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.

Yes I've not always been Adam Peaty's biggest fan but I thought that was a lovely moment.

Our (Scottish) district sent a group of youngsters down for a training camp with Mel Marshall, and Peaty dropped in to chat to them. I heard that Peaty was great talking to them.

I’ve also seen clips of him giving evidence to a Parliamentary committee and I find it hard to fault him.

I'm willing to accept I may well have met him on an off day.

It’s hard to know. To get to that level you must have to be made of something different. I’ve seen Michael Jamieson meet youngsters and be lovely, and a different swimmer be an absolute arse to the officials.

It does. They held the national event camps there this year.

From what I understand Peaty has become a much nicer person over the years.

I think he got where he is through sheer bloody mindedness and that came across in everything he did but now he enjoys the process much more.

It was a lovely moment yesterday - you certainly saw the fatherly side of him come out

We've met Peaty at meets and he is really good with young swimmers looking for photos and autographs etc.

Always makes time

Our two have done the AP race clinics and he was good with the kids although I personally think he was a little arrogant. They've also done the MM swim camp weeks and she is great, had a good chat with her at the last one. I'd recommend them too.

Ds did one with Rebecca Adlington many years ago.
She was delightful. Absolutely everything she comes across as on TV.

He also met Alice Tai when he helped at a para meet a few years ago. She was lovely too.

I was informed whilst there it's becoming a local leisure centre and won't be used for any club training or galas.

That would be crazy. I suspect they just mean that it will be primarily a leisure centre, like the Alan Higgs centre in Coventry. It is closing so they can remove some of the seating and convert it.

But most leisure centres have galas, I’ve even been to one at that dive in Sutton Coldfield 😂😂

Alan Higgs was where ds is junior nationals a few weeks ago.

Nice pool but very humid!

Perhaps they meant it wouldn't be primarily used for clubs and it wouldn't be used as a 50m pool for big galas (like British champs etc?)

It's such a nice facility and plenty of capacity to put parking around it.

Ponds is used for training for various clubs, galas, championships and public swimming successfully

It would seem odd to build it with 1000 permanent seats if there wasn’t any intention of using it for competitions! Maybe it’s more that they wouldn’t have nationals etc there as it isn’t somewhere with loads of hotels and parking around. There’s a bit here about what it will ultimately have on site www.sandwell.gov.uk/info/200345/sandwell_aquatics_centre/4178/sandwell_aquatics_centre_frequently_asked_questions

As a Commonwealth Games related question, why do they use a 10 lane pool but only swim in the middle 8 lanes?

No idea but I did wonder that myself!!!!

FINA rules are that LC pools for internationals must be 50m by 25m with 2.5m lane width. For the Olympics there can only be 8 lanes and there must also be a 2.5m space between the outside lanes and the pool wall. For Worlds there can be 10 lanes, with lanes 0 and 9 2.4m wide with space for a lane rope next to the wall.

I think all International finals are restricted to 8 lanes, but you can use all 10 in prelims and semis in the Worlds?

I’ve been recorder at meets where we’ve used all 10 lanes in a 50m (or 25m with the boom in place). Seem to remember it’s a bit of a faff with lane numbering and Hytek.

The BBC commentators were discussing the legacy aspect of the pool, and they were saying it would be for both club and community use (and also home to Wolverhampton Uni).

That may be why they use all 10 at ponds forge for British then? Because it's an international pool it must be built to spec?

I would think so - Aberdeen is a 10 lane pool, so is Tollcross, but the Commie is 8 lanes as I remember.

Alan Higgs was where ds is junior nationals a few weeks ago.

Nice pool but very humid!

we have quite a lot of galas there. In terms of humidity it doesn’t compare to ladywood. The kids always moan it tastes bad though 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

In Scotland we sometimes had to use the Dollan Baths for LC meets - times were always slow and every time the swimmers said it was like swimming through treacle. One year we had to have our age groups nationals in England 🙄

@Dreikanter thanks that’s interesting, it seems a waste having empty lanes but as they have relatively few heats I guess even if they were able to use all 10 lanes it wouldn’t make much difference.

So could they use all 10 lanes for normal open meets in future if it’s just an international thing?

Yes - for instance, Scottish Nationals at Tollcross uses all 10 lanes for heats and finals.

Local clubs use 10 lanes for their open meets, makes it go so much quicker that way but obviously more officials are needed.

I marshalled a big 10 lane meet where they were doing all the 50s - and the referees decided to run with a really short heat interval.

So I had 100 fast swimmers in a tiny space waiting to be called and sent to the other end of the pool - I barely had time to read out all 10 names and get them sent to the blocks before I had to get the next heat ready.

Never again.

I've marshalled a 50 LC meet before with only 8 lanes and that was hard enough!

I figured that by the time they got to me (I was poolside Marshall) and were quick enough that the heat finished before I could read names they were old enough and good enough to have sussed what lane they were in and remembered 🤣🤣🤣

I went back to the safety (and madness) of the computer room after that!

I've certainly got my step count and heart rate up as a stroke judge charging up and down on a LC meet for 50m races. I'm sure the starters were challenging us to a race!!