“You swim a few days a week, get used to an outdoor pool, practice your strokes, flip turns, dives—no meets, no pressure.”

At the time I gave my daughter this speech, she was a miserable goalie on a competitive soccer team. I searched for a sport where she could do something she loved, improve her confidence, and maintain her high fitness level. Since she was old enough to toddle to the shoreline of our local beach, she’s loved the water; she even spent many happy years in weekly swimming lessons. However, I was uncertain about how she’d handle the transition to a competitive swim club. She decided to give it a try. By her third day of swim practice, she entered the car, still dripping, all smiles, and chattered about how she could fit a swim meet into her soccer schedule. By January, soccer was gone and I’d become the parent of a competitive swimmer.

We are fortunate here on the Peninsula to have a wide array of excellent swim clubs to choose from, both competitive and non-competitive. Your local swim schools and the Pacific Swimming Web site are good places to begin your search for the club that’s right for your child. If your child is not keen on the idea of intense competition, the West Bay Swim League is a perfect option. This league consists of six teams: Pacific Athletic Club, Ladera Recreation, Covington, Redwood City Rec, Peninsula Covenant Community Center, and the Menlo Mavericks. While there are five dual-team meets, a relay and a championship meet, teams in this league focus on community building and family fun.

When searching for a swim club, a good rule of thumb is that the larger the club, the larger the coaching staff and the wider variety of swimming skills they can accommodate. Most clubs evaluate your child’s swimming skills, then place them in the group that will best build their skills and maximize their enjoyment. Typically, young swimmers (age 6-9) attend up to three one hour a week practices year ‘round. Most practices include some form of stretching and conditioning before the children enter the pool and begin work on their strokes, breathing, endurance, dives, and turns.

The first time I arrived to pick up my daughter from practice, I heard the coach screaming as I approached. I thought, “Oh, no, someone’s misbehaving.” As I neared the pool, the sound of churning water grew. A couple of swimmers doing a leisurely backstroke are a quiet affair; thirty swimmers pushing themselves for a faster split time is a whole other matter. Once on deck, I realized that yelling was the only way the coach could be heard over the din.

As your child’s age and skills advance, so do performance expectations and regular attendance at meets. While it’s possible to spend every weekend September through June traveling throughout the Bay Area to attend meets, many clubs attend only the two or three meets per month within their zone. Pacific Swimming, the third largest of USA Swimming’s regional organizations, coordinates all meets across four zones from the Oregon border to Monterey to Stockton/Modesto to Reno. At most meets, swimmers check-in then warm up in the pool about an hour and a half before the meet starts. Younger children usually swim in the morning session, with the 11-12 age group straddling morning and afternoon sessions, and older swimmers in the afternoon session. Your child may swim up to four events per session. It’s up to you, your child, and your child’s coach whether they will swim in one race in one session, or eight races over two sessions.

Here’s what you really need to know about attending swim meets: they are all about waiting, staying warm, and eating—for parents and swimmers. Silly me…I thought I’d send my daughter off with her towel, cap, goggles, and sunscreen, and she’d be set. But no…there’s her team swim parka and Uggs to keep her warm before and after she swims, two to three towels (because what’s worse than drying off with a wet towel?), dry clothes, spare swimsuits, goggles, and caps, though swim gear is often for sale in case of emergencies such as a broken strap, and, of course, money for all those bottled waters, Cup-o-Noodles, and chips slathered in cheese. Coaches set up a tent where swimmers may wait between events, but most parents also set up camps with folding chairs, tents, even air mattresses, so their swimmers have a place to wander. The time swimmers spend in the pool will probably amount to less than five minutes, yet their time at the meet, not including travel, can be up to five hours. I encourage parents to volunteer at the meets; this speeds the waiting along and helps keep the large swim meet boat (manned almost entirely by volunteers) on a steady course.

In spite of the crazy hours, the drives, the waiting, and the bad food, I’ve come to love swim meets. Nothing compares to the thrill of seeing my daughter burst off the block at the buzzer and swim her heart out, seeing her huge smile as she realizes she’s bested her time in the 200 Free, watching her gather with her teammates and her coach for a laugh, to talk strategy, to celebrate. This is the sport for her.