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.

Did anyone read in that confirmation email from British Swimming that there will be no medal ceremony.

Basically go pick up your medals from a desk like all other meets.

DD isn’t at this level but I think no ceremonies is the wrong decision. There were medal ceremonies at SNAGs at Easter. My daughter’s team won their Regional League and they 3 top teams were on the the podium collecting medals. It was a massively important part of the whole experience.

It's wrong, this is a major event for the vast majority of kids - probably the biggest they'll ever swim. They deserve a proper ceremony

Yes. I was quite disappointed by that.

Not that I think ds will get any 🤣🤷‍♀️

I think it's the wrong decision to do away with the medal ceremony.

Will the Home Nations meets have a medal ceremony and if they will, what sort of message does it send to swimmers who have qualified for a higher level meet?

I suspect Swim England will follow British Swimming. I don't know about Wales and Scotland though.

Just had a nosy at the draft entry list.

It's quite interesting to see where they are ranked on e you know who has entered!

I forgot there was so many heats for each event. But I guess being 10 lanes it probably doesn't take as long as for each 4 heats in an 8 lane pool that's 5 heats.

Certainly for 400+m that'll make a difference!

Or rather 5 in 8 lane it's 4 in 10!

Being one of the younger ones means first or second heat with the added bonus of also being first event of the session. Will probably stick around for his club mates' heats though.

You're afternoon session?

We are morning as para swimmer. There's only 1-2 heats for each para event anyway!

Do para swimmers get separate finals and medals?

I'm trying to think of the rules, I think para swimmers have their own heats and finals

Yes they do.

Para swimmers all race against each other in what's called multi classification. They get pints for their time based on their classification and ranked by points.

I have no idea how it works because ds gets less points in competition than he gets when out on rankings for that time!

But they are seeded in heats by time!

If they spearhead both heats for 50m free it'll probably disadvantage him as he's 2nd fastest entry and so won't have anyone to chase - he's definitely better at knowing he has someone to try and beat! (Despite his coaches best efforts to change that 🤣)

Hope nobody is relying on getting the train to Sheffield. Train strike just announced for July 27

Oh bugger.

No we aren't using the train but ds has 100 fly that morning so could be extra traffic due to more cars and we ar heading back to south coast after his heat so that could be a fun journey 🫣

Also the first day of Commonwealth Games.
Our plans had already been changed for that day otherwise we'd have been stuck.

Hopefully as everyone is heading to Birmingham for commonwealths and we are heading to Hampshire for home that won't affect us!

Has everyone managed to get a training slot for British?

We have 7.15pm Friday.

Anything else was too late as we are first session Saturday!

No, we aren't doing it. He said he'd rather not go back and forth and have a good snooze instead. The slots are late considering the following morning warm up times. At least one of our swimmers has got the 19:15 slot but also says it's too late for them.

It's just about ok for us. Ds usually trains until 8.15 on a Friday and again at 6am Saturday so the timings are pretty much what he's use to and more doable as they've started tapering now!

Plus my ds has never been to Ponds forge.

He's been training LC for a few weeks now plus another LC meet this weekend so we think he'll be fine without the session the night before.
Ponds Forge stands out to me as being bloody cold water! London was no different either.

Yes slots for Thursday and Friday but not racing till Sunday.

We just book slots that coaches tell us to book.

Yes, water is cold but if this heatwave keeps up, not a bad thing!

That's what I think ds will benefit from - the acclimatisation if the water! He's swam a few colder pools but he's been warned this is entirely different (Swansea is quite cold too).

Apparently - so I've been told - colder pools are better for speed?