More poolside chat

Also remember you can’t PB every time. No one can. Times depend on what the focus is in training, where about you are in the training cycle, training in the run up to the meet and whether it’s a target meet.

Also girls can vary performance dependent on periods and their cycle - there’s been a lot of good recognition of this recently.

and times really can vary even in a 2 week period because of training.

My ds has been known to get good PBs , 6 weeks later be wayyyyyy out and 2 weeks after that PB again because it’s a target meet and training has been designed to allow that iyswim?

He’s certainly in less pain now than he was this morning. Still can’t move it fully within his already limited range of movement but he’s got off the sofa for the first time since yesterday to actually use his arm!!! Have told him not to go on computer (he’ll have no choice tomorrow as he’s a software developer!)

also having an unexpected day free and being at home we’ve just had a lovely large roast pork lunch 😋

I agree with all of the very good points from satisfiedbyanapple. Also sometimes growth spurts can throw them off for a while as they can have to adjust their strokes for longer limbs.

itsgettingweird hope he’s ok and the physio can help him tomorrow.

He has physio at the hospital tomorrow with the neurological specialists (good timing!) so hopefully they’ll have some good ideas.

His legs

Yep agree with above too.

withdrawn ds again today too. His neck still hurts and he can’t easily move his arm above his shoulder (less easily than usual) and not worth risking it.

Hoping it’s a knot rather than trapped nerve. When I use massage gun on the painful bit it sends his arm muscles into spasm and he said there isn’t pain shooting down his arm.

Using ibuprofen and heat and massage gun frequently and hopefully that should solve it 🤞

Also getting lots of protein and electrolytes into him.

I think it may be related to how much more pressure his upper body is taking as his legs have wasted away a lot more.

I don’t know how old she is? There is relevance in that.

Having been in it a few years my observations would be as follows (and dependent on age some may be helpful)

1. They don’t make steady progress, they take a step up then consolidate. The length of consolidation time varies hugely!
2. Some of our younger swimmers overtrain as they are too small to cope with the work, that leads to muscle burning. But ‘work’ is applauded.
3. Entering too many galas/ events is unhelpful, swimming the same thing over and over doesn’t make you faster.
4. People comparing long course and short course times and deciding that they’ve swum badly because they didn’t get a converted PB. They are separate times. A long course or short course on is a pb. Every positive has to be grasped with both hands or you go mad.
5. Some pools are faster than others and if they have fast times from a fast pool and swim at a slower one it’s hard to match. Some of this is psychological but some of it is real (eg very shallow end impacting on turns, slippery blocks, temperature)

It goes like that sometimes. Sometimes there is a clear reason eg illness or (as we had a few times over the Summer) a heatwave that overheats the space making everyone feel quite unable to function, and other times it just is and feels inexplicable. Focus on the good bits and what did go well (great start/turns/finish, managed to carry a corrected point of technique into the race, stuck to the race strategy etc), rather than the bottom line result. Progress comes in different forms and times do plateau sometimes for a variety of reasons. Equally, growth can cause a raft of PBs even when there is no technical improvement, so a PB isn't necessarily a sign of genuine progress either.
The coaches will pick up the areas to improve in training and if there are any causes to be concerned about, so no need to focus on that at home.

I have one of these too. She can rarely replicate anything like her race speed in training. A mixture of adrenaline and extreme hyperfocus I think (she's AuDHD). Meanwhile, if DC2 could harness her work ethic in training and transfer it to race day, she'd do very well. She prefers to do 'well enough' and expend the extra energy in cheering and socialising. She's still very young though, so as long as she's happy, that's perfect for me. It needs to be fun first and foremost. And she's still progressing nicely, so her squad coach is happy with that. Her training focus will stand her in good stead should she choose to take meets more seriously as she gets a bit older.

Club Champs rounds 3&4 tonight and tomorrow night for us. A very mixed bag of results so far with all 3 of us swimming, with some things to celebrate and some others to take back to training and focus on. I'm shattered - far too much in a short couple of hours for my old bones!

DD had an open meet today. Didn’t have any PBs in all of the 5 races. We both feel quite dejected. I hope this is just a phase but I am also wondering how she can improve going forward.

Well ds was asleep when I posted this morning. Woke up saying his shoulder was sore and neck stiff.

massage gun and wheat bag hasn’t helped so I’ve told him not to swim this afternoon and see how he is tomorrow.

its more important he’s fit for training than risks injury racing trying to force stiff muscles where they don’t want to go!

He’s also actually following my advice and sitting watching tv (better position) rather than playing on the computer or laying in bed watching his iPad.

He has an appointment with specialist neurological physiotherapists at the hospital on Monday so if it’s still bad then hopefully they can advise so exercises!

Im hoping it’s just he’s slept awkwardly!

This is just a warm up fun meet for his squad before winter regionals at the beginning of November.

They are swimming events they don’t usually do! Ds is swimming 50/100m fly as fly is a process goal for him this phase.

Then 200/800m free - he usually does 50/100/400 😂

and it’s SC which he isn’t so good at 🫣🤪

No, we have the weekend off this week before 2 weekends of arena league/ open meets.

Good luck to your DS 😃

DS is competing this weekend?

anyone else got a meet? If so I hope your DCs enjoy it and enjoy getting some times on the board for the season.

Creative answers 😂😂😂

I’ve had many a conversation with junior parents who can’t understand why their child who swims faster than everyone else in training isn’t being moved up.

Usually the answer is “it’s likely because they need to learn to train within the limits set not just one fast speed”!!!!

My ds loves an easy set - and he’s a sprinter 😂 Bit he equally loves a threshold set when they come along too and seeing his HR on the monitor 🫣

Completely. And swimming flat out all the time is bad for stroke development.

But dd2 definitely tends towards the lazy, even so 🤣