How To Join Tnca Team?

What swim team should I join?

• I've been swimming for 6 years on the same swim team, starting out with little to no experience. I'm 13 years old and I'm wondering which swim team I should do for off-season so I could get better; but I don't know if I'll be good enough. I want to improve before winter high school swimming. The team I'm on at the moment feels pretty laid back, with days we do little to nothing. All of the other swim teams are very very harsh in there practices and we can tell they are in very good shape. For an easy team, I placed in the middle for championships (which was yesterday for me). If I move to the other team they will probably make my times unbelievably faster. Right now, here are my times. I don't have an exact yet, but when I do I will edit them. 50 Fly - 37.45 50 Back - 41 50 Breast - 38.64 50 Free - 31.76 100 IM - 1.18.87 I know these may not be the best, but that's why I want to consider the harder option. I qualified in IM and breaststroke both this year, but my best strokes change every year. Last year it was Fly and Free which boggles my mind. The team I'm trying to reconsider practices all week and separates you into a lane that has your exact speed, and a practice time that suits your speed. But.. their coaches are very harsh and don't give you as much freedom of choice swim as I am used to. They have a two hour dry land after their practices that is very intense and hosted by a veteran/trainer. Plenty of people going there have dropped countless seconds, but if I do go there, my chances of winter high school will vary. My soon to be high school coach doesn't have a great relationship with the harder swim team but likes me and loves faster times. Some people from the harder swim team couldn't make it to the high school practices and had to leave. So I'm worried on that fact. On the other hand, my current swim team's winter is easier as well and only practices twice a week in the fall (before high school swim). I know all of the people there and won't have to worry about making high school, but will have to worry about my times. So, your ideas?

• Answer:

  Keep in mind that when you join a swim club, the coaches are being paid from your dues. If they do not keep the number of swimmers up, they could lose income or a job. High school coaches, although paid, the pay is very low and the h.s. coaches are, for the most part, coaching out of the love of coaching, helping kids and helping the team. My personal experience included decades of age group and high school coaching as well as coaching in the NCAA. At the high school, out of my meager stipend I bought my some of my swimmers their letterman's jackets, as well as many suits and goggles for those who could not afford them ... that money came out of a stipend that would have made my net hourly pay about $3.50/hr. Like your high school coach, I required club swimmers who wanted to be on the high school team to BE ON THE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM. Think about what that means. I didn't care about who was walking around the town and was on another team and simply wanted to come in and swim in a race. If you want to represent the school, then be part of the team by doing the workouts the team was doing ... get involved ... develop friendships ... put up with the coach ... learn how another coach wants you to swim races just like the other team members learn ... go through the pain of the h.s. practices ... Like I said, be part of the team. The following is sort of my rationale. I always asked, if you were on an outside volleyball team and got in shape that way, would that entitle you to swim on the high school swim team? I know that "you" are on a swim team, but it is an outside team and 'you' still want to be on the high school team. What is the difference? So, if you want to be on the h.s. team participate with the high school. I'd not have had that position if, for one moment, I thought that a kid would not benefit from my coaching and, fortunately, in every case they did. However, the club coaches STILL discouraged their kids from participating ... but, remember the reason was really the coach's income. But, on this issue I was not some sort of totalitarian coach. I sought a 'balance' that, club coaches still did not agree to. As I held 11 practices per week (a meet counted as a practice), I required club swimmers to attend all afternoon practices, meets and Saturday practices on those Saturdays they did not have a club meet. That left a minimum of 5 days of morning practices and Saturday meets for the club swimmer to be with his/her club during the 3.5 months of high school season. I also required the club swimmers to be with the high school ONLY during the last 3 weeks of the season for the taper to the championships. I did not have a good relationship with the local club coaches which was the case for ALL of the other high school coaches. This is a sport about going fast. A good coach builds a team mind set and when you are part of a TEAM ...you go faster. That feeling of being part of a TEAM is not strong in club swimming and IS strong while representing your school As I told my h.s. swimmers, there is NOTHING like representing your school. My H.S. swimmers ALWAYS swam their fastest at the high school championships and never went faster during the age group season ... they'd invariably wait a year for the next H.S. champs to surpass their previous year's times. So, clearly it will benefit you to join the swim club. I don't know anything about your high school team. AND, you want to go fast (at least that is what you twice said in your first paragraph). My point is, not I nor anyone else can make your decision for your ... as you said in your last sentence ... you want ideas. Good luck in your decision.