I think it's particularly difficult as, unlike football, the timed element gives a very stark comparison between swimmers. There is no subjectivity and the DCs always focus on it. I like our internal galas that award some points for position, but far more for PBs (a point for getting one, even if tiny, and then a point for every full second knocked off). It gives the slower swimmers a good chance of a gold and rewards personal progression. They are also 'age on the day' and held throughout the year, so everyone gets a chance of being older/the oldest in their category.
The age thing and how it affects qualifying sucks though (not that I can see any solution) - it can make a huge difference for the youngest swimmers, where even 6 months difference is a considerable %age of extra life, experience and training.
From another perspective, I think the other pressure on DCs for attaining times within our small club is that we have very limited pool time and space. Covid has meant we now have a lot of swimmers who have stayed with us and love the sport, but just aren't getting the (or any) times. In the past, some would have moved up to the top squads and some would have dropped out. They have stagnated in the middle squads and it is now preventing the younger swimmers from progressing as there isn't room for them to move into. For the younger ones to progress currently, they really do have to push for times to make them stand out and earn that one available space. Ideally we'd have more pool time/capacity to fit everyone who wants to continue to train whilst keeping space within the pathway for younger swimmers to come through. A recreational squad to move the aged-out DCs into would solve these issues, but I think the parents would be very resistant and I suspect getting the coaches to cover it would be a problem - we tend to only coach at sessions where our own DCs swim (albeit often not coaching our own DC's lane), and only one has a swimmer who would need to make the move.
DD1 should have moved up last September, but there just hasn't been the space. Only 2 DC have been able to move since June. DD is currently top of the list (I only know this because I coach), but there are another 7 who really need to move too. DD2 moved up to her new squad 2 weeks ago, despite 'passing' the previous one and waiting for a space since the beginning of November. Something needs to change though, or it will become a continued self-creating problem as the next age groups also stagnate.
Thankfully most at our club are lovely, but there is definitely the odd nutter! One set of parents, who were previously very chatty, now don't speak to me because their (older) DD moved up a squad and mine didn't 🤷🏼♀️ There is a huge superiority vibe going on, it's bizarre! They were most put out when I was given their DD's lane to coach last weekend 😂 There is another parent whose DD is the same age category and squad as DD1, and she treats me like 'the competition' - we're a team! DCs are good friends and I coach their lane.
Our coaches are all pretty balanced and reasonable, thankfully! So no complaints there! They are strict on and expect good attendance, attention and effort, but otherwise it's fairly relaxed as the belief is the times will come with these in place if the swimmer is capable: turn up, put your all into what your coach tells you, and you will improve. It must work somehow as we punch above our weight for the size of the club. I can imagine it can be harder to remain chilled once you're at a much higher level though 😬 (we only have a couple of national level swimmers)
Footballers aren't told to quit completely because they won't make the premier league, but they are definitely managed out or unsubtly directed to less competitive teams. At least we don't do this as a club, which keeps it pretty inclusive (hence the capacity issues!).