More poolside chat

I suspect some counties/regions are struggling to predict swimmers' progress to get the right balance of swimmer numbers post-post covid - no pool time meant standards had to be lowered after lockdowns, and now the younger cohorts are improving on each other year on year but still not quite to where they were before 2020; even the current 9yo swimmers will have been impacted by the pool closures at the very start of their swim journey.
I wonder if they are hoping to wait it out for the Counties results @Eccle80to ensure a fair number of qualifiers? Presumably nobody will want to enter regionals until those are over at the earliest any way, as much as it would be nice to know what you're aiming for at Counties as you dive in! Has your club heard rumours of changes to times or is it safe to expect broadly similar to 2025? We had unofficial advance warning of times tightening well before both CQTs and RQTs were released (not the figures, just the trend) so were able to temper expectations.

Thanks all, seems like ours are behind then. I’m sure a few years back they were out well before Christmas.

We’re heading towards counties now starting next weekend

East Region came out in November IIRC. There have been significant tightenings on those too this year.

South east was out in December but not sure when in December?!

only know because I just checked on back of your posts and times say V3 Dec 2025!

South West came out in November.

I’m pretty sure for ours you can’t submit an entry where you don’t have the qualifying time, but it doesn’t surprise me there is no consistency!

Have all the other regions got times out for regionals? We’re still waiting for ours at a point we need to start doing entries for regional qualifier events.

I think some systems do.

We use SCM and only eligible events (AT and CT) are available for selection.

DS has CT for freestyle but AT as a para and has to enter individually for para swimming rather than via the meets file.

But I think clubs and counties/ regions all do it differently?

On most/all(?) meet software you have to remember to tick some tucked away boxes to set this up.

The Comp Sec should also be able to “reject” ineligible entries before submitting the entry file (but perhaps it might not be as easy on some software as others)?

Surely the entry file prevents you from entering something you don’t have the time for?

We only have QTs in our county but have been known to scratch entries if oversubscribed. I don’t recall them extending the scope though

Ours have auto and consideration times and a target number of
swimmers.
Most events will have some get in on CT but the number varies dependent on event.

Also the target number includes its swimmers so if you have 8 spaces for paras but only 4/5 swim more AB swimmers will get in on CT.

our county have been pretty good at predicting a times and getting AT and CT just right historically.

In our county I have known the times to be adjusted part way through the autumn once or twice if it looks like numbers are too low, but I suspect at this point after entries closed it would be too late to sort out (unless timescales are very different to ours). We only have finals for 50s and 100s, but it is always better to have to compete to get into the finals rather than being able to take it easy on the heats because there are so few.

i felt our region didn’t get winter regional times right this year - there were some events that the junior times seemed comparatively easy, and others where they didn’t end up with enough to fill finals.

Thanks for sharing @skankingwombatand @madcats. All makes sense to me now

In Somerset I’ve never known them reduce consideration/qualification times to scoop up extra swimmers (and I’ve probably had experience of a decade’s worth).

I’ve not checked this year’s schedule but I think they might have moved to Heat Declared Winners for the less popular races like 200m fly as some events were so undersubscribed. Certainly as DD hit her mid-teens we were more picky about which events to swim; timetabling could be horrid. The organisers have to assume that most eligible swimmers will enter, I suppose, as there is a finite amount of pool time.

Hopefully everybody’s pools and general weather will behave for Counties this year!

(Just BUCS LC for us in Feb and DD is delighted that some more of her old club friends are heading up to Sheffield too).

That's correct. It wouldn't be fair to do it any other way once the QTs and CTs times are published, but is a shame when there isn't a full field of competitors and others could have had the opportunity to experience racing at the next level. It also lessens the value of DC's medal if they know going into the race that as long as don't DQ, they can have a terrible race and still place (when there are 3 or fewer qualifiers) - DD1 calls them participation or attendance medals!

DD1's age bracket for our county only has a couple of qualifying swimmers for 1 event, 2 other events have only 5/6 qualifiers, and at least 1 event only has 8 meaning provided the swimmers don't DQ, they'll automatically make the final (8 lane pool), which again lessens the achievement.
They toughened the times up for us this year, but it looks like they went a bit too far for some events! We only have consideration times so they could cull if necessary (which makes the harder times even more difficult to understand!), but they haven't rejected any swimmers since moving to this system after Covid. It's seems a bit strange to me to tighten times rather than use a perfectly legitimate cut off of maximum entrants which already exists in the meet conditions. A neighbouring Counties has tough QTs and reasonably generous consideration times, with the idea that they can backfill the spaces with the consideration times and always have a full number in each age band - I much prefer this but it does involve tempering of expectations for swimmers who've only just squeaked a consideration time and possibly some big disappointments if they don't make the cut across events.

Happy New Year all! I have a question on county times. I know each county is different though but want to hear your experience. Is it that if you do not meet the county consideration times you cannot enter at all even if it looks like they don’t have enough swimmers meeting the long course times so far?

I think the “problem” is that fast lane is complete 25m in under 30 seconds.

When you can repeatedly do 50m in that time (steady 32) and there’s 6 in the lane there doesn’t become enough space to leave iyswim? Our local pool was split into 3 lanes and public and the public half was quiet so ds moved out next to the fast lane rope and swam up and down there until the lane emptied.

No one complained about him catching up (even trying to go slow at ease he’s faster than some) but they did thank him for moving over a said he didn’t have to.

the biggest problem I find in public lane swimming is those who want to stake their claim and point rather than the uneven speeds and the speed of the “fast” lane not actually being fast if you’re an actual swimmer!

Like you said those who could wait to push off but don’t/ won’t!

Yes, DCs always find it very amusing when their plod speed is faster than most of the adults in the pool despite the considerable size difference 😬 Unfortunately they also get very frustrated that nobody 'knows the rules' and moves over when toe tapped, hence going to The Big Pool for our lane swim; it's always fairly quiet, but the length and width of the lanes means nobody is ever in anyone else's way. Plus it's clean, cheaper than the nearest leisure centre, and they don't get sniffy if you want to use fins!

wombat We had/ have 4 days off and that feels like loads.

totally agree with how it helps with the ND. My ds thrives off routine but also swimming is good physio for him - hence why we went for a plod today.

However his plod is still faster than most people’s 🤣

We are back 6am Monday morning but I’ve enjoyed 4 days off.

Except ds and I went for a swim today - it’s good physio for him! It was afternoon though!

Merry Christmas!

Our household have a 2 week break from coaching and swimming, which is great for not having to be in a particular place at a particular time and DD1 definitely needed a bit of rest after the last few months, although it isn't as good in practice as theory. ND DD1 is struggling without the routine and physical outlet, causing her sleep and behaviour to go to pot. DD2 is doing better, thankfully, but there is also a noticeable dip in her behaviour without the routine and exercise. 6 days into the 'break' and they've already been for an aqua inflatables session, and I think we might go for a LC lane swim tomorrow morning to get some wriggles out. We can all just have a nice gentle plod.
There is usually one fairly tough session halfway through the break just to keep them ticking over, but this year it is just the 2 squads above DD1's.