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!?

Hey! DS(7) had his first club training session tonight. He is KNACKERED!! And was frozen too when he got out of the pool. He is a little hyperactive (would probably meet criteria for ADHD if I had him assessed, but we r not keen on labelling yet, and his energy is well channelled with swimming, football, running etc...so we manage.). So tonight is the first time I have EVER seen him exhausted to the point of almost collapse! (He never, ever tires!)

The coaches said he did well and we're pleased with him and they said that it was an unusually hard session, but i just felt (and am still feeling) awful and guilty for putting him through such a hard first session. He normally loves swimming but he looked so pale and tired tonight and didn't enjoy it.

We agreed to try again next week, but I'm worried we've made a mistake joining a club. Perhaps we should give it a few weeks before DS drops it?

Any thoughts?

Is the step up to club always tough? And does it get easier? (After how long??!)

Hoolahoops my daughter is 8yrs old went from a small swim club 30 minutes training and 30 minutes dive/ turns to a big club 1 hour or 1 1/2 hour sessions. She really struggled at first (first few sessions was too tired to shower and dress herself) but still enjoyed it.

Took only the first week to get used to the 1 hour sessions but nearly a month to get used to the longer Sunday session (used fins for part of the session). May take a little longer if he isn’t used any club session.

Most important thing is that he enjoys the session even if it’s only part of the session at first.

Mine started at 6 on two sessions a week. He was very cold and tired afterwards and occasionally would cry if he couldn’t keep up with the “big” 7 and 8 year olds! Probably took about a month and a sympathetic coach. I would give it a month and take your cue from your DS as to whether he is enjoying it by then, even if it is just a little bit or certain elements of the session. It’s impossible to judge on one session as sessions very according to the day and the training calendar. Next time may be sprint races, or slow technique etc etc. How many sessions a week will he do? He should probably be doing at least 2 and preferably 3 but no more than that at 7 as a new starter. Is he the only new starter?

Don't panic Hoola. The coaches know the children will struggle for the first few weeks and will cut them some slack. In our club different lanes have different routines and there is usually a coach for the newer children to make sure they aren't over-doing it.

It took DD about a month to get the hang of things... I sent her back for a swim lesson or 2. We were also allowed to skip sessions (we still are if too tired/too much school work). 7 is very young to be doing a lot of training.

It is good to have a cool pool, but there is a difference between comfortably cool and bloomin freezing. One of the pools we used to use was notoriously bad at sorting out the water temperature. I used to pop a warm drink in the swim bag (which both warmed up the towel as it was a cheap flask and was something for DD to look forward to). Also give him something simple to get changed into (lots of Onesies for the younger ones at our club).

What sort of food would DS have have eaten before training? If it is just school lunch and onto early evening training you probably need to give him a smoothie or protein bar.

Hope this coming week feels a bit easier.

Every time DS1 went up a squad and therefore increased pool time I would worry about how he'd cope but they get used to it fairly quickly. Some sessions will be harder, he obviously just started on a bad one.

To give another perspective, my DS2 struggled so much with the water temp and the late nights (aged 7) that he stopped after a couple of months. He knew what to expect from training as he’d seen his elder brother go through it all, but it was these other factors which were just too tough for him. I’d literally see him shivering like a newborn as the pool is so cold. Not enjoyable for anyone. After speaking with his coach we decided to delay for 12 months and giving it another go when he has a bit more meat on him!

Thanks all for your words of encouragement!

Madcat - great advice about the warm drink, I will try that.

Esther - he is only going to be doing the 1 club session each week and will do 2 of his usual (30min, usually widths) lessons (in a warmer pool!) alongside, and an additional hour long 1:1 which he loves (but is mainly playing! (diving/turns/under water swimming, picking up bricks, life saving etc..)!! lots of resting and not much hard work! But some lengths!).

The club session was a full-on fast-lengths workout for an hour! Including 6 lengths of butterfly! (He can normally only manage 1! and I thought that was good!!) I think the cold pool doesn't help as DS is super skinny and small (it's even cold for me and I have loads of padding!!) My DS's character also doesn't help as he is VERY competitive and determined. Apparently the coach offered him to sit out some lengths/do an alternative stroke, but he was determined to keep up and chose not to. He was properly shaking though at the end of the training - felt sick, shivering, aching all over (scream - yes! DS also couldn't dress himself or shower and was barely standing at the end!)

I will bring a hot drink, warmer towel, and maybe a onesie! to the next session! And will also talk to him seriously about sitting out some lengths and not pushing himself too hard, especially if the coaches are offering him that.

We'll try a few more and see how it goes!

Thanks for all the reassurance!

WidowTwonky - yes! we are going to keep that option in mind, as it broke my heart to see him not enjoy swimming for the first time, and to look so so cold! We'll see how the next few sessions go, but I don't want to put him off for life, so if things don't improve, we will consider withdrawing him and trying again when he's 8 or 9 and a bit bigger! Hopefully though, it was just an especially hard session as the coach said, and the wan drink (and maybe hot water bottle!!) will help next week!!!

Hope sessions get a little better for your DS Hoola, I have no additional words of advice above the wise posters here as DD did not show any competitive form until 11+, only hitting her first county qualification at the age of 13.

Sounds like your coach is very sensible though, and will work with you which is great.

Do any of you have DSs that are in the 11-13 year age bracket or older? DS1 is 11, soon to be 12 but is small for his age and a late developer. I'm just wondering how much of a difference it might make when he grows a bit! He had a good weekend of swimming this weekend and is still meeting county times but is being left behind by the others. It doesn't help that we're in a big club so have a fair number of regional and national swimmers.

Hi, yes DS 15. Unfortunately he is small for swimming - 5'6" swimming against generally 6' plus now. He probably had opposite problem in that did v well up to 13 - county/regional medallist. Now all those small boys with tall genes have overtaken him! He does still make qts for regionals and our home nation (not English) but is really an "also ran" - may pb but struggles to make a final. But he doesn't mind and still loves swimming/competing and as a 15 year old he is safe, fit and happy with his swim friends. So really my advice is enjoy it for what it is. Take the pbs when they come and don't worry about what you can't alter. Boys that weren't making county qt as 10/11 year oldsin my son's age bracket now win regionals and make British. You never know what may happen!

Thanks esther. He loves it so we've said we'll let him keep doing it and just see what happens. It's such a difficult age as there is such a wide range of sizes! He's 2 best swim buddies are way bigger than him and another swimmer that he has always been on a par with is starting to get better results in longer races which I think is mainly due to strength.

I hope mini Hoola had a better training session this weekend. Whilst sat most of the weekend at a gala, it suddenly dawned on me that the coach has been pushing a lot of 'endurance' work. There are/were several girls hoping to get/improve Regional 400ms this weekend and some of the older boys were doing 800m and 1500m. Our cut-off date for qualifying is next weekend.

DD is 11 (and a summer baby) so I can sympathise with Fourmagpie's son. For reasons I can't remember I found myself watching a lecture about bio-banding in Sport (I think some of the rugby and football academies now use it) and took the opportunity to point out to DD that some of her friends had simply hit puberty a lot earlier than her and therefore benefited from strength/longer limbs.

If nothing else, it reinforces the importance of excellent technique for the smaller ones, though it is frustrating to see the bigger ones always basking in glory.

Jump forward a few years, it must be quite hard for a 14/15 year old to see others suddenly getting all the praise they no longer receive.

After a while it became all about the pbs rather than what others swim. You can’t influence how other swimmers do, but you can influence your own development. I think that mindset comes as they get older though. If a swimmer lets the results of others get to them, that’s when you see the amount of kids dropping out increasing. Pbs do get scarcer as you get older, but if no-one comes last at regionals, then no-one comes first!

Thanks Madcat - 100% better! He really enjoyed himself!! Swim completely in his comfort zone (I went (completely unnecessarily with hindsight!) a bit mad on the rash vest, hot water bottle, warm drink and towel twice the size of him though!!) We are both getting used to the crazy work of club swimming (think it will take me longer to figure it all out and calm down!!)

Good news, HoolaHoops!

Thanks Esther! :)

Can you please help me understand FINA points?? I know boys and girls have different QTs etc and I assume the formula for calculating pts is also different. But it seems so vast! Eg, DS10 was today awarded 50 pts fewer than his teammate (girl, 10) even though he was 4 secs quicker.
He’s feeling hard done by!

FINA points are a special bit of wizardry!

Every year FINA determines the World record for a stroke and distance in Long Course and Short Course for males and females (age is irrelevant). This is the "Base Time". Were a swimmer to swim the "Base Time" - i.e. really fast - they would be given 1,000 points.

Slower times are awarded fewer points using a formula:
1,000 x (Base Time/own time) ^3 [that last 3 is supposed to be "cubed" but I don't know how to type that]. Here are the current short course times: www.fina.org/sites/default/files/fina_points_base_times_-_lcm_2019_corrected.pdf

So for 50m short course the male base time is 20.26 seconds, whereas female is 22.93 seconds. So, whilst an early teen boy might be swimming faster than a similar aged girl, he'll be getting fewer points because males should be a lot faster when they are older.

I think FINA points are sometimes used to select kids for pathway programmes and training camps. Otherwise it is just nice to see them go up (hopefully) on the ASA website.

Before you ask, I have no idea how Meet Mobile calculates its "points" at a meet.

Woah, that's really helpful Madcats; I had no idea either so just ignored them!

Good luck to all the swimmers in their upcoming regionals. We're on next weekend over the 3 days. Busy but hoping for an upturn in what has been a pretty low season so far...

Thanks Madcats. I had in my head that (younger) girls were known to be faster than boys so wrongly assumed that boys would have the points advantage. I think you’re right that as long as they’re going up each event then that’s all we should be hoping for!

Before you ask, I have no idea how Meet Mobile calculates its "points" at a meet.

If it’s anything like Hytek, then the meet organiser can determine the points allocation, eg 6 for 1st, 5 for 2nd etc. Relays are often double points.

Good luck to Ealing jnr.

DD starts the following weekend (2 weekends). Our first time, so I'll end up buying a sweatshirt!

The older children had to get down to Plymouth after school for this weekend....along with half the planet who wanted to get down to Devon and Cornwall for a long BH weekend.

So...packed trains and packed motorways...and pricey hotels....or maybe a hotel you didn't need to be in because you thought you'd better book one as soon as DC achieved consideration times to avoid megabucks prices?

Whereas Bristol hotels are probably quite cheap this weekend and there probably isn't a mass exodus up the M5 from Devon, so it would be an easy drive. The swims in Bristol are the following weekend, obvs.

At the end of the day, DD loves swimming. It helps her to relax(!) so I am very grateful to the coaches who give up their time to accompany them to all the meets/galas/championships as well as all the hours of regular training (no school hols for the coaches).

Good luck to Ealing jr for this weekend and mini Madcats for next weekend! I bet you end up with more than a sweatshirt - I would budget for T-shirt and hat too 😀

Ours are this weekend for two days. Now has to swim open age despite being skinny tiny 15 year old. Wish they swum add to Height and. Size and not age but at least no hanging around for finals. Good day yesterday with both pbs. Today he has four LC swims in one session which is too many but we knew there would be no finals pressure so why not.

Hope your DS's weekend's racing went well esther! We'll be in same open age boat next season...she made the most of her 16 age category; qualifying for more than expected finals as it may turn out her last opportunity. Still not where she was on her preferred stroke vs last year, and having a re-think on switching.

Good luck for coming weekend Madcats! Totally agree on the time coaches give up, it can be a thankless task at times but lovely to see them share the upsides when swimmers do well, as well as managing swimmers' dark days!