Is Your Child Ready for Swim Team?

Are you wondering whether to sign your son or daughter up for the swimming team at your local pool?

Here are six important questions you can ask to determine whether your child is ready for the summer swim season.

Meeting the Minimum Skill Requirement

Can your child swim? And by “swim,” we mean, can they do more than the dog paddle? Many, if not all, teams require that all swimmers have learned a few essential skills. So the real question to ask is this: does your child know how to do freestyle with side-breathing? And can your child swim backstroke? That is the bare minimum. Teams will also require them to demonstrate that they are able to complete a full lap of the pool of each without stopping.

Hot Tip: STROKE TEAM
If your son or daughter can’t quite make it across the pool, or only sort-of-kind-of does side-breathing, you don’t necessarily have to wait another year. Get them in STROKE SCHOOL now. If you can put them in a Stroke School practice once or twice a week, they will make quick improvements.

For private practice or lessons contact Coach Cindy

The Last Time They Were in a Pool
Swimming is like any other skill: if you don’t use it, you start to lose it. School teachers start every year with a review of skills learned the previous year for a reason. Just because your child demonstrated perfect beautiful freestyle in their lessons at the end of last summer does not mean that they remember –nine months and zero swims later –how to swim like that. Additionally, as kids grow, they have to get used to the mechanics of their ever-changing bodies. Give them some help remembering (or some assistance adjusting to their new height!), and sign them up for a few STROKE SCHOOL practices prior to the start of swim team.

The Right Swim Suit
Jammers and briefs may not win a lot of style points, but they do make it easier to swim. That’s because board shorts, for example, tend to catch water in the pockets, and the extra drag from all that baggy fabric makes it unnecessarily hard for young, inexperienced swimmers to stay afloat. Leave the drag suits to the Olympians (who can more than handle the extra challenge –and even they don’t train in board shorts)! Make sure your young swimmer is wearing a suit that’s not going to literally drag him down.Similarly, for girls, baggy suits or fashion suits tend to make it harder, not easier, to swim well. If your daughter is pulling at straps that continually fall off her shoulders, she’s not focused on swimming, nor is she really swimming well. Dress yourdaughter for success at swim practice by getting her a suit that will stay in place. They come in a dizzying array of colors and patterns -for sure, you’ll be able to find one she likes.

The Right Equipment
Most children find swimming without goggles an “un-fun” experience, but just in case you are parenting one of the hold-outs: goggles can really help them swim better. Kids (and adults) who wear goggles tend to swim with better technique for a variety of reasons: they are able to see where they are going and can tell whether they are headed in a straight line without lifting their head out of the water (a big no-no in freestyle!); they will be able to “look for the black line,” which keeps their head in a more neutral position; and they won’t use their breath to try to shake the water out of their eyes. Plus, goggles prevent burning or watery eyes after practiceand swim teams require they wear goggles.

Hot Tip: Goggles and Swim Caps for Kids
Young children need goggles that are designed to fit their faces, with a tight fit around their eyes. Some, like these by Finis, even smell like grape or sour apple! Long hair needs to be tucked into a swim cap. Just as with the goggles, wearing a swim cap can help your son or daughter swim better. When they don’t have to brush their hair out of their face to see or take a breath, they will beable to focus on swimming, and they will automatically swim with better technique. Swim caps come in fun colors, many with funny designs, and are available in several materials. Latex caps are cheaper than the thicker silicone ones, but they don’t last aslong.

Following Instructions from a Non-Parent
Swim team is not daycare. Any coach worth their salary is not just trying to keep the swimmers occupied until their post-practice ride shows up. They are trying to teach skills. Your child will be much more likely to get something out of their swim team experience if they are old enough to listen to a non-parent and follow simple directions (such as, “One lap of freestyle!Ones, ready, go!”). Listening and direction-following skills are also important because they make for a safer environment for everyone on the team. Some children are able to do this starting around the age of four, and most all children by the time they are five or six years old.

Comfort in the Water
Your son or daughter really needs to be comfortable in the water. If they are overly scared or worried (some fear is very natural response), they’ll spend more time and energy looking for you on the deck than they will spend swimming and learning to swim. At that point, the stress of the experience may outweigh the fun. Of course, this varies greatly from child to child, and can be mitigated if their coach is someone they’ve taken lessons from already, or if they have friends who are also on the team.
Please refer to the WATERSMART program with is part of our BABY/ME page, if your child is still "hesitant" in and around the water.

The Next Steps
If you can answer yes to all six of the above questions, what are you waiting for? Sign your child up for an assessment of their skills! If you answered yes to all but the last two, it might be best to wait until they are developmentally ready for the summer swim team experience. And if the only stumbling block is that they need to brush up on their swimming skills to meet the minimum requirement, start the STROKE SCHOOL program as early as possible.

LET"S GET STARTED:
contact Coach Ira to set up an appointment for an assessment to watch your child swim and determine which swim group of the TSUNAMI SWIM TEAM they may best fit.

WELCOME TO THE TSUNAMI SWIM TEAM