Will My Child Be Homesick at Swim Camp? What Day 6 in Tenerife Showed

Will my child be homesick at swim camp? It is one of the first things parents ask before they send a teenager abroad to train, often for the first time without the family. So here is what I saw this week, on day 6 of the Swimpros October camp in Tenerife, recorded on my way to my own training: 17 swimmers, a small team, and a problem I did not expect. Nobody wants to leave.

Will my child be homesick at a residential swim camp?

A little nervous on arrival, maybe. But what decides how a swimmer feels after a few days is the group. In a small residential team, the swimmers train together twice a day, eat together, sleep on the same schedule and spend the evenings together. By day 6 of this camp, they were not counting the days until they flew home. They were asking for more of them.

This October camp was the clearest example I have had. It is why I recorded the update you can watch above.

What happened on day 6 of our Tenerife camp?

Two things the swimmers came to me with, which I think say more than anything I could write in a brochure.

First, the phones. We take the swimmers’ phones away at camp, and it has turned into a lovely process. By day 6 they were coming to the coaches and begging us not to give them their phones back in the evening, because they wanted to hang out with each other instead.

Second, the tears. I did not see it myself, but the night before, all the girls were crying.

They were crying because they don’t want to go home.

They asked me for a camp that lasts a month. I am not sure how aware they are that they have school, that their club coach is waiting for them, and that their parents, sisters and brothers are waiting for them too. But I think the best way to describe it is that they are having the time of their lives.

What if my swimmer is nervous about going to camp alone?

One of the swimmers arrived two days after everyone else. She is a really good swimmer, with great energy, and she was staying with us in the residence. Her dad dropped her off and she was anxious, I would say even scared. She asked me one question: “Are they nice?”

I told her I thought they were, and to just go and introduce herself. Within the same hour, it looked like they were already all best friends. This group is very inclusive. One swimmer came all the way from India, and the others absolutely love him and do not want him to leave.

If your swimmer is shy, that is not a reason to stay home. I wrote more about it in can a swim camp help a shy or anxious swimmer.

Do the older swimmers look out for the younger ones?

Yes. The taller guys look out for the smaller swimmers, help them, and make sure we are not leaving a mess on the pool deck after the recovery shakes. They have become a team that looks out for each other, and that is the part of camp a parent cannot see from home.

In the evenings there are team activities, and the swimmers make up their own on top: games, UNO, board games, building things out of wood. On the last evening we have a big team activity with everybody, maybe with an ice cream on the side, because they have earned it.

Why do swimmers stop missing their phones at camp?

Because they would rather spend the evening with each other. The rule, why we made it, and what we see change are in do swim camps take phones away.

Two more things help, and I feel it shows. A strict sleep schedule. And really good food: we eat in the residence, it is top-notch and genuinely tasty, and there are very few sweets. More on sleep in how much sleep a competitive teenage swimmer needs.

Should my swimmer stay in the residence or come as a day swimmer?

Non-residential is awesome too. But here is my honest recommendation. Swimming faster is the most important reason to come to a camp. And I think you serve your kid really well if they can be residential with us, because they get the fullest and most intensive experience, and the deepest friendships.

This was a small camp with our new residence, and I think it was the best camp we have ever had. My intention is to take everything we learned from it and run every camp at that level. For what to look for in any residential camp, see the best residential swim camp for a serious teen swimmer.

Is it all fun, or do they actually train?

They train hard. Most days were close to doubles, except two: the flume channel day, where they also sprinted, and the boat trip. I have never seen a group this focused in and out of the water. With only 17 swimmers the size plays a role, but so does the timing. October is in season, so everybody arrived in shape and came to put in the work.

Day 6 was race prep: a mindset and confidence session, breathing techniques to keep the nervous system calm, pre-race mobility, then drag socks and relays for everyone not racing that day. Fast, explosive work, but still hard. The camp ends with a short course race.

The goal for that race is not a goal time. If a swimmer is locked on a time they absolutely have to hit, there is automatically a lot of pressure. So the only goal is to execute the details we drilled all week: the fly kicks coming into the turn, a clean push off the wall, the streamline, counting their underwater kicks, and a clean breakout.

A bad breakout bites a swimmer twice. They get slower in that moment, and then they have to accelerate again instead of riding the momentum from the wall. That takes a lot more energy, and that energy is missing in the last quarter of the race. Especially in short course, those details just have to be clean. More on the underwater part in how to improve the underwater dolphin kick.

Should a swimmer rest for a personal best at the end of camp?

It is a conversation I have with each swimmer. Many of them have big competitions coming up in November and December, and the idea is that they swim really fast there. If a swimmer would be devastated without a PB at the end of camp, it makes sense to put them in the best position to swim one. If they have come to terms with the fact that they will not PB every time anymore, because they have reached a certain level, it makes more sense to use the time and the calm we have on camp to keep working really hard. The time to rest comes closer to short course nationals.

What happens after camp ends?

The friendships do not have to end at the airport. Some swimmers come to one camp a year, some to two, a few to three. In between, we see each other every week online in the Swimpros community on Skool, with online mentoring. The group will never be exactly the same at the next camp, and that is a good thing too.

Frequently asked questions

Will my child be homesick at a residential swim camp?
Some nerves on arrival are normal. On our October camp in Tenerife it ran the other way: on day 6 the swimmers asked to keep their phones away in the evening, and the night before, the girls cried because they did not want to go home.

What if my swimmer does not know anyone at the camp?
Tell them to go and introduce themselves. This October a swimmer arrived two days late, anxious, and asked whether the others were nice. She went and introduced herself, and within the same hour it looked like they were already all best friends.

Do swimmers get their phones at Swimpros camps?
We take the phones away during camp. By day 6 of the October camp, the swimmers were asking the coaches not to give the phones back in the evening, because they wanted to hang out with each other instead.

Should my swimmer rest for a personal best at the end of camp?
It depends on the swimmer and is decided in a conversation with each one. If missing a PB would devastate them, we set them up to swim one. If they have big meets coming later, it often makes more sense to keep training hard on camp and rest closer to short course nationals.