Hi everyone! I need some advice on what to do with my 8 year old daughter. She has been swimming on a team for the past 2 years and loves it. She is not the fastest kid in the pool but she has beautiful strokes (all 4 are legal) with great form. The team we were on for the past 2 years is 45 min from our house... this was the closest indoor pool for us. We had amazing coaches and a nice swimmer to coach ratio of 1 to 10. The swimmers got a lot of personal attention and it showed in their strokes. The county that we live in just built a new indoor pool about 20 min from out house. They started a USA Swimming Team and we were very excited to join and not have to drive as far. We went to practice the first day (there were no tryouts) and we were shocked. There were 40 kids (ages 7-11), 6 lanes and 2 coaches. Because there were no tryouts the skill level of the swimmers was all over the place. Many did not know how to breath to the side, do backstoke or even what breaststroke was. When we asked the coach if our daughter could move up to the next level he said he would evaluate her but he really only wanted ages 9-12 in the next group. The next group has 30 kids, 6 lanes and 1 coach but at least all the kids know how to do each stroke. After evaluating her strokes he said she has the skill for the next level but he wasn't going to move her up b/c he was concerned what type of conversations she might hear from the older kids. Honestly his answer sounded ridiculous to me and I have lost some confidence in him as a capable coach. My daughters previous swim team would take her back in a second but I just can't decide what to do. I don't want to be that parent that keeps changing programs. I was willing to grin and bear it for the sake of my daughter but tonight after practice she got out and said "please can I swim with the older kids, this is so boring, I am not learning anything new. The kids in my lane get mad when I pass them and they pull my legs back". Any thoughts from those of you who have been there done that? Thanks in advance.
Parents
Former Member
Thanks to all of you who replied. You all had great points. The 45 min drive to and from practice was getting to all of us. Our schools get out at 3:20 and practice starts at 4pm so we are always rushing like crazy, putting on suits in the car (doing that without taking off your seatbelt takes skill...lol) and we were still 5 min late for practice every day. The new program doesn't practice until 6:30 at night so we have time to relax, do homework, have a nice family dinner, etc. My daughter also does gymnastics and violin once a week and her sister does gymnastics and soccer. All of the other activities are in the same area as the pool so if I need to run from swimming to soccer I can. The new program is also filled with kids from her current school. So it's possible to set up carpools.
I spoke to the head coach and got no where. Thankfully the assistant coach (who was our summer coach) saw that I was very frustrated and called me at work to talk. Her son is also in this new group and he has been saying the same things to her as my daughter has been saying to me. She decided that she is going to take the 10 swimmers who have previous swim team experience, put them in 2 lanes and work with them personally. She is frustrated too with the lack of organization and not having tryouts. She said that she would let the head coach handle the "swim lessons" with the other kids. I told her that our old team told me I could bring my daughter back any time I wanted and she asked me to give her one more week. My daughter absolutely loved swimming for her this summer so I will give her one more week.
I completely agree that most of the kids who aren't strong swimmers will quit by Nov. I am amazed at delusional parents who would put a weak swimmer in a 12 1/2ft pool with 8 kids in their lane and not be completely freaked out. I have emailed the Director and Assistant Director of Aquatics for the pool, offered some suggestions for better organization and offered to volunteer my time to get this program up and running. Thanks for all your comments and for talking me down from the ledge!
Thanks to all of you who replied. You all had great points. The 45 min drive to and from practice was getting to all of us. Our schools get out at 3:20 and practice starts at 4pm so we are always rushing like crazy, putting on suits in the car (doing that without taking off your seatbelt takes skill...lol) and we were still 5 min late for practice every day. The new program doesn't practice until 6:30 at night so we have time to relax, do homework, have a nice family dinner, etc. My daughter also does gymnastics and violin once a week and her sister does gymnastics and soccer. All of the other activities are in the same area as the pool so if I need to run from swimming to soccer I can. The new program is also filled with kids from her current school. So it's possible to set up carpools.
I spoke to the head coach and got no where. Thankfully the assistant coach (who was our summer coach) saw that I was very frustrated and called me at work to talk. Her son is also in this new group and he has been saying the same things to her as my daughter has been saying to me. She decided that she is going to take the 10 swimmers who have previous swim team experience, put them in 2 lanes and work with them personally. She is frustrated too with the lack of organization and not having tryouts. She said that she would let the head coach handle the "swim lessons" with the other kids. I told her that our old team told me I could bring my daughter back any time I wanted and she asked me to give her one more week. My daughter absolutely loved swimming for her this summer so I will give her one more week.
I completely agree that most of the kids who aren't strong swimmers will quit by Nov. I am amazed at delusional parents who would put a weak swimmer in a 12 1/2ft pool with 8 kids in their lane and not be completely freaked out. I have emailed the Director and Assistant Director of Aquatics for the pool, offered some suggestions for better organization and offered to volunteer my time to get this program up and running. Thanks for all your comments and for talking me down from the ledge!
