Today I have compiled a complete guide for the Hong Kong Swimming Competition - Long and Short Pool for Children and Youth 2025.
These experiences are what my daughter and I gained from learning to swim from K2 to early primary school. I hope to integrate the most useful information for swimming families who are on the same journey.
2025 SEEDINO New Project - Hong Kong Children's Swimming Enlightenment Cradle
Today’s competition sharing is mainly for children in kindergarten and primary school, covering the swimming competition strategy for children aged 4 to 12. The content is divided into three parts:
- Swimming Association (Professional Level) Competition
- Long Course (Amateur) Competition
- Short course (encouraged) competition
Since there are many details to share about the Swimming Association competitions, I will write a separate article in the future, because families and young athletes in the Swimming Association should know a thing or two about the rules.
Today's focus is to share the differences between long course competition (relative to amateur level) and short course competition (relative to encouragement nature). Everyone can choose to participate according to their needs. I have created a separate A4 chart for the details of each group of matches at the end of the article, so that you can collect and share it.
Further reading: Hong Kong Swimming Competition - China Hong Kong Swimming Association: D1/D2/D3 competition strategy, classification rules, promotion mechanism and competition system in-depth analysis
You may ask, why are toddlers divided into long pool and short pool? In the adult world, long and short pools are not divided like this. The main reason is that young children’s patience may not be that strong, and compared to adults, the feeling of swimming 25 meters and 50 meters is completely different. For young children, not everyone can easily complete the distance of 50 meters.
Due to limited sharing content, I only listed the most important children's competitions in the minds of outside parents.
In the market, every swimming club holds various large and small water sports every year to allow athletes to experience the spirit of sports, including: Bondi Swim - Pokémon, Stanford - Transformers Swim Challenge, Dali Swimming Club - Ultra Short Distance Flying Fish, Alex Fong - Mini Water Sports, etc.
In fact, by observing the swimming club's competitions, you can roughly understand the average level of the club's coaches. For children aged 4 to 6, if they want to participate in long-course competitions (amateur level), there are of course some emerging young swimming brands whose children are already capable of challenging the D3 competitions of the Swimming Association (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, the group competitions also have rankings and medals, and it is an encouraging competition that is comprehensive and everyone can participate.
The athletes who are able to participate in the Aquatics Association competitions (professional level) are naturally the most professional and representative of the industry. Even the top schools known to the outside world will select students based on their swimming scores.
Further reading: Swimming is a way for children to learn how to face failure, rather than arrogance and victory. Alex Fong: "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 participates in the 50-meter race of the D3 of the Swimming Association, and a 7-year-old child from swimming club B participates in the 25-meter race of the U series, you can quickly tell which swimming club has a better coach. I believe smart parents can understand what I mean (this is an objective and horizontal discussion).
Due to limited text, I cannot list all the information in detail. If there is any information about other swimming competitions for young children and teenagers, please leave a message to let me know so that I can update the above list and provide parents with more comprehensive swimming competition information.
Today’s sharing ends here. If you have any questions or comments, please email me. See you next time, 88!
Benice Cheung