Is Swimming Eating Its Parents?

We had an outdoor Texas meet this summer with 100+ temperatures, no shade, and a horrendous timeline all weekend. We warned our team to take lots of water and swimmer-friendly snacks, take popup shade structures, and a sense of humor and consider getting a hotel room nearby rather than make the 90-minute drive home at 10 pm just to get back there for 7 am warmups. The parents were in a great mood the next Monday. The kids had swum well and were happy about their new best times. You can always tell how the kids do at a meet - the days afterwards at practice the parents will either be relaxed and joking around (if the kids swam well) or complaining and griping about the team (if the kids didn't swim well). Our groups that do doubles are mostly kids that are old enough to have a driver's license so their parents don't have to drive them. A few of the kids have obtained hardship licenses to allow them to drive before age 16 if they are mature. In our club, the kids are from at least a half-dozen different school districts and some drive almost an hour to practice. Some HS kids start classes after 9 am and others well before 8. In order for them to get dressed, get some breakfast and make the drive the practices have to be pretty early to fit in a 2-hour workout. I think the parents that do drive their kids usually have some flex time at work and will work it out so Dad takes them to the pool and heads to work; then Mom picks them up and gets them to school, then goes to work. Our developmental kids ... some of those 6-year olds will have 7 pm bedtimes and need to finish up early. We also have to wait until after the local high school finishes up their high school training at 4:30 before we can get water time. Even 4:30 is too early as some of the school districts don't finish classes until 4:15 or so. There are lots of scheduling considerations, and the entire team won't fit into our available lanespace during "prime time" when everyone wants to swim. We've had a few swim moms sleep either in their car or in the spectator area at our pool. One of our former board members even kept a sleeping bag and a pillow stashed away at the pool. Her kid was a national caliber swimmer at age 14 so she was there a lot. In the summer, we do start later but still have to be out of the pool by 8:30 am so the city can start their lessons programs. And some of the old kids will have summer jobs and need to be able to get to them.

We had an outdoor Texas meet this summer with 100+ temperatures, no shade, and a horrendous timeline all weekend. We warned our team to take lots of water and swimmer-friendly snacks, take popup shade structures, and a sense of humor and consider getting a hotel room nearby rather than make the 90-minute drive home at 10 pm just to get back there for 7 am warmups. The parents were in a great mood the next Monday. The kids had swum well and were happy about their new best times. You can always tell how the kids do at a meet - the days afterwards at practice the parents will either be relaxed and joking around (if the kids swam well) or complaining and griping about the team (if the kids didn't swim well). Our groups that do doubles are mostly kids that are old enough to have a driver's license so their parents don't have to drive them. A few of the kids have obtained hardship licenses to allow them to drive before age 16 if they are mature. In our club, the kids are from at least a half-dozen different school districts and some drive almost an hour to practice. Some HS kids start classes after 9 am and others well before 8. In order for them to get dressed, get some breakfast and make the drive the practices have to be pretty early to fit in a 2-hour workout. I think the parents that do drive their kids usually have some flex time at work and will work it out so Dad takes them to the pool and heads to work; then Mom picks them up and gets them to school, then goes to work. Our developmental kids ... some of those 6-year olds will have 7 pm bedtimes and need to finish up early. We also have to wait until after the local high school finishes up their high school training at 4:30 before we can get water time. Even 4:30 is too early as some of the school districts don't finish classes until 4:15 or so. There are lots of scheduling considerations, and the entire team won't fit into our available lanespace during "prime time" when everyone wants to swim. We've had a few swim moms sleep either in their car or in the spectator area at our pool. One of our former board members even kept a sleeping bag and a pillow stashed away at the pool. Her kid was a national caliber swimmer at age 14 so she was there a lot. In the summer, we do start later but still have to be out of the pool by 8:30 am so the city can start their lessons programs. And some of the old kids will have summer jobs and need to be able to get to them.