DS is great at swimming but where can be take it?

[millimat]

He doesn't want to compete ams although he doesn't need them, continues with swimming lessons because he enjoys it.
He's not a very sporty child but swimming is the thing he is good at. He doesn't want to compete but it seems a shame to waste a great skill. Is there any other direction he could go? He's 11.

Join a club. It doesn’t have to be all about competitions, you can do lifesaving, open water swimming etc,

What about lifeguard/lifesaving , it's probably totally different now but I loved it when I was younger, diving for bricks, towing friends up and down the pool etc and it's a great skill as he gets older.

I was also going to suggest lifesaving clubs.

Syncronised swimming?
Diving?

Lifeguarding or swimming teaching are pretty well paid jobs for teenagers when he’s a bit older.
What about open water swimming?

Water polo is fun

Second water polo.... lots of teams around and big at uni as well (although I know that's a long way off )

Triathlon?

At club level they don’t have to compete. So he could go into a club.

My DD swims for a club. There are two streams / paths within the club - competitive and non competitive.

Just observing from DD(11) who joined a club at 8. She has friends in different clubs and different schools now she is at secondary school. From a friendship perspective, it is nice to have a life that isn't entirely reliant on schoolmates.

She is quite good, with an efficient stroke, but will never be an olympian (has no desire to be either). Apparently, swimming lengths is relaxing! It also means she has good endurance for cross country (not that she enjoys that, really) but also good lung capacity for singing and woodwind.

It might be a coincidence, but she is rarely unwell (maybe a runny nose, but never off school).

All clubs are different, but there is usually a "just want to swim a bit" option. Certainly in my neck of the woods, boy swimmers are in short supply for competitions.

Switching from 30 mins/week to squad swimming is a bit messy. Give it a month and most love it!

If you join a club, is it early morning starts?

DS2 is in a swim club. He doesn’t have early morning starts. The next squad up has a 7.30 Saturday session (he has 8.30, which is slightly better). But it’s the really serious squads (of older kids/young adults) that get 5.30 starts in his club.

There is a lot of training though. And galas are a way to lose whole weekends to hot swimming pool buildings. 😆

DS2 is 9, by the way. He has 6 hours of training a week.

Underwater hockey! It's great fun and it's what I did instead of club swimming when the hours became too much. Team sports are much more fun.

11 is quite old for joining some clubs (but not impossible). The kids are usually 7 or 8 in ours. There are younger kids in dolphins.

Ooh underwater hockey! Tell me more...

Try this video:

It's played pretty much all over the UK so there should be somewhere local playing it. There's a list of clubs here but don't know how complete it is:
www.gbuwh.co.uk/index.php?component=findaclub

Also most clubs do a free trial, we certainly do in Plymouth.

The clubs listed seem to be university teams, but I've emailed a local one for info. Thanks.

Dd is 10 and has one early morning start 5-7am once a week and the Saturday is 7-10. Others are all evenings.

But in the club she was in before, at the same level they had no early morning sessions during the week.

If the mornings were an issue then you could look for a club that doesn’t do them until they are mid teen level.

Also 11 isn’t too late to be joining a club. Dd’s club holds try outs for once they have finished all their swimming lessons. Doesn’t matter if that’s 12 or 8.