Poolside-Chat-parents-of-competitive-swimmers

[Glittertwins]

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

We only live half a mile away so can get there in less than 5 mins, all the training is at the same pool. Training has ramped back up now after the summer, my younger DS also moved up squads and is finding it much harder! First open meet next weekend, with club champs coming up too.

How much do all of yours train? I know we’re at the lower end, my nearly 14 year old does 6.5 hours and my 11 year old 4 hours, the maximum for the top squad is 8.5

@Eccle80 my DS is 12 and does 10 hours swimming and 3 hours strength and conditioning a week. The top squad (the next one after DS's squad) does 14 hours swimming and 3 hours strength and conditioning. We do quite a lot compared to some clubs though and our attendance requirement is basically 100% you can only be excused for educational school trip, medical reason or taking part in some other sort of training such as Open Water etc.

One is a squad below the top and does 2 hours gym and 14 swimming. The other does half of that in a different squad. They enjoy it so it's not too bad however once the winter draws in, mornings aren't going to be as appealing!

Ds has just moved up to the national squad for this season. (that's the top one in his club)

He'll be doing 9 x 2hr swim sessions and 3 x 1hr gym.

So 18 hours pool and 3 hours gym.

Up from 16 and 3.
Our performance stream do
Juniors - 14 pool 2 gym.
Senior - 16 pool 3 gym
National- 18 pool 3 gym.

They have key sets where all performance swimmers train together within their keyset (eg distance).

Next week we are up to 12 and 1 and he struggled with last weeks 8 and 1!!! And he's not even back to college for his foundation degree he's starting yet 🤣🫣

Well done to ds to winning his not a race race

We struggle to get pool time here and have significantly less training hours. Which is a positive for life swimming balance but not great for preformace. Our top squad get 7 to 8 hours a week and 1 hour land training. DD was on a regional scheme giving her 4 more hours, but that seems have died with Covid.

First races of the season here is a fun one, we have the national Community games where County reps do everything from sports to handwriting competitions. It's an odd one as you can only do one 50m race and a relay, but its fun day out. And obligatory hoodie of course.

I have great admiration for you all juggling so many hours around everything else especially when the pools are a distance away too, it feels endless even on the hours my two do!

It does help that DH does his fair share, couldn't do it on my own for long!

I'm a LP.

It's all me!!!!

Although Tbf to my dad he's going to take on some of the far away meets - especially in term time weekends. He wasn't able to before because of mum being so ill but now it also keeps him involved in things. He's an ex coach, SE OW volunteer/ officer hello he was at OW nationals refereeing!) and ex swimmer so he also gets to catch up with people he's known for decades!

@itsgettingweird all of the officials at OW Nationals deserve a medal, how they didn't actually melt I have no idea.

I do have a DH but he cant help with training during the week due to work so its a good job I live so close to the pool. I have family who live near Ponds Forge so that saves some money on hotels. I just need to find a long lost family member who lives in Leeds and I'm sorted.

We have a good car pool system here, which really helps. But only if your squad all live nearby I guess.

We used to have a great car share system when I was young but we live nowhere near anyone else really.

Car pooling is difficult here. Traffic can be bad (unless you are literally a mile or so away from others).

And because they swim 5-7am and then 5-7pm there isn't the time after mornings or before evenings to travel around picking kids up and dropping off.

@Eccle80 7.5 for 13 year old and 3 for 10 year old (although she is about to move up so it will go up). The 13 year old could do 2 more if she was that keen 😂.

Are all your county times out? We are still waiting for ours. It’s quite annoying, I think the older one probs has them (they are not like super super crazy counties fast level) but it would be good to actually know. Younger one won’t be too bothered she may have 1. I reckon they are waiting till after the funeral now to publish them, they came out earlier last year.

Ours have been out for quite a while, they have gone back to the normal times after relaxing them last year so there is a big jump from the 2022 times. Both of my two have one at the moment

Ours have been out for quite a while, I knew before summer break what they were and the qualifying window.

Bizarrely enough they made our times faster last year than 2020. All of the session times were brought forward so it was nowhere near full. The general expectation I think is they will be the same, but who knows? The younger ones are also nowhere near where they were 3 years ago - their gala times are slower (and this is deffo the case at full county level looking at rankings) so I have a vague hope they may ease those but they make them all faster again. Hey ho out of our control so just go to the gala tomorrow and swim fast 🤷🏻‍♀️

Our County times are fast faster than the regional times. We still don't have them but if they keep them the same as last year DS has 1.

Yeah some counties seem to be like that. Our counties is the most significant regional qualifier as a kind of secondary purpose. The kids also have very few opportunities outside it to swim long course so it is around/ slightly faster than the standard L2 qts. Or at least that’s what everyone’s expecting 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Ours are due out end of September.

Ours are always quick.

We'll probably get the para times about a week before closing date 🙄 ds will have times though.

Ours are unchanged from 2022 and SC although we can convert from LC if those times are available. We also have qual times which are guaranteed entry and consideration times to fill up to the maximum number per event if the qual times are too fast and not enough people actually make t them.

We had county times out in the summer. They are pretty fast. DD has 5 so far, and is hoping to qualify for 1 more in her next club champs.

@Teateaandmoretea it seems very odd to make them harder in 2022 than in 2020, our county last year initially published times the same as 2020 then had to relax them as they were going to get so few entries. Even then the 10/11 age group was very thin, one 50m final was swum by a single boy alone, and almost all boys events in that age had less than 8. I’m interested to see what happens this year with the times being made harder again, as I feel those 2011 birthdays even now are fewer in number and not where the equivalent age groups would have been pre Covid

Yes we have automatic and consideration.

But if the limit is 24 swimmers if 27 get auto times 3 may not manage to get in.

@Eccle80 indeed people were pretty shocked. I had heard a rumour prior to covid that they were going to get quicker but no one expected it post pandemic. They came out and dd had none - she’d only done one gala. Maybe they just wanted less people y’know cos covid? They also really weren’t that fast before at all to be fair particularly as we aren’t a small unpopulated county….