The time of year has come where I get a lot of questions from a lot of you about long course season and should I do it or not.  I will attempt to give my two cents worth on the subject here.

First off Makos does a very good job about offering different sessions that should meet the needs of every swimmer out there.  The first session is vital I believe due to the fact that Makos ends the short course season the first Friday in May, and the reason is simple after that long course meet over that first weekend in May George Mason University keeps the pool in the long course format for the remainder of the summer.  I think it is important for all swimmers to stay in the water until Memorial Day weekend when their summer teams start up.

The second session runs until school gets out for the summer, and the benefits of this session is that the summer teams normally have to share the pool with the membership often leading to overcrowded lanes and in cold weather.  The weather also could become an issue with your afternoon thunderstorms often canceling practices.

Now we are at the third and final session which goes through July, and this is where I believe that you need to sit down and have a serious talk with your swimmer.  What looks like a great opportunity in
April and May could very possibly be an ordeal once your swimmer is out of school and back at the pool with the pool rats.  Once the commitment is made it is important for you as a parent to see that your swimmer follows through or they have missed a life lesson.

Now what does long course offer?  The major advantage is that it allows them to really fix the little things in their strokes without the concern of a wall approaching all the time.  This can really help with stroke development and allowing the swimmer to gain strength.  There really are no
disadvantages to swimming long course except that it makes for a very long season.  Even now I can see that the swimmers are tired and spring break cannot arrive quickly enough.

As a coach the most important thing is that they show up in September with their batteries recharged
full of enthusiasm to start a new journey.  Will they be out of shape?  Simply put yes, but with
schools starting earlier and summer league ending late a lot of family time and vacations are affected.
The other consideration that you need to think about is cross training, which I believe helps the swimmers become better athletes in the pool.

The next thing I hear a lot of is our summer league coaches are young and only adequate, and this always rubs me the wrong way.  The reason it does is because that summer coach was hired by the pool to do a job.  That job is to develop a team and help the kids improve on their swimming abilities.    There focus is to not only help them become better swimmers, but to get them to swim either a 50 or a 25 as fast as they can and score points for the team, all the while being a cheerleader. PERIOD!  Their job is not to give your club swimmer an intense workout, even though you may feel otherwise.  Don’t confuse the two.

In closing and this is just one opinion, first session should be mandatory at least for the competitive
groups and the second session is great.  After that the bottom line is to have that talk with your swimmer about the responsibilities and commitment that will be involved, and be honest with each other.  Don’t set them up to fail.

That’s my two cents worth and I hope it helps a little in the decision.