Summer Swim Team For Beginners: 10 Things You Need to Know

In San Antonio, Summer Swim League is upon us. You’ve likely seen signs popping up in your neighborhood and have maybe even signed up already. If this is your first year on Summer Swim Team, here are some helpful things to know.

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1. How to Find a Summer Swim Team. Most teams do registration in early to mid April. If your neighborhood has a swim team, there will likely be signs around the pool and neighborhood entrances. If your neighborhood does not have a swim team, there is a list at the bottom of this post of Open Summer Swim Leagues—teams that allow non-residents to join. San Antonio teams practice daily for at least half of May and all of June, so pick a neighborhood accordingly. That said, know that daily practices for six weeks means LOTS of time to spend with other parents and kids, so if you or your kids have friends on an open team, it might be worth a bit more of a drive if your time at practice is more enjoyable.

2. Swimsuits. Swimming for sport needs a different suit than swimming for fun. You’ll need suits for practice and suits for Meet Days.

For girls: If your daughter is a two-piece fan, it will only take one time of diving off the blocks and losing her swim bottoms to scar her for the rest of the season. One-piece suits are your friend. I’ve purchased my daughter’s Speedo one-piece suits at Costco for the last four swim seasons and those suits have served us well.

For boys: Boy’s suits are team dependent. On our first team, younger boys were fine wearing trunk shorts. Our current team requires jammers (either bike short-style or briefs) for all boys. Check with your team.

Team Suits: You’ll also need to buy team suits, and they cost as much as your first car. They also come in bizarre sizing (20s-30s), so definitely try on the suits before you purchase. You want suits for competition to be a little snug, but not so snug that your kid is miserable. Unless you are raising the next Michael Phelps or Missy Franklin, the drag on the suits is not going to hold your kid back on meet day in their first year of swimming. Buy a size they are comfortable wearing. Some teams use new suits each year, while others use a suit for a couple of years (or more). Ask about that, and consider choosing a size accordingly.

3. Other Gear Needed for Practice.

  • Swim Caps—You’ll need at least one per kid. If your child chooses a solid color cap, write his/her name in Sharpie somewhere on that cap. Many kids wear identical caps, and many kids fling off the caps with impressive force the minute they are done with practice. It will be a lot easier to find yours if there is a name on the cap. The tight silicon caps rip pretty easily, especially if you or your kid is not skilled in putting on swim caps quickly.
  • Goggles—Prepare to spend a small fortune on goggles, as they seem to break easily and get lost with alarming frequency. I buy a three-pack of goggles at Costco for each kid every season, and sometimes that isn’t enough. Consider buying a tinted and/or mirrored pair too, as backstroking in the summer sun can be intense in clear-lensed goggles. Swim stores (see links below) can be great for giving goggle recommendations.
  • Kick boards—Some teams require kids bring kick boards to practice. We’ve been able to get away with only buying one, since my two kids swim with different age groups and thus at different times. LABEL YOUR KICK BOARD. Trust me. I have seen more than one disagreement over a kick board that would have been avoided if there had just been a name on it.
  • Fins—Some teams require them; some do not. Check with your team before you purchase.
  • Towels—Have enough so that if your darling swimmer leaves a towel scrunched up under the seat of the car and does not remember it until the next day when you are packing for practice, you will still have a dry towel to send to practice. Not that I know anything about that.
  • Snacks and Water—Pack twice as many snacks as you think you’ll need. I think swimming burns off approximately 614.3 calories a minute. Somehow my kids can eat a full meal before AND after practice and still want two snacks to eat the VERY.FIRST.MINUTE they get out of the pool. Same with water.

4. What to Expect at Swim Practice. The swimmers swim in age groups. If you have a nervous little one, know that coaches are quite used to coaxing kids into the water and tend to be rather wonderful with anxious children. Allow the coaches to do their jobs and keep their full focus on the kids in the water by not trying to get their attention or ask them questions while they are coaching. The coaches are usually available to answer questions or address concerns after practice, not while practice is occurring. Find a veteran parent to take you under their wing. They can teach you the art of putting on a swim cap painlessly, give you down low on meet logistics, and answer your questions.

5. Meet Day Prep. The first meet is generally about three weeks after practice starts. The coaches have had time to evaluate your swimmer and determine if he/she is ready to compete. Parents will have already signed up for Meet Day Volunteer roles. Each of the Meet Day Volunteer jobs have their perks—talk to other parents to find out which job suits you. If you enjoy wrangling kids, consider ready bench or bull-pen parent. If you enjoy being in the action and watching each event, consider timing. I personally love doing concessions, as you get to see each of the swim meet attendees at least once. If your meets are on Saturday morning, please, please pack your bags the night before. You will find that meet mornings go much smoother if you are not running around the house like an idiot, cursing because you own 12 pairs of goggles and you can not find a single stinking pair. Not that I know anything about that.

6. What to Bring to Swim Meets (Beyond What the Coaches Tell You).

  • Three or four black Sharpies (and you’ll probably walk out with zero)
  • At least two copies of the heat sheet (and you’ll probably still lose them or they will be impossibly wet and soggy when you need to read off of them)
  • Double the amount of bottled water or beverages you think you need
  • At least $47 (in ones) to be spent on food with zero nutritional value
  • Dry wicking shirts, a good hat, and shoes that won’t make you miserable when they are soaking wet
  • Extra beach towels, since your kid’s towel will be wet and muddy in the first 15 minutes
  • Games, electronics, or toys to entertain the kids while they wait for their events. If you do bring electronics, consider one of those heavy duty protective cases, as lots of wet kids will be around your device.

7. What to Expect at Swim Meets. You will be there for hours. You will sweat profusely. You will scream, “Kick!” and “Big arms!” at alarming decibel levels at both your kids and kids you do not know. You will eat lukewarm concession stand food. Somebody’s kid (maybe yours) will miss an event because he/she is playing or at the concession stand. You will burst with pride the first time your kid makes it across the pool and gets a heat ribbon, even if it is last place. You will surprise yourself at how into the races you get, even if you are new to swimming. You will wonder where all these neighbors came from and how come you only see them during swim season.

8. San Antonio Swim Gear Resources 

D&J Sports

6401 Blanco Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78216

Swim Freak

2250 Thousand Oaks, Ste. 206
San Antonio, TX 78232

10350 Bandera Rd., Ste. 303
San Antonio, TX 78250

9. What if Your Kid REALLY Likes Summer League? A few of us may indeed be raising future swim stars. If your child discovers he/she quite likes swimming and wants to pursue it beyond summer league, there are some great year-round swim clubs in San Antonio. Talk to your summer team coach for his/her insights, as many of them came up through San Antonio Swim Teams and some coach for both summer teams and club teams.

10. You Will Miss It When It Ends. The first couple of weeks after summer league ends, you will likely enjoy the break from incessant towel and suit washing and goggle scrambling. Then you may find that you miss starting your mornings with your neighbors and watching your kids improve their swimming skills while playing with their friends.

Open Swim Teams in San Antonio

 San Antonio

Finesilver Ranch Torpedos

Hunters Creek Hurricanes

Inwood Hollow Dolphins

Inwood Sharks

Oak Meadow Sting Rays

Sonterra Sharks

Stone Meadow Sting Rays

Thousand Oaks YMCA Riptide

 

New Braunfels

Landa Park Dolphins

 

If you have any advice for first time Summer Swim families, please share in the comments below! And for more humorous insights on Summer Swim League, check out this post.

 

Michelle
Michelle moved to San Antonio eight years ago and yet still feels like a newcomer. She is rather smitten with the Alamo City. She and her husband met at Texas A&M and started their marriage in Minnesota. After six years of very cold winters, they returned to Texas. Michelle has two kids (12 and 9), along with a very quirky rescue dog and two rather cute guinea pigs. A former corporate food scientist turned part-time yoga instructor, she still takes her food very seriously—she just doesn’t get paid for it anymore. She is fueled by tea, cold brew coffee, yoga, dog walking, books and quickly googling answers to her kids eleventy million questions.

2 COMMENTS

  1. As the Maverick Summer Swim League President, we also have some teams which will take swimmers from outside the homeowners association on their summer league teams. They include:
    Whispering Oaks Blue Marlins, The Club @ Sonterra Stingrays, Encino Forest Frogs, El Dorado Stingrays, Stone Mountain Stingrays, Canyon Lake Aquahawks, Boerne Barracudas, Alamo Heights Pool Sharks, Northern Hills Nadadores, Steubing Ranch Steel Eels, Olympia Otters, and the Smithson Valley Sea Dragons.
    Summer League is where our next San Antonio area Olympians are born!!
    You can locate and contact these teams by going to the league web site: http://www.maverickssl.org

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