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!?

Just to make you smile, I found this post from years ago when DS was just starting out. If only I’d known....

Oh that’s hilarious! I wonder if I replied to that? Different user name then but we had done three years in Squad by then so may have

My ds wasn't even swimming competitively back then! He was asked to trial a pushy club summer of 2015. Moved to current club which is disability hub club summer of 2016.

Love it!

In 2013 DD turned 6 and I was probably busy sewing all the little gymnastics and swimming stage badges onto her school PE bag.

To think we used to grumble about driving her to a 9:30am swimming lesson on a Sunday morning!

That's a lovely reminder of your dedication Queen!

Our first competitive swim was recorded in Nov 2013. Your post has made me realise how much time has been invested in this sport, and that they do so well to keep going through the years...

Great dedication from all of you who have been going for so many years! Mine was 5 and in reception then, hadn’t even started swimming lessons and had just about managed to get his ducklings badges!

Counties for us the first weekends of February, then relays beginning of March.
We had a good counties meet last year, however DD very much an up and down swimmer and you never know how it’s going to go.

She has qualified for most swims at counties and again at regionals but can’t seem to make the jump to nationals missing out by .5 of a second for two years running.
Fingers crossed maybe this year.
Good luck to everyone for the next couple of weeks.

Hope it’s ok for me to join? DD is 9 (will be 10 in March). She swims 3/4 times a week at the moment, which already seems to be taking over my life! I don’t love the early morning session!! She adores it, though, and refuses to even consider missing sessions. On the plus side, the parents and coaches are lovely so I always have someone to chat with and I know she’s in good hands!

We have a couple of galas coming up in the next month (Junior League and 1 open) so I’m currently researching healthy, nut-free lunches and snacks that she can take. The added complication is that’s she’s vegetarian (I am vegan anyway but I eat loads of nuts/seeds, which are banned from poolside). Any tips would be much appreciated.

@InspectorAlleyn welcome to poolside! Please feel free to share your fan, pass around the polos and complain about the humidity! It does seem to take over your life a bit, some points of the year are better than others. I hope the competitions go well.

Welcome InspectorAlleyn! My DS likes taking caramel rice cakes as something light he can graze on between races, plus fruit. Pasta is good for lunch if she likes that

@InspectorAlleyn - welcome to the thread! My DS favours fruit malt loaf bars, raisins, chicken bites and frubes. Pasta or jacket potato at lunch.

@Wearegoingtoneedabiggerboat - best of luck in dropping that last 0.5! So frustratingly close. Sounds like she is doing really well.

Our club is culling swimmers at the moment. So sad after maybe six years of swimming together.

Welcome to InspectorAlleyn. We keep a stash of nuts and stuff in the car. I have banned hard boiled eggs from poolside, but reluctantly let her eat them in the car (usually in the form of scotch eggs). Frittata style muffins too.

DD has a thermal pot into which we pop pesto pasta (though lots of pesto has nuts in, so be careful) and chunky soups with barley/pasta in.
She gets through a lot of Hummus and carrots. If we have a gap between races she'll have something like a breakfast/cereal milk.

wearegoing we aren't at the stage where the seconds no longer drop each year (when she has the right mindset). I suppose she needs to understand where in the race she loses time compared to others and really work on that aspect. Do you film her?

Good idea to maybe film her. She’s goes out really fast on first 50 and manages to keep up with the top swimmers then dies at the 75 mark where the others seem to be able to keep the same pace.

Hi! Posted on here a while ago when DS just joined a club! He left a few weeks later!! But now back in another club!! Anyway, to cut a long story short, he's having fun and swimming well and loving his new club!! I've been enjoying browsing the thread over the last few months and have learnt alot! (Thanks)

I have a question for experienced swim parents! - DS keeps up and does well in crawl, backstroke and breast stroke, but his fly is pretty bad!! I've always been told it's because he's young and not strong enough! However, when I Google, the world seems to be full of excellent little butterfliers!! So - is this something that will come as he gets stronger? When did yours 'get it'? Can a little person be good at fly? :) Will the club drills eventually just help him to click with it? (ALL the kids in club are good at fly except DS!! He gets the legs and always has, but he can't get his arms up and out the water!)

Thanks!!

My ds has tuna pasta in a thermos for lunch.
Snacks he has scotch eggs, cereal bars, chicken, cucumber and carrot.

Good luck for all those starting counties in next few weeks. And big luck moving up to regional and national times in the qualifying window.

We had an interesting training Sunday when ds leg spasmed at 90°. It remained that way for 2.5 hours. Ended up going home via minor injuries where they gave him crutches so he could at least move around.
Monday he trained fine for 2 hours! But we have crutches in back of car FT now just in case and have contacted both his neurologists for advice - but seems it's just part of his condition and I think that's what they'll come back and say.

Welcome back! DS was about 11 before he could do fly effectively and now has regional qt. His friend was 12 before he could and he now has British qt. Neither seemed to have the strength before that.

Hoola I've known some swimmers who've never really mastered fly. It seems to be one of those strokes they either ate natural at or aren't!
It requires a lots of core strength and that's something yo7 can work 9n at home to help improve things.

Thanks esther - that's really encouraging!! Wow to your DS and his friend!! Great stuff!!! DS has just turned 8, but there are 9 year olds in the club whose butterfly is absolutely beautiful to watch!! I'll let him know what you said and I think that'll reassure him! :)

Itsgettingweird - thanks! Yes, he might never be a flyer! (but he idolises Phelps, so I don't have the heart to tell him that! And guessing he might get the hang of it when he's a bit older - developing Phelps build is another thing though! Again - don't have the heart to mention he might not achieve a 6ft arm span!!!) His core is pretty good for his age (he has the stomach of a brick, unlike his mother who has the stomach of jelly!! but ever the optimist I might regain my youth sometime!!), though when he's older I'll let him use the gym to work on it (he'd like to go now, but ive told him he has to wait til he's a bit older!)

@HoolaHoopsAndMonsterMunch DS was a backstroker at 9. However one of his coaches said he’d be a fly swimmer eventually, we doubted it. At 14, he’s still a backstroke swimmer, but fly is definitely catching up. Something about his body position and build apparently.

Glad he’s enjoying his new club- this makes all the difference. We changed clubs this season and the change in DS has been remarkable.

Queen - great! Thanks! Good to hear :) Glad your DS is enjoying his new club :)

I would definitely say it takes time. My eldest joined a club at just 9, he is 11 now. His fly improved dramatically over last year, his 50 time went down by 23 seconds from one club champs to the next. My other son just joined the club a couple of months ago and is 8, his fly technique isn’t terrible but it is definitely not anything close to beautiful yet!

Welcome InspectorAlleyn, and welcome back Hoola!

Do not have the greatest fly swimmer here, but strength has developed slowly over the years, Doesn't have the fastest, but good enough to do a reasonable IM (though refuses 400IMs now). There's a big difference between the smaller (and lighter), more strokes, super quick fly swimmers vs long limbs, slower/less strokes ones. She's in the latter group. That's as good as my technical speak gets.

Esther, sorry to hear about your club's culling. I hope your son is not affected.

Esther what do you mean by culling? Do they actually ask kids to leave if they aren't good enough (in their opinion).
My ds was a really late developer and one club wrote him off at 11 and the current club persevered and at 14 he made masses of progress. Ok, not quite county times (but as we've established ours aren't exactly the most achievable!) but he does ok and is still improving.

Glad the wind had blown through ready for our early morning drive - shame the rain was still awful.

Being moved to non competitive side as not achieving certain times - times which they’ve only been told about this week! Given one gala to achieve them, so no pressure there then...

No my DS staying put although coaches not very impressed by GCSEs being an excuse to not swim 6 times a week with 3 of those starting at 5am so watch this space!

Our club does threaten the same, but more on attendance and attitude vs performance alone. But it's not as savage as DD's last one that only focused on those at National level and was very quick to move swimmers around. And made all others feel like crap.

Hope he manages to negotiate an outcome that's right for him Esther.

I forgot to respond to Wearegoing's post - so, so relatable. Good luck on your DD's season being 'up' this time.