Swim Camps - A few Thoughts

Parents - I wanted to send out a quick email addressing some general questions about Summer swim camps. I am specifically going to talk about travel camps such as UT or A&M. Ultimately the difference between the two camps from my experience has been very little. Seems to be more of a preference of what campus/school/loacation you like and which "helping swimmers" will be at the camp. UT usually brings some of their big gun names: Josh Davis, Ian Crocker, Brendan Hanson, and Aaron Peirsol. 

The main question has been are they worth it? Both camps range from $600-$800 dollars for a week. There is also the cost of getting all the gear, food, and necessities they need for the week. I wouldn’t recommend the camps for our younger and earlier Age Group programs. It is more cost effective and beneficial for these swimmers to continue coming to practice and establish a base routine of practices and improvement within the club before adding additional camps and clinics.

Listed below are Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Swimmers get excited about swimming. Swimmers get a sense of this being their sport and get to meet other swimmers from all over who are interested and excited about their sport. Many times swimmers come back from these camps with a renewed interest in the sport and ready to push to the next level.

Multiple practices. Swimmer usually swim 2-3x a day for a week and get a ton of pool time.  For younger swimmers this is more than they would get with the club which is going a combination of two a days or extended practices during the summer.

Vacation. Swimmers are away from the house. Need I say more? They get a little time to feel out their independence and you get a break from driving to the pool.

Stroke Technique. This is very dependent on who is coaching their group and clinic. Many times undergraduate swimmers assist with the clinics so you may get a head coach or olympian working directly with your swimmers group or you may get a volunteer assistant. Most of the time swimmers get a video of strokes and come away with some reinforcement on what their club coach has been telling them all year .... hopefully!

Cons:

Swimmers get overwhelmed. Some swimmers are borderline in the groups they get placed or in readiness to swim at a camp in the first place. So they come back from a not so great week of swim camp which leads into their normal practice and feeling about swimming.

They are away for a week. This is a big one. They are away from home for a week. This may not seem like a big issue but usually a breaking point on these camps. With the advent of cell phones it seems to have gotten worse. The ability to contact you every night turns into pleads to come home. ( Trust me I have been here with my own daughter) Again the camp turns into a bad experience which gets associated with swimming.

Maturity Level. Some swimmers social age is just not ready for the added responsibility of being on their own away and doing a hard activity such a swimming. There is down, unsupervised time in the dorm rooms and halls so judgement should be used.

Interrupt Season Plan and Training Schedule. This is more for older swimmers or those who are training for specific meets during the year. These camps while they offer general practices and good work outs can interrupt a swim season. Many times they overlap with one of the few longcourse meets we have or are right before a big championship meet. Swimmers who are training for a champs meet and are on a season plan should ask their coach about attending and which dates would be the least disruptive.

There are a number of other points but I wanted to point out the big ones. If you are considering attending a clinic please advise with your swimmers coach prior to committing to a clinic. This way we can ensure the best results for the swimmer. I would recommend that all swimmer try and do the earliest clinic as possible so it is not near the champs longcourse meet.

Rice Aquatics Coaching Staff