Does anyone child do comparative swimming?

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Dd has been given the chance to try out for a swim club which claims it's the first step towards eventually competing

She trys out this week and obviously I know she may not make the cut this time around however I'm interested to know what goes on. Before I rearrange everything work etc wise in order to try and accommodate this is it really something worth doing that can lead to other opportunities or is it just more money and waiting around at pools

Yy dd definitely rests better when she's been doing stuff. And I too am also hoping that having to get her shit together for swimming will spill over

It's obviously very early days she's o my just made it to the club so it's gonna be a while I'm assuming.. .

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

Oh she can do those things however she's just a faffer

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.

Well she's getting on ok.

Two stage 7 lessons and one squad lesson in she still managed to come third in two heats at the gala. So not bad really?

She is enjoying the extra session at least and nice to see her enjoy her sports

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.

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!

Wow mad

That's amazing

@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)

I can't imagine getting a 10 it old to do anything like that. They take alot of determination and pushing through the pain. Huge well done to her!!

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!!

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

Hijack away

It's really interesting to see all the different ways it's fine and here experiences!

solittle I hope you find the perfect area for you all and can keep it all up!

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

Hey

She's getting on well I think. Still enjoying it I event been able to see the lessons as I've been at work but according to do she's coming on well thanks.