Poolside-Chat-parents-of-competitive-swimmers

[Glittertwins]

Hopefully this will work as we’re at 999 on the other!

Trying to find some Arena R-Evo"s in a junior size 28 and having no luck whatsoever, lots of website seem to have them but then when you get down to it they only have then in tiny sizes. Has anyone happened to come across any and can point me in the right direction?

A laminated card with full instructions / kit list is the way to go. Avoided so many dramas / lost items of kit.

That is fantastic! I am definitely making a laminated lost on Monday at work. Thank you.

Do 2 or 3 copies of the lists!
Fortunately DS and DH here aren't too bad at this, once DS has been prised away from devices.

We have a laminated list.

Ds is a nightmare until he learns a routine (due to his autism) and I've done this since he was about 10 or so.

We had them for each school day, days out, swimming and galas.

He's 18 and I still do them now

They really are a sanity saver

It's a great idea, to-do lists are invaluable!

When he went on the national event camp last year we printed off the schedule. Highlighted important bits and wrote lists.

He had a notebook with the schedules stuck in and then a list of all he'd have to pack that day.

Then a list of things he'd need to do when he got back etc.

Worked a treat. The only thing that bothers me is that people think I'm being over protective doing it. I'm not sure they realise that with 21 hours of training a week to get him to and a FT job I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to find other jobs to do! It's necessary and allows him to do what he loves.

Sod what others think, if it is helping him get through things with fewer problems, it's also helping him to see how a small bit of prior planning helps him and he'll eventually be able to do this himself.

Don't worry - I don't!

And talking to his coach recently I mentioned his executive function difficulties and I'm sure people think I'm overprotective. Her response was to say I'm probably the least "over" protective parent they have! Certainly with regards my parenting role as a swimmers parent - I do what's required but I don't over involve myself and allow him to make the journey. She said being supportive and facilitating is not the same as getting over involved or being protective.

It was reassuring.

I tend to keep an eye on mine purely because one has their head in a book and would forget to race, the other is a bit of a muppet and very nearly missed a race due to inattention. Neither could be down to coach or team manager either, just their own daftness.

When DS stepped up a squad the coach wouldn’t tell them that they had a race coming up, they were expected to keep asking when to go to marshalling (DS was 11). Was OK if I could get hold of a programme or ideally a start sheet for him but otherwise it meant that either they had to mither a lot or kids did miss races. One girl missed her only swim and it had been a 5 hr journey to get there. Squad was generally aged 10 to 13.

Our team managers and I did when I was one get annoyed with them constantly asking.

We put a schedule up for them to see.

We also made sure we whipped them all correctly as that's our actual role.

It's fecking annoying to have "is it time for me to go up now" a million times an hour

I know! There was no TM or other poolside help, just the one coach and however many kids (usually about 15 to 20). I challenged him about it after DS missed his best swim at a meet where there was no marshalling and he said it was the kids' responsibility to know when their swims were, end of. He was an utter arse though.

And what's worse is when the continual question askers disappear when they do need to go!

We had a successful weekend at winter counties. We do very few SC galas and it has such a different feel to it.
Have other regions competed in theirs yet?

We don't have such a thing as winter county champs as our only county champs are SC due to no LC pool available.

Oh really, I didnt realise 😳I thought they were same as LC counties.

We have Winter regionals at start of Nov - is this limited too?

We don’t have winter counties either, our counties are short course and we don’t get many long course opportunities as there aren’t many pools near us. There are short course regionals coming up but only with junior and senior categories not age groups.

We’re in the midst of club champs, generally going well and my eldest is finally swimming well again after a rubbish year where PBs are few and far between. He’s struggling on the county times though, he has one, but is close but not quite there on everything else. He gets frustrated as he hasn’t turned 14 yet, is easily under the 14 times but needs the 15s. He’s hit puberty but still has a good few inches of growing left, whereas I know most of his age group at this year’s counties were already 6ft. I know there has to be a cut off somewhere but I do wonder if autumn birthdays have a higher drop out rate

We don't have winter counties. We have short course regionals beginning of November, long course counties in Feb then long couse regionals in April.

Bonus of fewer hoodies you need to fork out for 🤑🤑

We have winter regionals first weekend of November.

And ds is competing as this year they are having para swimmers too

Yep, we have SC regionals at the beginning of Nov but like others, it's open/ all ages, not age groups. DS has got all the events he wanted and just missed the last entry time by 0.04 seconds. Oh well. Waiting on rankings to be updated so I can do the last entry.

Rankings updated, entries done!!

Yes ours is open and SC too.

Yay for getting all entries.

Ds was quite surprised to find he was only just outside the AB swimmers times for freestyle!

Our counties next year is spread over 6 weeks but only 3 weekends. They've rearranged it so the distance swimmers don't have 800 and 1500 on same weekend.

They are also shaking regionals up. I'm wondering if they'll do it the same as other regions where all age groups swim the same strike and distance together rather than splitting under and over 15's.

I'd love SW Regionals to be mashed up so we aren't several hours away on a bank holiday weekend to get to Plymouth for older teens, but I can't see it happening.

The older kids tend to be Mounty Kelly/Millfield/Plymouth Leander recruits.

It would be a lot quicker/easier for us to get to London/Brum/Cardiff!