Swim squad advice please

[Polishedshoes]

Hello,
My dd2 is 9 and has been offered a place in two different squads - one is a city of squad, one is a smaller town club.

She loves swimming and has big ambitions, so the city of seems better in terms of potential growth as it has a county, regional, national section with the opportunity to ramp up the training, whilst at the smaller club you can only swim up to 4 times a week (but they do galas etc). However the smaller club is more inclusive, so she could stay there until 18.

I have zero knowledge or experience of swimming so I would appreciate some advice on what to look for /avoid/etc...

Hi. We have done both (DD is 15) and would say there's merits to both.

No doubt the structure of the bigger club is more suited to competitive swimmers, and probably would have greater access to swim galas suited to the swimmers' ability (and more volunteers to judge, time keep etc etc which in turn, enables the club to participate in more meets).

However, if your smaller club has good coaching that develops the four strokes well, builds endurance as well as race technique in sessions appropriate the age & ability of their swimmers, then the next few years remaining there would not hold her back, as they also will be subjected to external meets from 9, external level 3 at the minimum (normally level 4 if they are in-house, called Club Champs or similar).

Moving clubs is very easy once official times start being registered in the Swim England league tables (which anyone can access unless opted out), so prospect clubs and coaches will use these as well as trials (though these are not always necessary when DC are older, coach references are also used...they all know each other). Quite often DC are just asked to join a training session at higher levels to see if there's a fit.

4 sessions is definitely enough at your DD's age, though if she is expressing a desire to take it really seriously, then the bigger club may be the one she is better suited to from the start.

Good luck!

Exactly what Ealing said 😀

Come and join us on the competitive swimming thread

Thanks for this, it is really great advice. Hard to know at this stage isn't it.. My older three were not mad on swimming and would have loved the opportunity to swim a bit more and compete, but dd2 is a water baby and massively competitive so maybe the bigger club is the way to go.

I will join the other thread!!