Club swimmers-early starts?

[QueenofLouisiana]

DS has been asked to do a trial for the swimming squad- great, fab. But then they mentioned practice at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning. Really?? Is this likely to be every week for every swimmer?

Of course we'd do it as if he s any good we want to be right behind him. If you are in the sme position, how do you cope?

Swimming clubs tend to get the early and late slots in swimming pools, as they are the times not popular with the general public.

I regularly trained 5.30 to 7.30 am as a teenager. It's hard going, there's no real way of making it better. I used to lift share with another family which made it a bit easier, and also I could get the school bus from outside the pool so my dad dropped me off rather than hanging around.

After I heard what time the training was on a Sunday, I can understand why normal people the general public don't want that slot! But DS would probably love to swim then and is very keen on the idea of swimming fast without people complaining that he crashes into them (as happens in his swimming lessons).

I think I'll buy a thermal cup for strong coffee to take with me.

Yep, my club's morning sessions are 0515-0645. Sundays aren't quite so early (0730) but for Masters.

It varies from club to club, our local club it is all evening sessions until you qualify for nationals and only then is there an early morning session.

Our county squad doesn't train on Sunday mornings but starts at 5.30 mon-sat. Ds isn't in the county squad but he swims Sundays at 8am.

Yes - all high level swimmers I've ever known fit in 90mins or so of training before school I'm afraid.

Dd is 11. She has been training seriously for the last 18 months which includes being in the pool from 6.00am until 8.00am on a Wednesday and 7.00 til 9.00am on a Saturday and then training is 8.00 until 11 on a Sunday.
If she doesn't do her hours every week she would be asked to leave the squad.
It goes with the territory but you do get used to it. A book, an iPad and a thermos are all I need. Oddly the early starts arn't bad. I'm used to getting up before 5.00 on a wed now. She didn't swim this morning and itwas weird.

My DD is 9 and has been a member of our local club for 6 months. She has 2 afternoon sessions but as she is almost County standard for the breastroke she has dropped one of these and replaced it with a morning session of 7-8am. There is a 6-7am session which the older swimmers do too. The club splits the swimmers over the morning sessions so there are not too many in the pool at once (they only have 2 lanes)

Thank you everyone. I am just going to have to get over it .

It goes with the territory and I believe that most clubs start them on the early mornings fairly young (from 9+) to see if they and their parents can hack it , because if you can't manage one or two mornings (up at 5am is normal) you are never going to make it as a serious competitive swimmer. Whilst lift shares make it bearable as they rack up the number of mornings, it is particularly difficult to manage if you have a) only one car and b) other children- especially if they swim too as in our club (300+ swimmers) it is common that siblings will be swimming at the same time in different pools on opposite sides of the city!
However, it is a fantastic sport for fitness, discipline, friendship, competition and so many life skills that I don't begrudge the bags under my eyes at 3pm and my early bedtime so I can get up tomorrow and do it all again for my DD!

Trial went well- they are happy with him, he loved it. I was knackered just watching the warm up!
Pass that extra strong coffee, fellow parents-of-swimmers.