also a member of this swim team and is now a director at a YMCA) had the following to offer:

 "I guess my only thought is, they need to make sure she is good on her stroke technigue. Swim team doesn't necessarily teach the stroke work that lessons do. I push lessons until kids have a good understanding of how strokes are done correct.. team pushes speed...coaches are typically on deck and not in the pool, like a swim teacher would be. If strokes are good... she should go for it. Nothing better than a swim team... but if strokes are lacking, then she should find a good teacher to work on those before she jumps on a team... does that help?"

At least it's not gymnastics!!  Talk about expensive and time consuming.

I had a few friends who swam when we were little kids.  We only did the cheap lessons in the outdoor pool (brrrr!) but I don't ever remember the swim team preventing my friends from coming over on weekends.  I think they swam once or twice a week and "competed" every other Saturday morning or something like that.  I think it was through a YMCA but they used the pool at the college where I work (which now has an insane new aquatic center).