Dear posters--
My boys swim on a YMCA swim team. Unfortunately the aquatics director is a clueless fool who is hostile to youth swimming. We have a great coach, but the team's ability to grow is severely handicapped because the aquatics director will only allow three lanes in the afternoon for the team. Apparently the Y has a policy to always keep lanes open for lap swimmers. Worse, the YMCA in the neighboring town had to shut down their pool, which left over a hundred boys and girls with no place to swim. Believe it or not, my YMCA (which is independent of Y national) refused to expand its team to accommodate these kids. I am working on a letter to the board of my YMCA asking them to change their policy. I'd like to bring up points related to:
--the benefits of youth swimming
--what's unique about youth swimming compared to other sports
--why a small team (25) diminishes the team experience (relays, etc.)
--any other thoughts
The whole situation is ridiculous and hopefully we can make a persuasive case to the board to change its policy. Thanks so much.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, no, my Y does not have any organized masters swimming program.
Parents
Former Member
this might not be a strong point...but one that has annoyed me in the past when I was working at a YMCA and trying to formulate a masters team there...and ran into the same problems: YMCA does not have rules against provide full-time accessibility to some of their other areas of the center...for instance...they are always using the entire gym for basketball tournaments, volleyball classes, etc...I don't see how that is any different then giving more lanes of the pool for a short time (2 hours at the most?) for a youth development program such as a swim team.
this might not be a strong point...but one that has annoyed me in the past when I was working at a YMCA and trying to formulate a masters team there...and ran into the same problems: YMCA does not have rules against provide full-time accessibility to some of their other areas of the center...for instance...they are always using the entire gym for basketball tournaments, volleyball classes, etc...I don't see how that is any different then giving more lanes of the pool for a short time (2 hours at the most?) for a youth development program such as a swim team.
