🏊🏻♀️ Novice Swim Mom Retrospective
Why swim is right for our family and how to get on a swim team
Sports are not something I grew up with. While my family respected physical activity, being on a sports team wasn’t part of my growing-up journey. Fast-forward many years, and through a confluence of events, Adam and I have kids who both are on a swim team (and one of them is on two swim teams!).
To set the context, our goal for our children is not to become competitive Olympic swimmers but to develop a sense of team spirit, prioritize exercise, and use sports to set and achieve personal goals.
So this post is focused on how the kids (and therefore our family) got into swimming, what we like about it, and the logistics of getting and navigating a swim team.
Why Swimming?
The short answer is that neither one of our girls like ball sports and swimming is the only sport that was palatable to them.
Our girls started swim lessons early (6 months old) because Adam and I are strong believers that knowing how to swim is a life saving skill1 and we wanted our kids to be comfortable near water - pools, lakes, oceans, boats, etc. Being on a water has become a big part of our life - whether it is playing in Lake Wenatchee and Chelan, enjoying Adam’s childhood beaches in San Diego or exploring tropical locations on family vacations.
Swimming was the only sport that our oldest expressed interest in past lessons and we jumped on the opportunity to get her on a summer league team when she said she was willing to commit to a summer swim league at 7 years old. 4 years later and this summer our younger daughter (who is now 7) has also said she’d like to try swim and so now we have two kids swimming.
So, I feel in the right to call myself a swim mom, and I even got a tank top to prove it earlier this summer when my daughter and I traveled to her first out-of-state meet.
💪🏻 What our kids are getting out of swimming
It’s been 3 years now that we’ve been involved with swimming as a sport. Here is why this has been great for our oldest daughter:
Set and achieve personal goals - sports and swim specifically is a great way to compete with yourself. I see her aiming for motivational times and working toward her personal best.
Confidence boost - I see our daughter saying things like “Swim is my thing. I’m in athlete.” She is more confident on the playground, and more physically active during play time.
Physical activity—Movement is good for the soul. In a world where screens are everywhere, I love that there is built-in exercise for her multiple times a week. Swimming has fewer injuries than other sports, which is also a plus.
Path to high school and college jobs—even with the training to date, I’m confident that our daughters are forging a path to get a lifeguard job or be a swim instructor down the line. They already look up to their coaches and lifeguards and can see a path to them doing something similar in the not-too-distant future.
An additional social circle of friends - It’s good to have multiple groups of friends so when things don’t go well with one crew, there is a separate set of people she can lean on and find camaraderie with.
How do you join a swim team?
I have encountered three types of swim teams - competitive year-round swim teams, summer league competitive teams, and non-competitive year-round swim clubs. I have had experience with the first two, so that’s my reference point and context.
As our family was looking for a summer league to join, I learned that we could participate through our community center or a team that’s part of a private swim club. We opted for the latter because it was more convenient for our family. If you live in the Pacific Northwest and want to find a summer league club, check out Midlakes Swim League. You can also ask around at your local community center or gym (if it has a pool) to get a better understanding of what options are there for you.
We joined in 2021, which became a springboard for our oldest into the world of swimming. At the end of that first season, she said she wanted to continue, leading us to find a nearby year-round team that’s part of the USA Swimming organization - Wave Aquatics. We chose Wave Aquatics because we heard great things about the coaching staff and the balanced approach that supports families to be more (Select) or less (Sport) competitive based on their needs. The other nearby year-round options are available at Pro Club and Bellevue Club. All of these are organized by age group and require a try out.
Pro tip - it’s usually easier to get into these teams when kids are 8 and under vs. when they are older.
What are the key differences between summer and year-round leagues for the 10 and Under age groups?
The difference is longer practices that run 90-120 minutes 3-4 times a week and mix conditioning and swimming. Meets are less frequent—usually monthly, but this can vary. However, the meets take up the bulk of the weekend (for example, this last weekend, our oldest needed to be at the pool from 7:40 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Friday and Saturday). As you progress to more advanced stages of year-round swimming, practices increase to more days a week, etc.
Similarities across both types of swim teams:
As a parent, you are expected to volunteer to support the meets. Basic jobs are timing, but if you get really into it, you can become a lane judge, a ref, etc.
The costs vary depending on the clubs - in addition, there are swimsuits, caps, and goggles to be purchased
🩱🤿 Swim Accessories
Below is a list of my favorite things that have helped us navigate swim meets and practices over the years.
Wagon - For getting to/from events - a wagon has been super helpful especially once there are two kids involved. This one easily fits 4 folding chairs, a cooler, and two swim bags. The wheels are big enough to manage some amount of off-roading and easily fold down and fit into the trunk of the car (though the handle needs to lay flat).
Canopy - When we set up on the lawn for outdoor swim meets, the Coleman canopy is a great addition. One thing to note if you are in the market for a canopy is how many people it takes to assemble. We have one that requires 4 people to get it up, but the experienced parents buy this one, which only requires one person.
Chairs - We bring regular camping chairs for outdoor meets where you don’t have to sit in the bleachers. If you are sitting in the bleachers, save your back and get a stadium chair (it packs well too).
Cooler - Storing dinner for adults and kids in a cooler is key unless you want to resign yourself to food truck fare 2x a week. This Yeti cooler has been working well to put in a container of a dinner salad (I love this recipe), a container of cutup fruit, and a few cold drinks of choice in addition to water.
Thermos - Besides healthy snacks, we’ve needed to figure out dinner for both the swimmers and the adults for evening summer meets. Our kids usually do a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and/or mac and cheese. If it’s mac and cheese, we store it in Hydroflask food jars to keep the temp.
Water Bottles with versatile caps - I like bottles that have different type of top attachments so that they can function as both water bottles and hot chocolate containers depending on the weather. Teams usually sell their own bottles, but also Hydroflasks have good optionality.
Towels - You will need a lot of towels - 3-4 per meet. We use these Amazon towels and they have held up great over the years with frequent washes. However, they take up a lot of space in the bags. Some people use the quick dry towels as an alternative.
Gear for the swimmers—The swim team will provide the list of gear needed. It’s usually a swimsuit, cap, goggles, and a bag to carry stuff in for the summer league team. These items are ordered from a team site at the beginning of the season. If possible, try on the swimsuit (for girls) before ordering. Here is a short video explaining how to put on a swim cap and how to help someone do it.
The year-round league requires the same set of stuff, a swim parka and additional training supplies like snorkels, kickboards, etc. Wait to hear from the team on what is actually needed. There is often a second-hand team exchange that is also set up - so inquire about that if you are looking to re-use or pass on your stuff.
Additional Tips:
✎ Adding names to athletic gear is fun. For the swim caps, most standard thing to do is to add the last name. Some, however, add first name and some both first and last name. You can also add names to the swim bag, swim parka, sweatshirts, etc. If you have two kids and there is a chance that the younger will do the sport too, I recommend going with last name only to get more wear out of things.
🏷️ Label all gear and have two of everything - two suits, two sets of goggles and two caps. Things get lost and mixed up in the messiness of practice and meets.
🍎 🥕Snacks and food for the swimmer - our kids are picky eaters, but they are so hungry during swim meets that I’m able to get a decent chunk of healthy snacks in. So I use this as an opportunity to get a lot of finger health foods into the packs - carrots, apples, veggie sticks. Avoid hard to process foods like jerky.
💵 Bring cash to the meets - most clubs have snack bars as well as food trucks and not all take Venmo