5 Surprising Benefits of Youth Swim Leagues

If you quizzed 100 parents on the street on which sport is the most ideal for children, you potentially could receive 150 answers. Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. But may I humbly make a case for one sport that is often overshadowed in America by other, perhaps flashier, sports: youth swim leagues.

So far our family has completed three summer league seasons and two winter ones. Swimming is huge in Virginia Beach with at least four year-round clubs in the immediate area. Even though our commitment hasn’t (yet) included a year-round USA Swimming team, we have (surprisingly) experienced at least five benefits from our seasonal involvement in youth swim leagues that we did not necessarily see from other sports.

But first, before trying out swimming, we found out that youth sports bring their negative sides to the table.

The Sad Realities of Youth Sports

The reality is sports often subtract more from families than they add, becoming glorified money and time pits. No question sports teach kids positive life lessons, aside from improving their physical condition and coordination. I am all for kids getting loads of physical exercise. Kids’ brains need movement, and lots of it, in order to fire on all cylinders.

I equally favor structured, healthy, scheduled activity in lieu of screens and TV watching. The idea of their kids staying out till dark riding bikes with other neighbors is but a dream for most families depending on where they live. What are kids supposed to do with their ample amounts of time? Sports offer a productive alternative to lazing around the house. Sports also provide much-needed PE time to add to our homeschool life.

In addition to time consuming and expensive, many sports can be ego crushing for kiddos less naturally athletic. No kid relishes publicly failing in a visible team sport, and, well, truthfully that’s not much fun for a parent to watch either. If your kid is riding the bench in basketball, or standing on the sidelines in soccer, visions of 1,001 better ways you could be spending your Saturday just might be dancing in your head.

And that reality led to us spotting the following 5 benefits of youth swim leagues:

5 Surprising Benefits of Youth Swim Leagues

1. Swimming Is the Ideal Sport for the Not-So-Ideal Young Athlete

Even if your child is not a gifted or experienced swimmer, he or she can race in relative anonymity. Every heat is over in a flash, with the next heat’s racers lining up right on its heels. Most of the meet’s spectators are huddled back at their tents waiting for their own swimmer’s races. Few are watching your child’s success or failure. Even if your child gets disqualified in a designated stroke, no one knows until the results are posted. You do not have a ref publicly calling out a foul or any similarly embarrassing mistake.

2. Swimming Involves the Whole Family

Yes, admittedly the meets can be long and tedious. I’m a morning person, so the idea of a Saturday 7:00 a.m. away swim meet does not strike abject horror in my heart as it might some. But if you can get over the dream of enjoying a leisurely Saturday morning on your own back patio, summer swim meets can start to become more endearing. For one, they include all ages together, from 4 to 18. We approach the 5-hour weekly meets as a family activity. In contrast, when my kids were on soccer and basketball teams, we had to take more of a “divide and conquer” approach, with both of us parents running a kid to his game, at different times and places miles apart. Saturday game time rarely equaled family together time.

We also found camaraderie with other families on the team during the meets. In other sports, our interactions with parents were mostly limited to who was bringing the next week’s snack. The games were generally quick, not much more than one hour, after which everyone would skedaddle. The very structure and length of swim meets, on the other hand, facilitate a greater sense of teamwork. Families set up their tents to camp out, eat, and wait for their races. The tight quarters create a conducive environment for both parents and kids to start talking and getting to know one another. To run well, swim meets also require many parent volunteers, giving parents even more built-in opportunities to become acquainted and work together.

3. Swimming Engages Your Child in Whole Body Exercise

Meets aside, the swim practices themselves are worth their weight in gold. My main objective with youth sports has always been to see my kids sweating from exertion, building muscles, burning calories, and gaining coordination. Unfortunately, a lot of sport practices, often only once/week, involve more standing around or drilling than much actual movement.

Not so with swimming. Depending on the league, practices will be held 2-5 times a week. Every kid on the team is in a lane swimming for an entire hour. Sometimes my kids would swim up to 1,000 meters each practice–an accomplishment in itself, and one I frankly can’t imagine achieving. Plus, swimming is full-body, strenuous exercise with little risk of injury. How many other sports can say that?

4. Swimming Can Accommodate Some Special Needs

Have a kid with focus issues? So do we. Swimming is a viable, beneficial choice for many children with a wide range of special needs. Young swimmers do not need the ability to read all the action on a court or a field. They simply line up behind their lane, hear the buzzer, and dive in with only one task to do. Swim races help train their focus, without overwhelming them with too much distracting stimuli or quick decisions to make. Aside from relay races, they will not have to perform as a team, something many kids find stressful.

We discovered yet another unexpected benefit just this summer through an unfortunate circumstance. Swimming is one of the few sports in which a kid with a broken bone can successfully compete. After a mishap resulting in a buckle fracture to his wrist, our son finished his last two regular-season swim meets with his waterproof arm cast while hardly missing a beat. His season did not grind to a total stop with a freak injury.

5. Swimming: Taking the Long View

Finally, considering the long term, swimming can be a valuable asset in your child’s life for decades to come. Now middle aged, I sincerely wish I were a better swimmer for the low-impact, easy-on-the-joints exercise it could provide me. I was a gymnast growing up, spending hours nightly in the gym perfecting my skills. Nowadays I can turn a mean cartwheel, to the right AND left, thank you very much. Alas, that is where it ends as far as my tumbling skills go. Swimming, more so than many other sports, is one that can keep on going long after the competing ends. More than seeing it as a short-term activity, parents can feasibly view it as a long-term investment in their child’s health and wellness.

So three cheers to this perhaps underappreciated sport. We will be back in the pool soon and hope to see you there!