Poolside Chat - parents of competitive swimmers continued

[Glittertwins]

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

How's everyone doing?

Sad news here that WPS wouldn't authorise the wild card so ds is going to British. Obviously he's very happy to be going to British and it does mean he gets individual swims which will be nice to judge where he is.

Then we had a surprise home visit from UKAD last night which meant a very late bedtime after a 4am start.

Probability not too bad in itself as there's no swimming Wednesdays.

But obviously just for perfect timings sake we have our inspection in school today and so I could have done with an early night 🙄🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I hope mini weird isn't too disappointed. Good luck with the inspection today!

It's DD's penultimate GCSE today (finishing on Friday).

We're just chugging along with swimming; no competitions for the foreseeable. Meets are/were either clashing with exams/birthday/holiday. DD has definitely stepped away from serious training/aiming for anything beyond Regionals. As long as she keeps up training, I'll be happy.

There are some new rules coming in about coach/qualified team managers per swimmer at Open Meets coming in for September which are going to make things interesting for a small club like ours.

I'm doing my TM currently for this reason.

Good luck to dd in her last GCSEs.

Ds was ok. He always knew it was out of his hands and might not happen which is why we were always cautious with "might be going" and "not sure if he's doing British".

I didn't really get much time to relax and enjoy british last year as my mum died 2 months before and I'd had major surgery 3.5 weeks before travelling up.

So hopefully I'll be a little more able to engage with it this year rather than just going through the motions!

It isn’t that hard to be a qualified TM - we are a small club and have lots it’s 2 —not very enlightening— online sessions. The other change is requirement for level 2 coach to be present/ specific coaching ratios, but separately according to DH they have said clubs can share coaches if needed.

They really need to stop randomly changing rules though, it’s very wearing.

Thats a shame @itsgettingweird but he is going to British which is a fantastic achievement and more then most swimmers can ever hope for.

The focus here has been more on DS1 the non swimmer as he is doing his GCSEs (nearly finished thank God)

DS2 does have a regional open water swim camp this weekend which means an early start the morning after DS1s end of exams party on the Friday night! I think I will be leaving a few sleeping teens in the house as cant see them all getting up and out by 7am!

That’s a shame, but hopefully he will enjoy British.

I’d heard about the change in TM rules, the discussions I have heard are whether it is going to cause issues with maximum numbers allowed poolside - I think it is something like 1 per 8 swimmers if under 10 and 1 per 10 over, on top of coaches. Also cost implications too with paying for lots of poolside passes. I think our club generally do a sensible job at taking extra TMs when we have a lot of younger or inexperienced swimmers at meets, but I think the new rules will make it harder for the club

That's a shame he didn't get the wild card - I might we'll see you on the Sunday / Tuesday. I'm going to watch rather than officiate.

I hadn't read all the TM/coach stuff yet, but if we have to have more coach passes for the number of swimmers, it's going to get expensive. Some meets near us charge huge amounts for poolside passes

Ds racing Sunday, Monday Tuesday and Wednesday - so I'll definitely be there!

Managed to somehow go through the drop off point when chucking him into the premier inn at Gatwick in April for camp! For some reason the cat park didn't charge me the £12 for up to 2 hours but if I pay within 15 days they are letting me off for £15. Just seems easier to pay it because I'm not sure what actually happened 🤣🫣🤦‍♀️
They said as it's first time. I'm clearly not the only person to do it. Bit of a catch as the road is the same one signposted for premier inn and I just got in wrong lane I think!
And I think the issue is I was in the premier inn and so there's 22 minutes difference between arriving and leaving so it looks like I stopped?

We'll be all week

Our club have already started charging a supplement of a couple of pounds per swimmer per meet to cover the increasing cost of poolside passes, so I imagine that will have to go up if even more are needed.

We pay a flat fee of £10 per competition to cover coaches etc.

Hopefully this will continue to be enough but we do take 2-3 coaches to meets - but we also take quite a number of swimmers.

I think our entry fees have already increased due to pool hire charges being increased

Our admin fees vary dependent on what the meet is. We often end up losing money on it too.

What is bizarre is that some meets don’t even let you buy enough passes to meet these ratios anyway. It’s all left hand right hand stuff for sure.

I think there is someone at Swim England whose job it is to change policies. So that’s what they do without any consultation Even though the previous one was working fine.

So true @Teateaandmoretea !!

How was open water today @Hellocatshome ? We had one too, nice and warm in the lane apparently (not that I will do it!). Good job it was nice and local for us.

@Glittertwins thank you for asking. Nice and warm in the lake apparently. It was warm but cloudy on lake side after I spent the morning somethering everyone in suncream.

DS was a little disappointed at the level of coaching which was quite basic but I think it had to be as some of them were invited on the basis of pool times so were new to open water. DS certainly isn't the fastest but probably has more experience so didn't find he learnt anything new.

On the plus side I got home and the teens had tidied up after their post GCSE get together in the yard yesterday so that was a nice suprise.

Help!! Why is my 11 years old adding 5 seconds to every 50??? He's gone from 34s free to 39sec free. Same in every other stroke :( what's happening? Thanks for any advice!!

My guess would be growth.

energy resources diverted to growing = performance drop.

unless there’s an obvious reason like they’re changing technique or race strategy and it’s not in his muscle memory yet.

Thanks! Anything he can do about it?! Or just wait :) Noone else in the squad ever seems to get slower! They just get endless PBS ! Could it be hayfever?

Yes growth spurt would be my guess. You dont grow evenly so legs might grow before torso/arms etc and it throws your stroke completely off as your body parts especially hands and feet are not where you expect them to be.

Alternatively if he is anything like my son it could be trying too hard. Just need to relax and remember your technique.

Also important that you don't show him you are concerned just smile and repeat "you can't PB everytime as long as you had fun" until he starts to PB again which he definitely will.

I'll agree with the others. The only positive of lockdown was that DC did not grow until after the pools reopened which coincided with squad moves and much harder training so we've never experienced this situation.
Speak to the coach if necessary but otherwise let them work with him. Kids at that age can fluctuate as they grown and adapt.

It could be hay-fever, it could be poor hydration, it could be iffy diet. At 11 it could be a combination.

As other have suggested, it is more likely to be that limbs/muscles are out of sync.

Next time you go to a meet, film in Slo-mo.

Thanks! Never filmed him before, but could give it a try! His strokes looked good today. He just looked exhausted! Don't know why though, it was a short gala, low pressure friendly event, and he had yesterday off swimming (because we had similar results a fe lw weeks ago, so I thought he should rest and see if that did the trick this time - but no!) so he should've been on good form. He's fallen straight to sleep tonight though, which is rare!

Maybe hay fever or growing I guess :( slightly frustrating for him when his friends are swimming PBS and he's swimming times he swum 1 or 2 years ago :( needs a big hug!

I think 11 year olds are highly inconsistent. Well dd2 is anyway….. She was 3 seconds off PB yesterday in team gala 50, then swam 2 second PB for 25m.

Also some kids swim better at different times of year. Dd1 peaks about now and isn’t at her best in the winter. Which is annoying as she’s never swum particularly well at counties.

I think comparisons with others are to be avoided as much as possible. If he’s swum 34 seconds he can do so again. But fast times are hard to beat and can mess with your head.