Poolside chat: Calling all parents of competitive swimmers!

[Marypoppins19]

I thought it might be helpful to share our highs/lows/questions/thoughts in one place. Who’s joining me!?

Absolutely, @ealingwestmum. It’s only all these years down the line that you realise the how many elements are involved in swimming and enjoyment as well as achievement. My DS has switched strokes and distances countless times over the last 9 years and so many swimmers have come and gone altogether. We still keep ploughing away. Let’s hope both of ours have good injury free year this year!

Wishing the injured a speedy recovery in time for counties.

Ds is really feeling the force of extra training and he ain't getting out lightly. So told on the Friday he was training too squad lanes once a week and with top squad another time. (To start Friday just past) Since then he was put in top squad lanes on the Monday. Did his top squad training on the Friday. Due to imbalance of numbers sat am was moved into top squad lane and then last night both squads did the same - but him and others moving up were told to do top squad set. (Started harder and further!).

Will be interesting to see how he translates this in competitions!

Just wanted to say that I’ve found this thread really interesting! My DD swims but she’s only 10 so meets are not as frequent or demanding. She swims with a really lovely team. They’re competitive but smaller than many locally and very supportive and inclusive. DD is very focused and aiming to step up squad again. She’s very much on the cusp of it but a little younger than they usually go. Was a half day meet for us yesterday. 4 PBs and a medal so she is delighted. We felt her last two swims dropped off but after getting home we realise that her nutrition had been off as she’d hardly eaten! She’s coeliac and going through a fussy spell. Lesson learned!

Indy I'm GF. Does she like the GF chicken nuggets - will she eat them cold? They are a great source of protein and some carbs to munch on during the day!

Hello indy, welcome and well done to your DD for her weekend PB's.

You prompted me to look at the thread - can't believe it's been going so long (noting that I do repeat myself rather a lot).

New year's resolution from me will be to not bleat on about DD's aches and pains , but seriously, it's a great thread because we can just do exactly that here, knowing you lot get the suffering, mixed with the odd few minutes of joy!

Thank you for the welcome. @itsgettingweird I’d never thought of that. She will eat them and that’s a great idea!

We joined the class of the pained last night!

About 45 minutes in ds hip went on a turn. You can see it and the pain and I went down and unlocked and stretched it.
Then 1.5 hours in his knee and hamstring was bothering him so I wanted him out. Coach said enough and has told him to take next training day off for recovery.

This is the issue with ds physical disability. Great week last week and really upped training. This week he'll suffer. He gets there it just takes his body a little while to adjust!

I'm just happy there's no 5am start this week

Welcome, @indyandlara - 4 pbs and a medal sounds like a fab weekend!

@itsgettingweird - hope your ds recovers well on his day off. We have three 5am starts so think of us....! Has managed full stroke for a week now though so that is good progress. Just hope it continues. Our final club champs start soon so am keeping everything crossed he can take part

Huge sympathies to the injured - I've seen a couple of children at our club struggle with injuries (usually caused by other sports, as our coach is always keen to point out). They have such resilience to cope with such setbacks.

A big welcome to Indy. It is so easy to flag at the end of a gala (always a problem for us at Counties), particularly now that it gets dark so early in the afternoon. These days, assuming I am there, I seem to spend my time texting DD to tell her to STOP eating but do still have to prompt her to drink before racing.

The children round here are limbering up their vocal cords for the inter-schools gala - "loud" doesn't quite do it justice. Most of the children train at 2 or 3 clubs, so there is a lot of friendly rivalry.

We have a 5am and a 6am! Don't envy you! But ones a weekend so not so bad because I can come home and chill rather than get in and rush back out for work! Then get in and go out again for more

Ds isn't injured as such. He has muscle spasticity which in turn causes joint issues as it pulls them in an awkward position.
Sometimes he can use the roller and/or stretch it out. His coach is very knowledgable with CP swimmers (ds isn't CP but the condition he has presents the same) so he is managed well. And they don't hold him back because of it.

Long distance meet for DS today. (800m)
Swam it last year and 47 sec PB!
23 sec negative split and 20 sec Pb on his 400!
Considering how bad his legs have been I was surprised and impressed!

Horrid dystonia when he got out though

Wow that’s amazing! Well done him 👏

That is a massive PB! Well done to your DS. That is over a second/length faster.

Even small improvements in technique/stamina/speed really show up when swimming 32(?) lengths (and vice versa). It must be so hard to know how to pace things.

Fabulous PBs itsgettingweird!

He only did pull the first 400m!
He managed a 1:14.00 last 100 and 34sec final 50! His last 200 was only 7 secs outside his PB.
So I'm sure with some more practice and thinking about how he races we are going to see some great things from him as the season progresses.

Wish para assessment wasn't so complicated. He'd have medalled at nationals as an S9 or 10 swimmer with his current times and I so think if classified he'd medal next year as he will only improve (hopefully )

Wow! Impressive swimming! How’s the classification process going?

I've heard from them today actually!

He meets criteria for assessment in actual disability (which we knew) but he doesn't have a named diagnosis. He has a gene fault. He's heterozygous for BSCL2 gene variant. So has a genetic neurological muscular disorder. I've forwarded millions of consultants reports and they are going to look into it. Basically they need a diagnosis too and it's whether just the genetic fault is enough.

I'm hoping we can progress quite quickly so he can complete counties etc next year.

I hope things progress with the classification itsgettingweird.

The classifiers(?) at para-swimming ought to be mindful of the competition calendar.

Can I ask you all a question. What does ‘target meet‘ mean? Our squad is 10 -13 yr olds making counties but generally not regionals, so nowhere near the top squads. Our ‘target meet’ is just before Xmas. Is that to get county times?

It might vary a little between clubs, but "Target Meets" are the ones that the club hopes your DC will compete in. It is probably (depends on the County) the last chance the children will have to qualify for their 2020 Age Group County Championships.

If you look through the blurb for the gala you will be able to see how entries will be accepted if it is over-subscribed (usually on a first-come-first-served basis or sometimes the slower swimmers will get scratched).

Hi Widow, it will depend I think on the coach and how he/she defines target meet.

In our case, it just means the training cycle that's in place accumulates to deliver peak performance for a particular meet, where, if all goes to plan, they should hit their objectives, that may have been set at the beginning of that season/cycle etc. So for some, that may mean county times or similar, for others it could be another metric like being race ready for say, a 400IM (but not necessarily time specific), therefore targets are specific to the swimmer.

This may vary by club/coach though.

For us, basically target meet is what that cycle of training has been leading up to. For this three months it is a level 1 meet before Xmas and not the regionals even though they have qualified and swum regionals. Each squad or age have a different target meet but each squad had one a quarter they are meant to take part in.

Thanks both. Objectives?!? Do squads get given objectives??
Assume for us it would be qualifying for counties and regionals but can honestly say I’ve never heard it discussed. I guess some squads/clubs are better at this than others

Thanks esther too. I think we’re expected to enter all meets we’re eligible for. We certainly are pushed to.
Typical though the target meet falls on my other DCs birthday so we’re only doing 1 session