Poolside-Chat-parents-of-competitive-swimmers

[Glittertwins]

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

Fabulous 🤩

You should have stayed in bed today 🤣🤣🤣

Ds did a pretty good 400. 4 secs outside his pb so he's happy with that this early on.

His leg went though so in true ds style he hobbled out on one leg on his crutches - I couldn't be arsed with getting his wheelchair out for the short distance and putting it back again

For those with max swimmers who do outdoors and distance!

Note the much earlier date

www.swimming.org/openwater/national-age-group-championships-2023-date-released/?fbclid=IwAR0S3UUtfmXxOlNNKJ8eS0knqqCmT9VcU53WQKz3O-2099UstJuNCTOXJYw

@itsgettingweird thanks I saw that, hope its still warm enough to swim skins as DS much prefers it to wetsuits but also hates being cold because he's complicated like that. Mind you he will have to qualify first.

Can I ask those with boy swimmers, once they start to develop body hair do they tend to leave it or shave for competitions?

It's personal choice at this age hello. Some of ds teammates like to shave down but ds doesn't bother.

Hi @Glittertwins
I'm back with more nationals questions!
The age groupings have now been announced -
Women's age groups: 13/14 years, 15 years, 16 years, 17 years and 18+ years
Men's age groups: 14/15 years, 16 years, 17 years, 18 years and 19+ years

So, when looking at the top 24 for age/event, will it be top 24 14 yr old boys AND top 24 15 yr old boys (so 48 in total) ...or...
top 24 14-15 yr old combined (only 24 in total)?
Hope that makes sense :) Thanks as usual for your help

Hi,
Sadly it is top 24 combined of 24 and 15 yr old boys and top 18 combined for the 800/1500m for British. Age groups still combined for English too.
I though we'd not be double age group this year but we are.

That was meant to read 14 and 15, not 24 and 25 🙄

Understood, and thanks.
(though the groupings for english are slightly different Age Groups: Men - 13/14 years, 15 years, 16 years, 17 years and 18+)
My DS is 15 at end of year so would be combined group for British but individual age group for english. Aaggghh

I forgot they were different at English. We didn't do them last year but likely this year for at least two events.

Thanks for confirming British and English are different younger bands. Me and another parent were discussing this the other day and couldn't remember if they were different but convinced they were and couldn't remember the youngest age band!

Looks like British is 22-28 July.

National open water 29th July

English nationals 2-7 august.

Possibly because of para worlds in Manchester? Because they usually go back to back but didn't last year due to commonwealths.

Oh dear DS seems to have hit a plateau. Well possibly not a plateau as such as he is still PBing but they are little PBs whilst his peers are hitting big PBs. He is putting on a brave face but he is a bit upset. Poor kid just needs to grow a bit and hit puberty.

It happened here too a couple of years back. All of a sudden, others grew and towered above. Still shorter but a lot more powerful now and uses technique more which gives the edge. It will come, he's still young.

They all go in peaks and troughs.

Puberty plays a huge part in different ways for the girls and boys.

The girls who hit puberty at 9/10 and start periods earlier are over the affects on their body by 12/13 and mikes ahead. They slow down their pbs at 14 and make smaller progress. Those who are later come through then.

With boys those who hit puberty at 13 are swimming massive pbs and quick times at that age and those who don't get it until 15/16 or later come through later. I'm sure you've seen boys stand on a block at 13 with the 16/17 yo and look massive - my ds still looked about 10 at that age 🤣

I've also seen some of those swimmers hit great times at 13/14/15 and win national medals and yet never be able to hit those times again. These are the ones who drop out at 16-18 IME. I don't know if coaches can do anything about that but if all the boys who never came back after covid or have dropped out when starting college they are the ones who couldn't hit times post 14yo they'd hit at that age. They've started getting beaten by kids ranked much lower then them who never even made a counties.

There was that stat I shared from SE where they said that of the top 100 ranked swimmers at 12 (ish) only 11% are too 100 by open age group.

All swimmers can do is focus on their outcome goals and their process to get there. Work on those gains and how to achieve them. Boys especially will be advantaged by the testosterone when it hits but they can't control when this happens.

My da did his biggest gains last year at 17 yo. Quite late for a male swimmer but he's now faster than swimmers he was 5+m behind when they were 14yo.

I've always told ds "no one can swim a 0 time. Everyone has to stop getting faster at some point and you've got to decide how much you do and what you focus on to get the best time for you"

I often get stupid ill informed comments from other parents like "it's alright for you because ds is still making gains".

I remind them that a) it's not about me and it's ds putting in the effort and b) ds spent many a year not moving up squads with his peers and being behind and cheering them on a counties, regionals and nationals etc from the sidelines.

I really do think coming up behind and having to work for every gain has given ds a resilience and work ethic that he's now reaping the benefits of.

Sorry for essay but being a swim parent with a swimmer who always developed slower has given me a real insight into the advantages of this - ones I didn't see and didn't know about when he was 12/13 and nowhere to be seen!

Agree 100% with all of this. There are some swimmers in the age group below that are huge, bigger than some older ones. He'll grow when his body is ready, the resilience building is also good for life in general.

Thank you both that is all good advice and insight. We have had a good chat about racing against himself and only worrying about what he can control. He cant control when he grows and he cant control what other people are doing.

He very much still has a little boy body and some in his age group look like actual men.

I think that’s really good advice above.

Covid has made some of the PBs that they’ve swum absolutely ridiculous. Dd1 swam an 8 second PB in 50 fly and a 20 second PB in 100 back last April 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️. It set some bizarre expectations I think.

Shes plateaued a bit for sure. One of the struggles she has is that unlike the others her age she is struggling to find a strong stroke, she’s pretty good at all of them. So there’s a lot to work on and juggle and it can get a bit overwhelming. She definitely has a weakest stroke (although she’s still has county times for it) but she insists on swimming it because she enjoys it as there‘a no pressure.

I’ve tried to get her to concentrate on what she can control (getting start right, swimming as fast as possible, finishing well) and less on what she can’t (the numbers on the board). And focusing on the positives not the negatives. At the counties she’s been working on long course PBs and has a 100% record on that one so far.

She was also ill loads last term, was off her food here and there and lost weight (and therefore muscle). She’s really thin anyway and is only now getting back to proper strength I think.

My younger one I have no idea, she’s just totally inconsistent. She’s small, late puberty, doesn’t see the point in races longer than 50m. Watch this space…..

It is hard though re the comparisons. I think my daughters best stroke is backstroke. But she thinks it’s fly because she’s the fastest at that in her age group at our club and she gets picked for medley teams. It’s just there’s a couple of other girls who are really really good at backstroke also.

Yes - I've seen them fall into that trap too.

Best breast stroker in the club - must be a breast stroker.

3rd best flyer - not their best stroke - yet ranked far more highly in it. Therefore if focussing on that they'd probably be able to become the strongest in the club.

This is where coaches should encourage focus as all rounders until they are older and equal work given to each stroke. Especially as they do peak and trough with strengths as they grow.

Now ds is 18 he absolutely knows he's a 50/100m freestyler. But he sticks with 400 and 100 fly too because they are worth having as backups despite not being particularly competitive at them!

I think best strokes can change too as a swimmer grows.

Fly timings can go a bit wonky as limbs grow etc so it's always good not to specialise too young.

I think the key with swimming is to have a good team around you that you enjoy training with, that will give some longevity in the sport.

I think the key with swimming is to have a good team around you that you enjoy training with, that will give some longevity in the sport.

I absolutely agree. But this is where it seems to quite often be the reason some of the early bloomers struggle.

Those who are fastest of the squad, move up first, make the big meets first, get the club records at 11/12/13 and always win the club champs trophies get use to being the fastest in the club for that event or generally overall.

They get use to being the swimmer who everyone is talking about winning medals, the club trophy etc. they get use to always being picked for league galas and relays.

But they struggle when their squad and team mates bridge the gap. They find it hard to be happy when Jonny beats them, when Jonny gets the relay spot etc. they miss the part of development where they can celebrate others successes as well as their own and cannot replicate it.

Strokes definitely change and distances. All of a sudden. From a so called sprinters, unable to do more than 100m, we now have a mid distance swimmer

All good sensible advice and observations its so handy having this forum for sensible swim parents when you have spent the weekend surrounded by parents threatening to withdraw their child from swimming because they didn't PB so "obviously don't care enough" and pretty much every other swimmer crying because they think Mum or Dad is going to be angry because they didn't medal.

Not mine though he was happy enough racing against himself and chuffed with his 4th place and PBs. He has spent all weekend surrounded by his peers wearing £200 tech suits now they are big enough for the mens sizes. So when he came to me and said "Mam would I be able to have some new racing jammers?" I feared the worst. The racing jammers he wanted...some not second hand Arena Powerskin 2.0s. So of course I have obliged, hope they get here ready for counties at the weekend.

As a 10 and 11 yr old DS was always coming 4th in local meets as there were 3 other swimmers that took the top 3 places. I remember sitting next to a parent of one of those 3 as DS rushed up all happy saying he’d got a great PB, and the other parent smiling at him and saying it wasn’t the same as a medal. could hardly believe my ears! I was proud of DS (who lasted the course and was still competing nationally at 16 when the other parent’s kid had given up) as he didn’t care (and still doesn’t) about medals - it’s all about PBs.