Anyone else a swim team parent?

[frostedpink]

We are new to competitive swimming. My dd just finished up her first season. Question for more experienced swim parents: Is it normal for the training groups to be huge, like 15-20 kids and only one or two coaches?

My dd has a lot of room for technique improvement on all strokes. I don’t see how she will refine her technique with these huge groups of kids and no individual attention.

Is it the norm to do private lessons? I know in other sports it’s just par for the course to pay extra and do private lessons. Is swimming the same way? She’s still young so I don’t want to go overboard

 

[2forMe]

That was the norm from my experience.. .Even more kids for less coaches actually. Never did private lessons either.

 

[Eureka]

My kids have done summer swim team for years but were never in the fast heap. This year my freshman DS made the high school team. It’s a whole other level we have not done before. He had done a swim clinic at the local college in the fall to prepare for tryouts but there weren’t a ton of kids, so room for individual attention. I think first of all, just swimming more will help your daughter since this is new. See if there is a clinic to refine the strokes in the offseason if you feel she’s not getting enough individualized attention during the season.

 

[sonnyjane]

That was the norm from my experience.. .Even more kids for less coaches actually. Never did private lessons either.

Same. I swam competitively for 16 years, from elementary all the way through Div. I in college. It was always about 30-40 swimmers to one coach and one assistant coach.

 

[VandVsmama]

Yes, this is normal to have that ratio of kids to coach. Some turbo parents decide to add in private sessions with the coach but I don't think it's necessary. Your mileage may vary!

 

[aprilchem]

Yep. We are in year 5 of competitive swimming for my kids; my daughter started when she was 4 and my sons were 6 and 7 when they started. Our practices have two coaches and 40+ kids in the pool at once, plus another coach who just works with 15 or so of the mini-mites. Swim practice is more about endurance training and group stroke training than it is working with an individual child.

 

[Wendy31]

Yes, it's normal... many times, it's more than 15-20 kids. Our team has 60ish kids w/ 3 coaches & a couple of assistants.

Sometimes, there are swim tune-up clinics that swimmers can do in the off seasons. Before summer season began, our kids participated in a tune-up clinic one year - it was 2 evenings a week for about a month.

 

[jodybird511]

My 8yo son swims in a competitive winter league and also does more laid back summer league. For our winter league, it's more like 10-15 kids to one coach, but for summer, it's the ratio you're describing. My son did a few private lessons (like 6-8, I think) btwn the end of summer league and the beginning of winter league, just to firm up some technical issues. It made a big difference, but I agree with others, that just swimming on a much more frequent basis can help with a lot. The reason we went for the private lessons is b/c my son had never received more direct instruction on butterfly, and we were concerned he was going to get too ingrained with the incorrect form, making it harder to fix down the road. Just the few privates with a very skilled instructor was all he needed to address it properly.

 

[frostedpink]

That was my thought too, I’d rather get her technique corrected now. I’m glad to hear that the large practice groups are normal. She needs a lot of work on her breaststroke so maybe this summer I will ask about doing a private lesson for that.

 

[havaneselover]

We are in year 9. Dd’s Group has 80+ kids (60 or so at any practice) and three coaches.

When they were younger they would pull the kids out if something looked off and work with them individually. Rarely they would ask you to come in on the weekend for a one-on-one. I did that with ds when he was probably 8 for his back stroke turn.

Dd is 14 and swimming one group down from where she belongs because we couldn’t commit to 5 practices. Her breast stroke was great at 12 (she’s s freestyle/backstroker) but now it’s terrible. I emailed the coach and mentioned that and they’ve been working with her.

 

[sa cheermom]

nm

 

[frostedpink]

Same. I swam competitively for 16 years, from elementary all the way through Div. I in college. It was always about 30-40 swimmers to one coach and one assistant coach.

Sonnyjane, if you don't mind me asking - what things did you do differently during your swimming career that set you apart and allowed you to make it to college? (Other than natural talent, of course) For example, did you do a lot of private lessons, did you go to special swim clinics, etc? Did the drive come from YOU or did your parents encourage you and push you along?

 

[frostedpink]

I was a swim parent for over 20 years. The children all swam from 4 through college on various swim teams.

That has been my experience. The lanes are full of swimmers. There were stroke clinics with smaller groups that were extra that focused on strokes, starts and turns. However, if you really wanted stroke improvement, privates was the way to go.

There is a swim tank in our area where many of our swimmers took lessons. Swimmer swims and they take video and then work on even the smallest nuances of the strokes. Expensive, but very effective. On the more competitive league, many, many of the swimmers also traveled to different swim clinics put on by the big swimmers. The early summer clinic at UT was a very popular one. Even on the more relaxed summer league, the younger swimmers usually did a few privates with the coaches, especially on starts and turns as those are your race winners with younger children.

If she is at all interested, I would highly, highly recommend a few swim lessons with a good coach. It is far easier to learn proper technique while you are learning to swim than it is to undo the muscle memory of poor strokes later on. The more you invest now, the less you will have to invest to fix problems. A summer of proper one on one or small group coaching should set your daughter up for success in her future swim career.

This is very helpful, thank you!! Exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for. She's still a very young swimmer but has so much room for improvement. And I am willing to put in the work and resources to help her improve as long as she is on board.

 

[sonnyjane]

Sonnyjane, if you don't mind me asking - what things did you do differently during your swimming career that set you apart and allowed you to make it to college? (Other than natural talent, of course) For example, did you do a lot of private lessons, did you go to special swim clinics, etc? Did the drive come from YOU or did your parents encourage you and push you along?

I was a unique case in that my stepdad was my coach from age 5 to 17. He was a former Olympian and his dad (my step grandfather) was a renowned coach. My parents required that I play a sport but they didn’t care what. I was good at swimming so that’s what I did. After I left college I can count on one hand how many times I’ve swum laps for fun, and that was 15 years ago, so that should tell you something... I did not do any special clinics because we addressed technique a lot in regular practices with drills.

It’s not for the faint of heart, parents or kids. During middle and high school we practiced 3-5 hours a day, 6 days a week. In college they are supposed to keep training to no more than 20 hours a week but “voluntary” practices exceed that, and as you can guess, they aren’t really voluntary. Meets were every few weekends, often hours and sometimes many states away. It can get expensive purchasing the most competitive gear, and definitely time consuming. Be careful what you wish for regarding her becoming a swimmer at that level that leads to college scholarships. She has to want it for her and her alone plain and simple.

 

[Marchand63]

Same. I swam competitively for 16 years, from elementary all the way through Div. I in college. It was always about 30-40 swimmers to one coach and one assistant coach.

Same here we had about 25 team members 1 coach. I swam right through college always about the same ratio
A good coach uses the older swimmers to help demonstrate technique.