Does anyone child do comparative swimming?

Oh and congrats to your dd for being selected op!
You'd all love the galas here. All open air!

I really want to hyjack this thread to ask Ealing which local sports clubs have the bestbest swim coaches. We are moving to the area.. If your user name is in anyway indicative...!!
We're coming from overseas from a school with a strong swim background and really want to keep it up. 9 yr and 7 yr old ( 7yr very keen).
Sorry for hyjack!!

@ealing and Giles it was hideous the first time I told her to do a biathlon (so 50 m swim 800m run)....Swim was easy, but the look on her face after the run! And the next one!

Then she did another run a lot faster (so then a friend's mum took her out once or twice...). Then she signed up to school CC and has had a lot of encouragement...it takes a month or two to get the hang of things...but then she seemed to.

Think back to that first swim squad session (when you cringed about appalling style trying to do all those lengths).

It is worth a try (we have no sporty genes in our immediate family)

Great to hear your DD can transfer her endurance to running Madcats. That's a big fail here - baffles me that she can do 5/6k swim sessions but struggles to do a 1.5k land run without wanting to collapse!

My DD(almost 10) is about 15 months into squad swimming. It isn't a massively competitive squad, but it is local. She fits this around lots of other clubs in and out of school (so something will need to give at some point). We are selective about "open meets" (they have to work for us too), but the club organises transport for team/league competitions (so we invested in a phone for her so we can see when she is close to getting home).

It has been a great experience for her and she is ridiculously fit. It has also helped her to become a fairly fast runner (mainly cross country) with just a bit of practice and encouragement. I'm quite pleased/relieved about this because I do seem to have met a lot of
former young swimmers who went from hours in the pool to minimal exercise. I can see her doing parkruns/triathlons/biathlons for a great many years.

Whilst at home, she has a "show and tell" attitude to her clothes and kit but (possibly because I have been cross with her so often about the things we've had to replace) she is pretty good at making sure she packs and unpacks all her stuff for clubs and school.

Yes, there can be a lot of time poolside. I rather enjoy the time to read/listen to podcasts and watch movies/TV downloads.

How is she getting on?

DS (11) is a swimmer and has been competing for about 3 years. Currently training about 9 hours a week- including land training, plus time in the gym. We've noticed he is starting to develop swimmers shoulders in the last few months, so the training is having some effect!

He mainly enjoys it, but the long swims get a bit repetitive as he is leans towards sprints at the moment. He's got a team competition in s few weeks which is for fun, then really doing a final push for regional championships in May.

It does Giles outside the house, not guaranteeing it works in the house! I avoid any thread that says by 13 your kids should be sorting/doing their own washing, daily unloading dish washer, cooking etc. Just found 3 pairs of pants down side of her bed (she's away at a swim camp)...shit together at home has lots of room for improvement

Life, the 4 hours will combine skills work across all 4 strokes, drills and the start of endurance sets. Open galas entry point tends to be from 9 years, so it's prep for competition. The triathlon your DS does is brilliant endurance/land work, I am not sure in your position I would sacrifice that just yet at his age to focus on one alone. But a compromise on hours would be ideal to kick start his swimming. If he wants that.

I used to worry about the amount of hours 'exercising' mine did at junior age, especially when people commented but when does she rest. But some kids rest better being active...it's not for everyone. I'm less defensive these days!

Hi OP, we're probably a few more years down the line than previous PPs', but can concur with some of the negatives of competitive swimming...hours spent poolside, swimming hours before/post school, weekends taken etc.

My DD is now 13.5, came into competitive swimming later than most so was on catch up but has really closed the gap now and is still enjoying the sport. One of reasons is I think this is because she is still seeing progress over a short time, where some of her peers who were seen as child prodigies have plateaued, down to a mixture of lack of patience (body changes slows down progress) and the 13/15 attitude barrier. It really is a long time to spend in a pool if you don't love it.

is it really something worth doing that can lead to other opportunities

This is quite subjective, I can only talk from personal perspective, but it really helps my DD to organise herself across all things she does, and having a physical outlet helps her with her academics. Yes, there's lack of time to study, but what she does, she does it efficiently and still to a high standard. Also is very resilient (swimming has lots of knock backs), but has a group of friends outside her school life that helps through the fickle early secondary years. It does impact on other things she's had to give up now due to commitment to training (we're at 14 hours per week), but it's offset by being around people who get it. She's at peace from withdrawing from school sports squads, but if she chose to walk away from competitive swimming, there would be a recreational squad at her club with flexibility on sessions. But she's competitive - I think it would be all or nothing for her.

Lots of parents say when their children give up, what a waste. There will be potentially more things to gain that are not so easy to quantify but are character defining, therefore we'll have no regrets here when that day comes.

Re independence from 11/12 - absolutely encourage it. The less time you spend pool side/making other family members suffer, the better. There's a big uber-share thing at DD's club (but humble TfL works for us :) Take a deep breath also around other swim parents...they are HUGELY competitive, but if your child has a good attitude and appetite to improve through the peaks and troughs, this can often out-swim those with early innate ability that just burn out for one reason or another.

Good luck with your DD's swimming!

My 8 yo DS has just finished level 7 and went to a trial at our local club last night. We thought he would be joining the academy - which works towards ASA stages 8, 9 and 10 and would be 1 hour a week. But the coach said he's really good and can skip that and join the junior squad. I've looked on the website and they train 4 hours a week.

I'm not sure whether we can commit to this and whether it's too much. He's already in a triathlon club and does 1 hour each of swimming, cycling and running a week with them. Plus athletics club 1 hour a week too.

I need to speak to the coach to find out more, but is 4 hours a week at 8 years old the norm? I didn't know whether he would be allowed to start with just 2 sessions but I'm guessing they expect commitment and to do all 4 hours.

My dd swims for a club and she loves it. She was scouted at 6 and has been there for two years now. There are clubs closer to us so it's means traveling for us, myself or DH take her and have to stay as it's too far to come back home and then back to the pool for pick up. It's long hours and she works bloody hard but loves it and it keeps her fit. That is the only thing she does as it's five times training a week with extra in the holidays.

It's fantastic fitness if they really enjoy it. My DD age9 recently finished level7 and joined the competitive side of the club. She loves galas but is starting to learn that it's ALL about "times". She previously only done 20L in a learn to swim session but did 50+L last week in the hour long training session. She amazed herself, but most importantly enjoys doing it. She loved practicing off the blocks and working on tumble turns etc she inspires me to swim more
Good luck to your DD.

Hi, my daughter is 8 and she swims for a very good club. You have to do a trial to get in, but there are squads to suit both children who want to swim competitively, and squads for those who don't (or who are not fast enough). The coaching is MUCH better than bog standard leisure centre type lessons, so my advice would be to trial and if you are offered a place take it, you can give it a go and see what the squad options are. Our club do filter out the children who aren't going to cut it as competitive swimmers - but they still get to swim in the recreational groups and the coaches are still very good so it does suit everybody.

In terms of commitment, my daughter does 2 x 1 hour sessions on week nights and 1 x 2 hour session from 7-9 on a Saturday. She is in the top stream for her age group, however may not get into the next squad in September as she probably won't get the required times (relative to the fact that they all develop at different ages). My daughter does love it, she leaps out of bed at 6:15am on. Saturday morning relishing the prospect of two hours of butterfly - I wish I had the same enthusiasm !!

Is it a teaching swimming club or a competitive-only club?

My 3 children swim for our local club, its a teaching club - which means it accepts swimmers (ASA Level 5 and above) and teaches them to swim. Then also has a competitive squad who train and are coached, rather than being taught to swim.

Anyone can join the club, it just offers swimming lessons at a cheaper price than the leisure centre. So great value, no reason not to.

Then squad members are selected from within the club teaching group. These are swimmers with talent. Then teams of children are chosen from within the squad for each gala.

So you have no massive commitment joining a teaching club. Its just teaching your child to swim. Likewise it's no great commitment to join a competitive squad. You don't have to complete if the child doesn't want to. But a great way to keep fit, make friends and excel in your sport.

The commitment begins with gala selection. These are of the form "open meet" - which means any squad member can choose to pay and take part. Or league/county/regional gala's - you get selected for these so are not required to pay, but obviously there is a time commitment.

In short, just joining a swimming club is not any sort of big commitment. At all. There's a sliding scale of commitment, you don't dive in at the deep end (see what I did there? ) with massive amounts of commitment straight away.

To start those times may not be necessary