Competitive Swimming, Debunking the Myths

Making happy, confident swimmers is what we're all about. We want kids to learn to love swimming. We provide them with skills not only ideal for safety and confidence, but we also give them a great foundation for competitive swimming if that is what they decide to do.

When kids are ready to start pursuing swimming as a sport there are always a lot of questions. Due to the many misconceptions out there, children are often not exposed to the wonderful sport of swimming. Our competitive swim team, Big Blue Aquatics, trains in Glenview and is a great way place to start if you're interested in learning about swimming. Below are some of the more common myths about swimming:

1. "Swimming is a not a team sport."

Swimming is very much a team sport! Club swimming, high school swimming, and college swimming all take part in competitions with individual and relay points counting toward a TEAM SCORE! Relay events are really fun and they encourage a great deal of team effort, cooperation, and preparation. In addition, we also travel to meets and have team outings to foster a greater sense of community among teammates. The great thing about our sport is you can have both: Individual recognition as well as team recognition.

2. "Swimming is not a good sport for fitness"

Swimming is continually ranked as one of the best overall workouts. It may sound crazy but a recent study conducted by USA Swimming reveals that 40% of non-swimming parents do NOT see swimming as a good source of fitness. If you are after a total body workout, the pool is the place. Swimming doesn't focus on one part of the body. In a single practice you use your entire upper body, lower body, core, and an incredible amount of cardio! Not only is swimming one the best ways to find fitness it is also not weight bearing which means less pounding on developing joints.

3. "Competitive swimming is an intimidating sport for my child to start."

At Big Blue we focus on the FUN! Each swimmer is encouraged to do their best, and we seek out the things each swimmer did well while competing. Individual improvement and a smile are always the goal at our competitions. Our team has grown greatly in the past year due to all of the exciting changes that have occurred at Big Blue Aquatics. Parties, team outings, private lessons, and active parent committees are a few of the reasons our swimmers and parents are so happy to be a part of Big Blue Aquatics. A recent study revealed swimming actually outperforms baseball, volleyball, tennis, and soccer in the areas of fun, health, social interaction, coolness, and learning curve according to parents whose children participate in those respective sports.

4. "Swimming is too expensive."

The cost of youth sports is definitely increasing. However, relative to other sports, parents rarely report significant costs associated with swimming. The National Council of Youth Sports conducted of study of parents with children between the 6th and 12th grade. Below is the a chart of the most-to-least expensive youth sports according to parents:

Football 27%
Baseball/Softball 12%
Hockey 11%
Other 10%
Basketball 9%
Soccer 8%
Gymnastics 7%
Golf 6%
Track and Field/Cross Country 4%
Volleyball 3%
Swimming 3%