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Extra-curricular activities

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Original poster

Poolside chat: Calling all parents of competitive swimmers!

999 replies

Marypoppins19 · 06/04/2018 08:13

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

OP posts:
itsgettingweird · 25/11/2019 16:59

I always remind my ds a pb is a win. It means all the hard training is paying off.

We are not training this evening. He is exhausted and doing mocks so needs something to give for a few days.
He's competing next weekend (7/8th) over LC and doing a 400 free so he can't afford to burn out now!

Eccle80 · 26/11/2019 11:07

Thanks everyone.
Winesolveseverything sorry your son is sad too, it is hard to get them not to only focus on the medals and see how well they have improved against their own times

Madcats · 26/11/2019 14:38

Poor lads. We often film DD at meets - that might help the boys see areas where they need to put a bit more emphasis (invariably it is the starts and turns, but for us DD sometimes struggles to switch from longer distance to sprint). They should learn from their mistakes if they can.

Eccle and wine it is really great to get PBs. I'm not sure if it will help your boys, but go to Adam Peaty's Individual Best Times on the ASA website and click on something like the 50 Breast LC - the graph is all over the place (but having 1,000 FINA points is awesome).

Obviously your sons won't have such an obvious graph, but they might like to start mapping out their times. We have a less sophisticated spreadsheet of each race/gala to which I add County and Regional QTs for 2020. We colour code the race to show when we've got our target time.

WidowTwonky · 26/11/2019 15:01

I’ve read it before (most likely within this thread) but isn’t it amazing the variance in entry times for different counties. Quite a few seconds difference.

And I’m counting ourselves very lucky as our county (Yorks) seems to have the ‘leniant’ times. Phew! Certainly for boys anyway which is what I’m looking at.

winesolveseverything · 26/11/2019 15:03

Thanks Madcats, will have a look.

He's much more cheerful now- we sat down last night and looked at the times- in one race he has knocked off 7 seconds from 12 months ago, and in 2 others he did 1 and 2 seconds faster than at a previous meet 8 weeks ago. That to me is amazing.

He had a really great weekend otherwise, he really enjoyed it all which is the main thing for me at the moment. Smile

itsgettingweird · 26/11/2019 18:54

Widow yes I hadn't realised how much county times vary and this thread did prompt me to have a look. I'm not sure how much it helps or hinders though because in my county the times are tough. But if you get a county time and make regionals you are almost likely to make nationals. However the lower county times means you can win a medal at that level but not even qualify for higher meets. I think it takes a lot of resilience and brain space for swimmers to get their heads around this.

Heard from para swimming today. They just want to see what genetics say next week and then forward them the report. I really hope if they get the info they ended they'll push ahead with classification. As least then ds will know where he stands.

Madcats · 26/11/2019 23:18

wine.., in a couple of years time you should certainly begin to appreciate the emotional resilience a decent swim coach and team mates can give your children. Some clubs can be a bit too sharp elbowed, but many are not. If a swim goes badly, your son/coach figure out why (we all have off days, or maybe there is something to fix) and don't dwell.

weird I am keeping my fingers crossed for your DS, if you see what I mean. Hope the specialists all deliver for his classification.

Eccle80 · 26/11/2019 23:32

Thanks Madcats, those are good suggestions. I am trying very hard to get him to see that whatever happens he has done incredibly well, his times have improved massively in the last year and that is with relatively little training compared to what most his age seem to do.

Widow I have looked before (I think prompted by here!), but doing it again now the range is amazing, in some counties my son would have 7 or 8 times, and in others he would be nowhere near any. Ours is towards the more lenient end thankfully, a couple I have looked at seem insanely fast!

Itsgettingweird I hope you can get the classification sorted

itsgettingweird · 27/11/2019 17:11

Mad totally agree. Me and a number of the swim parents at ds club always say that they're kids and not robots.

Ok, at Olympic and world level they probably do function more as robots! But they swim daily. That's what they do. Training programmes are set around competitions. They aren't navigating school, friendships and social life and puberty alongside training!

itsgettingweird · 27/11/2019 17:11

Eccle look at Hampshire times!

QueenofLouisiana · 28/11/2019 20:04

Gosh! I went and had a look at those time’s, there a huge difference. We are somewhere in the middle of those times.

QueenofLouisiana · 01/12/2019 08:33

Morning SwimParents! A surprise cancellation of swimming due to pool issues today. A whole day of nothingness lies before us- we’re bewildered at the idea and wondering what to do with ourselves!

In other news DS’s team came second in the county league yesterday. He’s pleased with that- and his own swims. A good fun event, with 9 teams ranging from the age of 10 to late teens. Lots of cheering and hanging out with team-mates (followed by fish and chips for dinner as it over-ran and we were starving! Grin

estherfrewen · 01/12/2019 08:50

Morning! What are you going to do with the day?! County league sounds fun. We don’t do team events anymore as not enough swimmers. Shame.

Madcats · 01/12/2019 11:35

Queen, it is probably a bit of a shame for the children but an unexpected treat for their parents! You could have a proper Sunday lunch/watch a movie/think about Christmas. Where has the year gone!

Is it just my part of the world or do there seem to be more and more fish and chip places (re)opening? A great treat on a chilly night.

I've promised DD a new training costume for Christmas (luckily her racing suits are still up to the job), so that will be 'fun' choosing one this afternoon. Gone are the days when i was simply able to get her a Speedo Endurance - she is soooo fussy about colour/pattern/cut.

We just have an inter-school competition and a couple of "I suppose I ought to swim this" races in an open meet next weekend (conveniently not too far from some rather nice gift shops and a decent pub!).

estherfrewen · 01/12/2019 11:41

We have a gala the Saturday before Xmas... first one back post injury so should be exciting.

Just wrapping up the Squad Secret Santa - feeling festive!

QueenofLouisiana · 01/12/2019 22:48

We sneaked off for lunch- just DH and I. Then we had a drink at home as we didn’t need to drive anywhere. Such luxury!

DS made a list of revision guides he needs, wrote down the games he wants on his amazon wish list and snoozed.

itsgettingweird · 02/12/2019 18:15

We had an easy weekend compared to the usual first weekend in December! The meet ds usually does is 14 and under and so too old this year! No training sat am as he had flu clinic and no land training sun evening because of gala and coach being there! So just 1 hour swimming! LC meet this weekend.

So we put up tree and had a full on roast!

I love league galas. I organise the ones our club hosts. Such fun and all swimmers really get into supporting each other. And the kids seem to pull out some amazing swims when it's for the team rather than themselves!

itsgettingweird · 07/12/2019 11:02

LC meet this weekend. Just afternoons though!

Ds currently sat down doing homework before lunch and leaving. Busy weekend!

estherfrewen · 07/12/2019 11:36

Hope it’s a good meet @itsgettingweird. Revision and homework here. Those GCSEs suddenly seem very close.....

Eccle80 · 07/12/2019 18:56

Hope both the meet and the revision go well.

So DS finally did it and got his county time! Not in the 50 breast that he was so close on, but on 100 fly which he only swam for the first time 3 weeks ago, and comfortably 2 seconds under. An impressive effort as he was ill last week and still isn’t 100%, and has otherwise been well off his best in everything else this weekend

estherfrewen · 07/12/2019 18:59

Well done, mini-Eccles!

itsgettingweird · 07/12/2019 19:46

Wahoooooo minieccles well done Star

Ds has done his mocks so concentrating on swimming now until Christmas! He's has the cold and not trained much last week or so and eating has been poor. However 0.04 outside his 50m free time and small pb on 100m back. 100/400 free and 50 fly tomorrow. It's LC!

And he's happy as although not a free pb he's kept his place in county relay teams as others his age didn't beat his times! And in IM the 2 boys who are quicker than him in free are national backstroke champ and county flyer so they do those legs!

itsgettingweird · 08/12/2019 19:43

400 free and a good 20 second PB on his LC time. Even more proud that converted back to SC its a 6 second PB on the time he set a few weeks ago!
Nice pb on 100 free as well.
Fly wasn't so good

screamuntilthewarisover · 08/12/2019 22:33

Hi, question! How many sessions a week do your younger swimmers do? How many sessions are too many? Or is it more about pool hours?

My daughter was 9 in September and swims for two teams.

estherfrewen · 09/12/2019 07:47

Excellent gala, @itsgettingweird

Super pbs and good news for county team.

Scream - mix of both I think. At 9 I wouldn’t do more than four sessions so maybe 8 hours. Ironically it was a lot easier to fit in sessions at that age as no real homework or other distractions! Secondary school with longer days and school journey and generally growing up it then got harder having to squeeze in six. Looking back now I would say four is about right