Today I have compiled a summary of the Hong Kong Swimming Competition - Long and Short Pool Guide for Toddlers and Youth 2025.
These experiences are what my daughter and I gained from learning to swim from K2 to junior high school. I hope to integrate the most useful information for swimming families on the same journey.
Today’s competition sharing is mainly aimed at children in kindergarten and primary school, covering the entire swimming competition strategy for 4 to 12 years old. The content is divided into three parts:
- Swimming total (professional level) competition
- Long pool (amateur level) competition
- Short course (encouragement) competition
Since there are many details to share about the swimming competition, I will write a separate article in the future, because the families and young athletes of the swimming competition should know a little bit about the rules.
Today’s focus is on sharing the differences between long course play (as opposed to the amateur level) and short course play (as opposed to the incentive nature). Everyone can choose to participate according to their own needs. I have created a separate A4 chart for the details of each group of games at the end of the article for everyone to collect and share.
You may ask, why are young children divided into long pools and short pools? In the adult world, the long and short pools are not divided like this. The main reason is that the patience of young children is not necessarily that strong. Compared with adults, the feelings of swimming 25 meters and 50 meters are completely different. For young children, the distance of 50 meters is not something everyone can easily complete.
Due to the limited content to share, I only listed the most important children's competitions in the minds of outside parents.
On the market, every swimming club holds various large and small water sports meets every year to allow athletes to experience the spirit of sports, including: Bondi Swim - Pokémon, Stamford - Transformers Swimming Challenge, Power Swimming - Ultra Short Distance Flying Fish, Alex Fong - Little Small water games and so on.
In fact, by observing swimming club competitions, you can get a rough idea of the average level of the swimming club's coaches. For children aged 4 to 6 years old, if they want to participate in the long pool competition (amateur level), of course there are some emerging young swimming brands, and their children already have the ability to challenge the total D3 competition (award-winning level).
Generally speaking, short course play (which is encouraged) is the healthiest option. As can be seen from Coach Zhong Yuan’s U series in the picture, group competitions also have rankings and medals, and are a comprehensive and encouraging competition that everyone has a share in.
Athletes who can participate in swimming competitions (professional level) are naturally the most professional and representative of the industry. Even well-known top schools will select students based on their swimming scores.
Ting Shen's reading: Children's swimming is about learning to face failure, not arrogance and victory. Fong Lishen: "My swimming club teaches you how to lose and how to face failure."
Therefore, the quality of a swimming club can be judged by the competitions it participates in. For example, if a 7-year-old child from Swimming Club A competes in the 50-meter race of D3, and a 7-year-old child from Swimming Club B competes in the 25-meter race of U-Series, you can quickly tell which swimming club has a better coach. I'm sure smart parents will understand what I mean (this is an objective level discussion).
Due to limited text, I cannot list all the information in detail. If there is information about other swimming competitions for young children and teenagers, please leave a message and let me know so that I can update the above list and provide parents with more comprehensive swimming competition information.
That’s it for today’s sharing. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me. See you next time, 88!
Benice Cheung