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.

It really doesn’t matter - relays are for experience and fun. Coaches often choose younger and less experienced swimmers because it gives them the chance to take part and get a big meet under their belt with no pressure.

He says he's just happy that he took part

Then he is a very smart boy, well done him.

Glad he enjoyed it, and as the others said it doesn’t matter, it gives him some experience with less pressure

I'm beginning to wonder if he has talent. He's definitely a good swimmer, but he's never been fast and I don't know if he has the right body type for it. Most of the other boys from his swimming club of around his age are skinny, whereas DS is a bit stocky and his tummy sticks out. I didn't realise that a few others who started at the same time as he did moved up to the next squad a few months ago. They're all older, mind you. I don't know if that makes a difference.

His dad suggested to me that we see what his times are like the next time they do Level X and see if there's a marked improvement. I'll also take advice from his coach as well.

I'm beginning to wonder if he has talent

Does he need to have talent? If he enjoys it and is happy with his performances isnt that enough? Only a very few can be the best everyone else just continues because they enjoy it. I'm not sure if there will be any more level X competitions they were really only invented as a stop gap until galas could come back. Someone else might know more about that though.

He enjoys it, but isn't driven. I suppose as long as he enjoys it he should continue. It's a fair point. I'm overthinking.

@Helenjohanna I agree with Hellocatshome too, the main thing is that he is enjoying it. If he sticks with it, and focuses on technique, he will get faster. And other than a tiny number of exceptional ones, I don’t think you can judge talent early on (am I right that he’s 9ish?). As they grow and change, it isn’t always the same ones who are fast when they are little who are the fastest when they hit their teens.

I don’t think there will be level X again as it was a format to allow some kind of competition when they couldn’t do licensed meets. But I would imagine there would be time trials of some sort within the club soon, as it is likely you’ll have junior league competitions coming up that they will need to pick teams for.

Your DS will get a lot out of swimming - fitness, resilience, friendships, time management, self-confidence etc. Don’t get hung up on times and who’s improving and who isn’t - they all develop at different times. There will almost always be kids that are faster - so take the little wins, like a great start or a new PB.

@turkeyboots

January galas are the worst. Year after year DD always preforms poorly as do all the older kids. I don't know if it's the Christmas break or the season or the dark. But they all perk up again as it gets brighter.

We did t get a Christmas break this year. They trained full timetable until 23rd and then 2.5 hours Xmas eve. Xmas and boxing day off and then into 5 days if 2-3 hours (just a sole session daily) and the weekend off again (BH long session) and back to the full timetable on the Monday!

Purely because of counties coming up and because of the missed time due to the 3 LD.

@Helenjohanna

He says he's just happy that he took part, which is a relief!

Brilliant.

I always tell my da to have fun when he races. He has his own ideas and will have his own goals but I honestly believe our job as parents is to ask about enjoyment.

They have coaches to moan about times and performance

Yes, he's 9.

Thank you. That's really helpful. I was expecting him to be slow, and I knew that he was being entered for the experience, but actually standing there and watching him fall so far behind and then seeing the next swimmer have no chance of making back the ground knocked me a bit!

I'm pulling myself together now!

Holy hell that is tough. Thankfully our LC qualification season runs 1 Jan to June so they get a Christmas break here in Ireland. Don't think I'd be willing to do Christmas training never mind DD.

@itsgettingweird don't know why the quoting didn't work!

[quote turkeyboots]@itsgettingweird don't know why the quoting didn't work![/quote]
You can’t quote a post that already quotes another post.

@turkeyboots

Holy hell that is tough. Thankfully our LC qualification season runs 1 Jan to June so they get a Christmas break here in Ireland. Don't think I'd be willing to do Christmas training never mind DD.

My ds is mental. He loved it The more swimming the better in his mind!

I could take it or leave it during xmas and I know some families found it too much. However as well as having a physical disability my ds is also autistic. So he benefits from keeping some normality of a routine

(Even thought the time time changed) and also burning off some excess energy!

No Xmas break here for us either.

helenjohanna I remember when my son was invited to trial for our club and I was like “he’s not even that fast, why would they want him”. I couldn’t understand it. But I was told that that’s the coaches job to make him fast. They just want kids who can listen, have discipline etc. and they were right. Those that have lasted the distance are now all great swimmers and all our squad make at least one event at regionals.
So don’t worry about speed at this stage. He needs to enjoy it to enable him to put in the hours and he’ll get there

@Helenjohanna I’d honestly just chill - if he enjoys it that’s all that matters. The swimming club my two are members of has members of varying standards and they develop in their own time and space.

My experience also isn’t the same as @WidowTwonky tbh but I guess all clubs are different. Ours is really inclusive it isn’t purely about the fastest kids.

Agree. Ability to listen, body awareness and ability to improve through willingness count at the younger age.

Speed comes after technique and comes to children at various times as they develop through puberty.

Ds is useless at some technique drills due to his muscular condition. Therefore he developed slower but he's got there!

They do change as they age. DS started out as one of the faster ones and is now one of the slower ones. He's had some good PBs this Counties but it's 2 years since he last did long course and the extra height and muscles I think help (he's 14, 15 in April). He enjoys it, though he's not getting any medals. There are quite a few in his age group, there are considerably less in the 16 age group. Our club has a performance pathway for the faster ones and a competitive pathway for the slower ones.

Our club also has a performance and competitive pathway.

There were children from both pathways competing at counties this weekend.

Performance tends to be those who will be regional level and possibly some home nations times.

Personally I see it as being mainly about making a wider set of friends, getting plenty of exercise, getting them away from Snapchat, pushing them out of comfort zone rather than it being about times per se. It depends what you want to achieve but going for home nation times etc means a lot of training that ultimately you have to keep up or you get worse again. This leads to some of them quitting - and to compete at club or even county level it doesn’t need to be gruelling. I don’t care really what level my two compete at, it’s still good for them.

Same here. Unfortunately my ds has other ideas! He's all for the gruelling training and getting to the big meets. Which then requires a lot of commitment from me both time wise and financially. Not easy because I'm a single parent!

I'm so proud of the fact he's made the talent programme this year but it's just more added commitment. Most of the camps etc and big meets are all 3-4 hours away.

I'm always telling him he can drop his hours and just be county level if he wants - I get the look

It sounds like he’s doing really well

There’s a lot of parental support - in terms of time and money - that goes into DCs competing at higher levels (although not all of them realise it at the time). They have to be single minded and driven and masters of juggling school / uni / work and training, which are traits that will stand them in good stead in the future though.