Introduction

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Quick background of myself - I grew up in Australia, got married & had 2 kids, then decided to move to Texas in early 2014.  

My eldest boy was 9 years old at the time & he previously received group swimming lessons during Saturdays in Sydney.  During the school holidays, I would sign him up for week-long camps.  That was the extent of my involvement in the sport of swimming prior to arriving in Texas.

Shortly after settling down in a suburban part of Houston, we came across a local swim club that was only 5 minutes away from home.  I thought it would be good for my son to be involved in some kind of sports & I also thought it would be good for him to continue with swimming as he was previously exposed to it.  So I happily obliged with the local swim club's request to evaluate my son's swimming proficiency so he can be placed in the appropriate group.  He was placed in the club's "bronze" group & hence I embarked on the journey of being a swim dad without realizing at the time.

It was a bit of a change for my eldest son as well, as he used to only swim an hour every Saturdays in Sydney to now swimming 3-4 days a week.  Fast forward to 2020, he is now swimming at the highest level senior team within the swim club and swimming 6 days a week (with some days having "doubles" - practice in the morning & also in the afternoon).  

My youngest boy also joined the same swim club, but he did the whole "grass roots" development - starting from the club's learn-to-swim program to now swimming at their highest level age-group team that is training 6 days a week.

Back in 2014, I was like a deer in headlights as I knew nothing about being a swim dad.  I still recall the sense of being completely lost and not knowing what was happening in my son's first ever swim meet.  During the course of the past 6 years, I had to stumble my way across learning new things and figuring out many things on my own.  I'm now at a stage where I feel I can share some of the things I have learned along the way to other "newbie" swim mums (I'm Australian... I spell mother as "mum"!) and swim dads out there.   I cannot say that I know everything, but for any prospective swim parents out there who are about to embark on a similar journey that I took back in 2014, I hope I can share some useful info and insights so you don't feel as lost as I did when I started this journey!

Image source (Free to use license): https://www.pexels.com/photo/water-swimming-competition-pool-56837/


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