How to Get Your Child Involved in Competitive Swimming

When it comes to high school sports, I often think I took the easy way out. While growing up, I took swim lessons.
I spent hours in the pool and loved the feeling of gliding through the water. I loved trying to go faster and beat my fellow swimmers in races.
Then came high school, a growth spurt and the ability to toss guys around.
Swimming was out. Football and wrestling were in. Now don’t get me wrong, these sports are wicked hard! But I was never as tired as I was after a swimming race.
I often look back and wonder what would have happened if I had stayed with swimming. Now I’m older and I have kids of my own. I am putting them in swim class and I hope they will stay with it and get competitive.
If you’re interested, here is how to get your child involved in competitive swimming:
 

where to start

It can be hard to know where to start when you want your child to compete in swimming.
Your best bet is to put them in swimming lessons.
Your local pool can provide these. They are a great way to develop good swimming fundamentals. As well as give your child a chance to do some mock racing and get the feel of competing.
Also, more experienced swimmers will help your child learns some tricks to help them move quicker.
 

there are two lanes you can swim

When entering into competitive swimming, there are really two routes.
You can join a swimming club or you can join the swim team of your school.
Both have their pros and cons. With a swim club, you get a lot of year round competition. But it can be harder to get recruiters for colleges and scholarships.
If you want to go the school route, then your season is only 4 months long. And you will swim with folks who haven’t swam as much as you. However, with a school team, you also get school spirit.  And a better chance of getting a college recruiter to have a look at you.
 

coming together

There can be some division between club swimmers and school swimmers. But in truth, a lot of swimmers start out in club and then switch over to a school swim team when they enter high school.
This allows them to get the best of both worlds.
They get a year round swim and also get the feeling of school spirit.
 

one last thing

Swimming is fun and as your children grow, they will have more and more fun learning to compete.
Whether it’s club or school, get out and swim to win! If you have any thoughts, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.