Poolside Chat - parents of competitive swimmers continued

[Glittertwins]

Getting a bit close to the end of the previous one!

It does seem unfair not to fill the places, you would think they could add a few reserves onto the lists and offer them spare places without it adding too much time to the process.

Swansea have a L1 meet I think this coming weekend, and there is a closed North Wales one on the last weekend

Window closes 14th May I think

Closes 21st I think

I knew it was later than last year due to this weekend, didn't realise it was that late

Yes, May 21st and it's top 18 for distance

Still on the British lists with only a couple of regions left to swim that age group - hanging on!!

Fingers crossed for him @Glittertwins!

Our regionals are finished. It’s been stressful. Eldest had a decent swim in his one event, just off his PB, and would only have needed to be a little faster than PB to make finals. Youngest has not had a great time. It started well with a good pb in his first event, but then on his best event he got a DQ in the final after an incredibly good swim which really knocked his confidence. He then just wasn’t his best in everything else, a couple of small PBs against his converted SC times but didn’t swim like he normally does. Then finished off with another DQ in his last event for good measure 😭

🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

Hope he stays there and gets to swim.

Our region has boys 15/U left so dependent on what age group he's in some regions have already swam their swimmers.

Oh bless him eccles it's so hard when 1 race then affects them for the rest of the meet. Hopefully though as he gets older it'll become easier.

Most of events in SE have been swum however it's not a single age group so there are possible ones to come in

@Eccle80 - hope he recovers quickly, they are a real confidence killer

Thanks both, he’s had an amazing amount of good swims up to now so it was always going to happen at some point that things didn’t go well, just a shame it had to be at regionals! Pre regionals I can only think of a couple of times he has got DQed

The DQs are really frustrating and upsetting. But I think it’s really important to concentrate on the positives.

If he has pb’s against short course conversion that’s surely really good? It must also be long course pb unless he hasn’t done it before long course? I think that in a lot of events on average kids will be slower long course than short course even when you convert. Or at least that’s what I’ve observed. He’s had to swim really fast times and done amazingly well to qualify for all those events so swimming massive pbs on top is unlikely.

We separate short course and long course pbs as it gives you twice as many to get 😂. Swimming can be brutal, you need to take all the positives.

@itsgettingweird - good luck to him in Berlin!

Thankyou.

Swam his fastest fly this season this morning. Still 5 seconds outside his pb but his fly hasn't been on form for a few months for some reason?!!!!!

His target event tomorrow. 100m free. Aiming for 57.81 or quicker.

He's just loving wearing a GBR hat

Oh and the jammers he got from speedo are just perfect - after all that faffing. (And buying his a new pair to then get sent 2 free pairs 🤣)

Fantastic! Good look to him for tomorrow.

Fabulous, massive good luck to him

Some lovely stories here. Good luck to everybody Junior/senior/international competing this coming weekend.

DS has got back in the open water, the lakes seem to be warming up pretty quick this year. Todays win was he actually spoke to his coach in full sentences (only a few) instead of one word answers.

We've had a lot of rain here but it's not been too cold so I assume the lake temperatures are not too bad. Still won't encourage me in!!!

That's great.

At your ds age mine was poolside with ear defenders on and under a towel at meets! He wouldn't look at anyone or engage willingly! He barely spoke 2 words to anyone let alone coaches etc. He was however like a sponge taking it all in.

He was year 7 of secondary and would throw up at the thought of going to school and barely slept he was so anxious. (I ended up pulling him out, fighting for an EHCP and getting him in a decent school!)

Swimming was the one thing he wanted to do - think it helped him in a way he's never been able to explain - so hence why he got into club swimming!

He's now on his 14th day away from home having travelled to 2 countries he's never visited and having a great time.

Hopefully he's a nice example of how far they can come when they get to do things they enjoy 😊

That's great @itsgettingweird !

Thank you, yes definitely, of the events he had there were maybe 3 he hadn’t done long course, and I agree on the PBs and having two sets. I think a lack of long course experience didn’t help him much either.

@itsgettingweird good luck to your DS today, hope he gets the time he wants

I'm not wholly convinced that long course pool training is all that. US teams work very well on 25 yard pools and that's a fair bit shorter than a 25m pool that is standard here. I think it's more stamina and distance work that helps ie train a lot on 200m to improve 100m times and scale up a bit.