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.
