Poolside Chat - parents of competitive swimmers continued

[Glittertwins]

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

Whoop well done not so mini Weird.

DS did his usual trick if absolutely tanking in the afternoon and put 3 seconds on his 100 back. He always says he is too tired in the afternoon and never swims well. Any tips to keep the energy up all day?
He won't eat pasta or rice so has chicken sandwiches on whole meal bread and fruit for lunch and rice cakes and cereal bars as snacks and I nag him all day to drink and to be fair he does drink quite a bit. I'm not sure what else to do?

Well done on the gold! That’s so rubbish on the counties medals though, they need to work out something better to make sure the para swimmers get their medals.

Our juniors are actually 16 and under. I got that wrong 🤦‍♀️

Hello. I think sometimes you can eat and drink all the right things but some swimmers are just better in mornings or afternoons. Sometimes it's just they don't yet have the muscle mass to maintain it after a few races.

Maybe look for a pattern during training?

Well done on the gold that’s amazing. And well done to all the others. Some seriously fast swimmers here 😁

Sorry what do you mean in terms of a pattern during training?

Maybe try rehydration tablets? We used the ORS ones. All that hanging around poolside can take it out of them.

Hello so look at does he train better mornings or evenings? Is there a pattern or Is he better on either if it's just 1 session a day or if he swims a morning with an evening session etc. sometimes seeing if it's a general pattern can help you then look at what you eat and when. I've no actual scientific evidence for my theory but I believe peoples bodies need fuelling differently.

Good luck to all swimming again today

Ds has 100 and 400 free this afternoon.

Hello, possibly just a fluke because she's only swum one meet this year, but DD used to flag in the late afternoons at Counties. 50Free finals always seemed to be the last race on a Sunday night.

We twigged that she would be sat watching the sun set, with the poolside emptying....., so we make a point of going for a walk at lunch and making her move about away from the pool in the run up to a sprint.

Ah I see thank you that's great advice I will try to keep an eye on it. He doesnt train mornings at the moment but is starting after Christmas (can't wait for those dark cold mornings!)

@WarningToTheCurious he does have some hydration tablets added to his water, something to do with electrolytes.

Good luck everyone swimming today.

DS has 200 Free, 50 Fly then a very very long wait until 50 free so we will see how that goes 🙈

@Madcats yes thats good advice we had thought about that but unfortunately he is last race before lunch and first warm-up after lunch and lunch seems to be very short at this gala. Maybe we could try to go for a walk after warm up but his coaches/TMs are always reluctant to let them out of their sight for some reason.

Hello it'll be interesting to see once he's morning training if it makes a difference. If he's use to just training evenings and then races mornings his body has probably done his "training" by lunchtime?

Does that make sense?

I will add again that I have NO IDEA and I'm just hypothesising but I've seen lots of swimmers who race better dependent on their programme and training. One swimmer I knew never raced well in mornings but would smash the afternoon. This changed once he started morning training 5 times a week 🤣

A walk is good because it keeps the heart rate up which is needed to race well. It could also be the time between warm up and racing? Does he have a pre pool programme to do before hand? We are lucky here at regionals because we have one one of the pool so swimmers can do a pool and poolside warmup in time with their personal pre race plans

I know one swimmer that qualified for nationals finals in the morning, went to the football and ate pies in the afternoon, and then smashed it in the evening session.

Not sure I’d recommend this plan though 🤣

Sounds quite a good one!!
(Can't see our coach agreeing though!)

At this stage I am willing to try pies. DS managed to miss the wall, then couldn't breathe then stopped at 150m in the 200m free 🙈🙈🙈

Has he had a big growth spurt recently? Or maybe he’s having one this weekend - it can make a huge difference!

@WarningToTheCurious well he has had an attitude spurt so possibly.

Oh oh 🤣

An attitude spurt is a great description and I'd say we've been experiencing this too!!
After withdrawing from one race, he did well on the last one so much happier (complete refusal to swim earlier this morning).

Mine was like that on hitting 14 - he decided to refuse to race at Districts, which meant a fine 🙄, plus he was stuck there anyway because I was judging (in more ways than one!)

Very nice coach talked him round, and he carried on very successfully for another couple of years before a love of lifting heavy things took over.

Mixed bag here this afternoon.

Pb in his 100m free which he was off the whole of last season!

Then 8secs out on 400m but over 16 lengths it's not that bad as his leg went in last 75m 🫣🤪

3 golds and a regional record so not a bad meet 😀