Does anyone child do comparative swimming?

No offence taken!!

It absolutely hammered down last night, I think I was nearly as wet as DS at one point. Still, the cafe by our lake does a good coffee.

The bathroom now smells of an exciting mix of washed neoprene, lake and chlorine. It's a good job I'm not hoping to sell the house!

I've also just had the happy thought that I don't need to explain to you all why I'm up at stupid o'clock, you'll also be getting DC up for training all get it. anyone?

Oops, please don't be offended queenof. I chose the wrong name to reply to the pricey swimwear sub-groan.

Given the weather this week, I don't want to suggest open water. DD is going through a Haribo phase (but I am sure she'd swim faster for chocolate)

Open water went well, especially the hot shower and the Mars Bar at the end! Hoping that'll give him a bit of a new interest and help with the stamina he needs to build up. Apparently it was much better than swimming loads of lengths- especially when he was joined by some ducks!

Wetsuit is dripping nicely, glad we'd held onto an old pair of trunks to go underneath it.

That's impressive hellhasnofury, good for her keeping up a sport that she maintains at high level whilst helping her health. Lots of asthmatic children in DD's club too that find swimming really helps.

Agree Madcats that swim apparel is a massive business, lots of new brand entrants, the Aussies are particularly good at developing brands that spread quickly. Thankfully not all are too expensive, I can vouch for the quality of Funkita costumes for example vs speedo endurance. The girls then pass them down to smaller peers when they've outgrown them...may not be everyone's thing but I don't mind it and they all know which design is which season, where retro ones are highly sought bit like top trumps

DH is the soft one when it comes to the swim sale rails, justifies it by saying it keeps her motivated. Mmm...

Forgot to mention that DD's Maru ("it's on the sale rail, Mum") was not too pricey. How on earth can some legsuits cost £300+ (luckily DD knew better than to even wonder whether she could try one of those on)! She was grinning from ear to ear all afternoon and swam beautifully for a change, so I suppose it has earned its keep.

I'm in the wrong job: I should just go to galas and sell swimwear! Our excuse was it is DD's birthday in a couple of weeks, but the number of children who arrived at the afternoon session in fancier kit was astonishing!

Well done to "hellhas*'s DD. I often worry that DD would simply give up squad swimming like so many mid teens (so hopefully bi's and tri's will persuade her to keep training).

Mine started competetive swimming at the age of 7 (well training with the club, back in those days you had to be 9 to compete), I spent many long. drawn out, monotonous happy hours at the pool. She diversified into triathlons too and at the grand old age of 27 still hauls her sorry backside to the pool 6 times a week to train and competes at quite high levels still. She is still doing the odd PB too which is bloody good for an asthmatic 27 year old. Her asthma is chronic and can be very difficult to control but her consultants reckon it is her commitment to training and swimming that keeps her out of hospital as much as she can be. I have never regretted being a swimmer's mum and all that it entailed (I even learned to officiate at events to hlep pass the time).

Ahhhh- the happy days of Speedo Endurance, although I still have these around for training. DS prefers Maru for funkier designs though (my bank account doesn't however!).

He's been asked to give open water swimming a go this summer, Dover are waiting for a wetsuit to arrive now- great! This means I'll end up sitting beside a lake for a change- not a pool. My greatest concern is how the smell of lake water will mingle with the aroma of chlorine that pervades the whole house. I'd better invest in some new reed diffusers.

I had a sweaty 8 hours poolside at an open meet yesterday, but at least DD got a couple more county times. I made the mistake of letting her venture out to look at the "fancy FINA-approved suits" (I fear her £10 Speedo Endurance will soon be a distant memory).

Well done Queen (or rather your DS). Ealing DD sometimes does a junior parkrun (just 2k so pretty much over after 15-20 minutes). I am sure she would prefer an athletics club (but can't imagine how on earth we would fit it in).

Lovely update Queen, he's done phenomenally well to be at regional level at 11! We only experienced counties and regionals this year as DD's first year of qualifying in 14yr old category (same as you, swims up a year from her actual age). Hope the gap continues to close for her as she gets stronger...

@ealingwestmum thank you, DS had a good time at regionals. We all learned loads- nothing like the county level swimming we were used to! It was a bit alarming because they are all so serious! DS was still 11 but treated like an adult really.

Still, we were pleased with how he got on, he's had a week or so of relaxed training and is now back on it for county and regional times on the next age group up!

Great news

QueenofLouisiana; if you're still around, hope your boy had a successful swim at regionals!
Giles; is your DD still enjoying the new training a month or so in?
Madcats; DD's slowly being coerced into thinking about biathlon and taken the first step to attempt running this weekend with her uncle's running club. Could go either way

Sorry to bump your thread Giles, but it's lovely to see if all your DC are hanging in there with their respective levels of swimming as we approach end of season!

Ah gotcha - you do have to car share as much as possible. We were up to 8 swim sessions a week (with 2 of those meaning at the pool by 5.15 am) plus land training and gym work. Weekend trips to meets if no team travel became family weekends away if need be (DH always liked an excuse to get out of town anyway).

It is a costly and time consuming sport for parents - I reckon it cost us about £4k to £5k a year in training fees, petrol, entry fees and travel costs, fortunately DS wasn't into £200 racing suits.

No, the time commitment of getting your dc to and from training 5 - 10 times a week, plus galas. I didn't mean the time it took to train to be a time keeper or judge, I mean the amount of hours across a week you spend driving back and forth, when you also have to fit in your work, all the boring housekeeping stuff, prepping meals, shopping, and looking after your other dc, quite possibly including getting them to things they might want to do.

It doesn't take a lot of time to become a timekeeper - it's a couple of hours to do the course and that's it. It takes a bit longer to become a judge or starter but apart from a couple of workshops the training is during galas when you'd be otherwise sat in the spectator area.

It's only referee training which is onerous and time consuming.

What, you don't agree it takes a lot of time ?

Sorry, don't agree with that at all Back. I had younger DC and worked but always sorted out cover for galas so that I could do poolside duties, even if it was just for one or two sessions. How else do you think your children get accredited times that enables them to enter District / County meets and Nationals?

Agree CountMagnus, but it's the time commitment that isn't always easy if you have other dc, if you WOTH, if you have your own hobbies, if you have other carer commitments, and so on.

Can I just add that parents don't need to be sat watching in the spectator gallery being bored for hours on end at galas - you could easily volunteer to become a timekeeper and move on to judging. It really is the best way to support your children / coaches / clubs at galas.

Mine all started their first lessons through a swimming club.
It was a positive thing - they are all excellent swimmers with loads of stamina and great technique. It is a MASSIVE time commitment once they start competing though - I'm glad mine weren't that good.
The galas, you can be out the house for 12 or more hours on a Saturday and have them compete for about 2mins or a lot less, x about 3 races. It's hot, noisy, and uncomfortable.
By aged about 9 or 10, mine were doing 3 sessions a week, and being told they needed to increase that by 2 sessions at least if they wanted to compete.
One friend of ds's did get to National competition level and he used to train for a couple of hours before school 4 or 5 mornings a week (so that's getting up before 5am) and then have 3 or 4 evening sessions as well plus weekends of course and land training.

OTOH, it's great exercise. Usually friendly atmosphere but no dramas in terms of 'stars' of the team like you hear of in some sports. Everyone can take part - there's not so much 'not getting a place on the team'. Gives you great water confidence - this has enabled my dc to enjoy so many other activities through Scouts - sailing, rowing, kayaking, jumping off waterfalls etc - and now the older two both earn their money by working as lifeguards.

I stand corrected...level 4 galas can be entered by 8 year olds (excluding 100M events and obviously the longer ones)

Hello solittletime, open air swimming sounds great, we have a few returning expats from Singapore in our club who really miss it!

London has lots of clubs, small and large. The more inner city ones struggle with pool space using mixture of schools/local leisure centres with 25M so a weekly schedule may include lots of locations. Exposure to 50M pools is therefore limited for training, and being a member of the peripheral, larger clubs can be of benefit (e.g. Hillingdon, Wycombe, Guildford, Basildon...or South London clubs now using London Aquatic/Crystal Palace etc. I wasn't sure if it's West for definite you are heading for, or still flexible on location. Ealing's Gurnell pool is due for rebuild to a 50M (closes circa Sept 18 for opening 2020) as an example.

If your aim is longer term competitive for your children (normally from 9 here), look for clubs with a combination of teaching/development and performance squads where there's good progression opportunities.

Re swim coaches, London region does have good coaching, but I cannot vouch for each clubs' more junior coaches, and squad entry may be subject to capacity constraints (pool space, coach to swimmer ratios etc, speed of move ups), but most clubs' websites will have a PDF of their squad structures and minimum criteria. And how to apply, as some will have more regular assessments than others.

My suggestion, if you are really interested in the performance side is to play with the ASA tables, where you can see the clubs data within a set region, by age grouping, event times etc. This gives you a guide of how successful a club is vs the county/region/national clubs.

www.swimmingresults.org/12months/

Final tip - whilst your children are young now and it's easy to focus on Clubs nearer to where you (will) live, from 11 it may be easier for where they school (to go onto sessions if they are independent). The good news is that once your children start recording official times and if they have good basics of race principles/4 strokes, they are more attractive to other clubs making switch easier.

Sorry for the long waffle, hope this helps a little as a start point!