Poolside Chat: parents of competitive swimmers

[2ducksandI]

Seems I managed to fill the other thread with talk of taking fridges to away galas! And I didnt even mean a fridge I meant an electric cool box So I've started another thread. Hope you all find it.

Presumably children get noticed if they start winning a lot? Or do they get scouted based on how well they swim?

It all tends to be times based, if you look at swimmingresults.org you can see where your swimmer ranks in their club, county, region, country for their age group and gender. It is generally as simple as the fastest swimmers get picked.

@Helenjohanna

Thank you for taking the time to type all that, itsgettingweird. That's interesting. I had no idea that so much thought went into it.

And thanks for the information on the talent programmes. Presumably children get noticed if they start winning a lot? Or do they get scouted based on how well they swim?

Well both go hand in hand!

The fastest swimmer will generally be the better swimmers. They wouldn't turn down a swimmer who technically isn't yet perfect of the fastest. A big part of these camps and programmes to to identify areas of strength and weakness and work on them.

A good club/programme will look at the whole swimmer.

For example. My ds isn't ever going to have a good kick. He couldn't even kick a set in foundation squad with the 8yo and keep up 🤣

He struggles to keep up in senior/national squad in his fins! But he wears fins to let him train in a squad of his level as an equal.

But equally because he relies on his upper body he trains swim sets (even the 400/200/100/50's) with a band sometimes when everyone else does it with kick.

And he's not the slowest

The same way you wouldn't try and do a free/fly set with Adam Peaty and improve this. He's a breastroker. They work on his strengths.

I've googled and realise that there is plenty of information available!

Thank you for the above posts!

I'll need to wait to see what DS's times are like. I checked his profile and level x was in May. He was super, super slow at that point. I need to see what happens when he is timed again.

DD who is 15 is currently outraged by all the 12 and 13 yo boys she swims with who all take massive push every race. At that age growth is a huge factor, so he'll get faster!

Pbs not push.

Yeah. Tbh, I think he's doing absolutely fine. I'm sure they're all slow to begin with and I've definitely seen lots of improvement. I know it's going to be a while until he's fast.

Work on technique and the times will come.

Hi all. DD (11) had a really successful LC gala last weekend, winning a handful of medals and getting great times, and then tested positive the next day .

She’s supposed to be at a counties development camp at the weekend, but it seems unlikely she will test negative by then.

At least it will be gone by counties/regionals as she has lots of QTs this year.

@InspectorAlleyn this sounds very familiar we had a long course gala at our home pool last weekend and now a handful of Age Group swimmers off with covid 🙈

@InspectorAlleyn hope she is feeling ok and that she is negative again soon, well done to her on her gala.
I feel our counties having back to back weekends may turn out to be bad planning, I can foresee lots testing positive after the first one then hardly any swimmers at the second!

@itsgettingweird glad you have managed to get his classification sorted and that he is doing well.

She might be negative in time! Was she positive from Monday? I really hope she can still do it. Poor thing :-(

@Helenjohanna she tested positive on Sunday evening (negative at 6am Sunday morning 🙄). She knows it’s unlikely she will get to go, but we will test just in case. I don’t know anyone who has managed to get out on day 6/7, though!

[quote InspectorAlleyn]@Helenjohanna she tested positive on Sunday evening (negative at 6am Sunday morning 🙄). She knows it’s unlikely she will get to go, but we will test just in case. I don’t know anyone who has managed to get out on day 6/7, though![/quote]
Me!!!!

I had sore throat Friday and Saturday. Tested negative. Even tested neg Sunday am. Positive Sunday evening!

I've come out today after 2 negative tests.

Anyone got a swimmer at the national development camp in Feb in Birmingham? They are trialling mixing para swimmers in and ds will be there.

InspectorAlleyn my younger DS was positive last week and tested negative days 6 and 7, as did his friend. Fingers crossed.

I'm going to be gutted for DS1 if he tests positive before the weekend. We're already had one down in his squad. There seems to be a lot of it around in the secondary schools at the moment. We're allowed to stay and watch the Counties (have to show negative LFT result) which I'm actually looking forward too, I'm only going on Sunday, DH will do Saturday. I haven't see him swim for so long.

We frogmarched teen into a mass vaccine centre for jab 2 after she finished her racing last weekend - she couldn't lift her arm for 2 days.

We'll be miffed if she picks up Covid (though she had it mildly about 6 months ago).

We can't watch counties here. Luckily pool is about 20 minutes away so I can drop ds and go home to live stream.

Then he wants to come home after his races and be taken back for the afternoon. Both days!!!!

@Helenjohanna there’ll probably be lots of opportunities after the counties for times etc. My younger daughter (who isn’t that good tbh 😁) has a junior gala where they are doing 50s/25s dependent on age. Oh and 100 IM - that’ll be interesting.

The standard of kids swimming is staggeringly high so real success takes both talent and commitment. Neither of mine have the level of either required to be that high level. My younger one (10) also likes at the moment to swim in her own way 🤦🏻‍♀️😂. Older one is a lot more trainable.

There are so many benefits though - a second set of friends, fitness, being pushed out of comfort zone, confidence.

I'm feeling jealous of weird. We have an hour's drive each way to Counties. We've developed an interest in bird-watching as there is very little else to do at 8am in the middle of Wessex.

No live stream for us - we just look at Meet Mobile and sigh.

Try not to feel downhearted, Helenjohanna. There should be plenty of meets coming up between now and May. If you are really desperate you can sneak into any that you fancy as long as they have the pace and you pay your £ (do mention it to the competition secretary as it is a pain to enter things manually).

I'm clearly being thick - but where about is Wessex?

Wessex is Dorset/Somerset/Bristol etc.

@Madcats just to make you a bit more jealous, we live a 5 minute walk from the pool our Counties is held at!

Swim son has just been told he needs a bag for next weekends gala that he can put a spare hat and goggles in to take with him to marshalling. What sort of bag do people use, the draw string mesh bags seem a bit big just for a hat and goggles?

We're about 40 minutes from our pool, other side of the county.

Hellocatshome my DS has a couple of speedo pool bags for when they're not allowed their kit bags poolside. Like this
www.wiggle.co.uk/speedo-pool-bag-1

@Madcats

Wessex is Dorset/Somerset/Bristol etc.

I thought it was that area! Don't you have separate county champs for each area?

I'm Hampshire so right next door to Dorset! Occasionally we will do meets in Bournemouth or even Dorchester.