re: If any of y'all have a child that swims competitively, we can all celebrate.

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Travel Swimming

Any youth sports these days are about how much money the family is willing to spend to be the best!

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It was like this when I swam in the 90s. Then it was largely a club sport, so the school sponsored you by you largely trained on your own with private coaches and club teams.

my daughter just completed her last competitive races with Regionals. She did club for a bit and did quite well but she limped through this last year as a Victory Lap with her high school team. She was burnt out of the sport by Sophomore year.

For those asking about costs for club swim: I can say that it is light years less expensive than dance, cheer, or volleyball. As club team sports go, it's a bargain.

But use her as a cautionary tale: you will hear lots of people say that swimming is a great sport and easy on the body. This is far from true at the club level (easy on the body). Lots of great swimmers, especially girls, taken out with shoulder injury or repetitive motion problems. Turns out swimming 3 hours a day is rough on a person's body.

She HATED long course as a sprinter.

I'm quite glad she stuck through this year as she had a blast just enjoying her friends and esprit de corps.