Poolside chat - new year, new racing!

[Glittertwins]

Hope this works, am rubbish at this!

I think they will be right. I doubt the swimming clubs have plucked them out of nowhere as that was being banded about before home nations was confirmed!

Although paras will be over 4 days so could be anywhere around those dates!

I did a bit of stalking around some of the top clubs for their competition schedules 😉

😂😂

I found the page about it earlier, but it looks now like they have taken it down again? I saw they have kept the qualifying for the 50s via the 100s and no form 50s for the younger ones, I get they aren’t Olympic events but I still think it seems an odd way of doing it

Yes, I had saved the link and it doesn't work now.

Well I guess we'll have to wait and see if it changes again then 😂

Good job you had the summary of changes posted!

Not much use if they are incorrect though 😂😂🤦‍♀️

By incorrect I mean changing. What I posted was what was off the website. I did t make it up 😉

I read it all last night

I did grab a screenshot of the first page for anyone who missed it and is interested

British Summer Champs page is back and this time with dates and venue. July 20-26 Ponds Forge.

Thanks

I'll have a read (again 😂)

I've just seen something up about Home Nations as well and I'm baffled. Can someone explain to me how a 14 year old qualifies for something. I read something about qualifying for a 100m through a 200m time and im completely lost.

I had a look at the video on the Swim England page, I think for the English meet, 13 year olds qualify for the 100s through the 200s, and 14/15 are one age group, but 14 year olds can’t swim 50s (15s qualify for 50s through 100s). But there are at least 14 of the 40 places designated for 14s (except long distance).

It seems complicated!

There's definitely going to be a lot more chances for swimmers to qualify this year.

Plus English is 6 days instead of 5.

I saw all staff about ages and qualifying through certain events but it baffled me.

Usually it's the para stuff that baffles me and I have to understand that stuff. Seems straightforward compared though and only competing over 4 days in British!

I think they've over complicated it somewhat!
For English, there are 2 double age groups.
Nobody in the 12-13 age grouping can swim 50m events
If you are 13 yrs old, you can only swim the 100m events if you have the time for and swim the 200m event. That's tough for 100m flyers!
If you are in the 14-15 age group, the 50m is only available for the 15 yr olds
50m events are only available for all of you have the 100m entry time and swim it.

I can't see anything specific for 14 yr olds apart from no 50s allowed

@Glittertwins I think they need to get you to summarise it on the website! I thought the same on fly, even 100 fly often isn’t popular or well swum in the younger age groups, so is it a great choice to be pushing them to be doing 200 fly LC?!

One other thing that wasn’t completely clear, where they have double age groups and said 40 with 14 places ringfenced for the younger age, I assume that means more than 14 could qualify if they are faster than the older ones, rather than it only being the fastest 14 plus 26 from the older group?

I wouldn't worry about it. Swim the 50 free at regionals / LC Nat qual meet and the resulting emails sent out will have the event eligibility on it

I hope this is ok to post here, I've not read the whole thread.

My child has been member of a swimming club for a few years. moving to the next age group: this group meets 5 times a week (7-8 hours of training, mostly evenings and one weekend session). DH and I take turns to take child to the pool.

Can anyone with experience of this level of commitment tell me how it works for you? How did you manage to fit in quality family time, time as a couple, enough attention for other children? What do you do during training, poolside or nearby? Any hacks?

Welcome @ReluctantSwimMum
I'm not going to lie it does take over your life to a certain degree. Especially in the busy gala months. With training and galas recently we are currently on day 38 of continuous swimming 🙈 no swimming this weekend so we can finally chill.

We luckily live a 3 minute drive to the pool and the sessions are 2 or 3 hours long so with training its a drop and run situation. More difficult if you live further away or the kids are of an age where you have to stay.

Time for other kids is tricky especially if they also do a sport but we just divide and conquer. One parent goes to one thing the other to the other.

My non swimming child is now 16 so isnt that bothered about missing 'family' time but we do make sure to try to organise fun family things when there is any time.

DH and I are like ships that pass in the night, actually galas where we have to stay away are probably when we spend the most time together 🙈

7 to 8 hours is about half as much as DS does though so don't let me put you off. I think once you get into a routine it won't seem so bad.

We split up the training sessions and meets between us. I tend to do more of the meets as I am an official though.
From a club perspective, it is better for the parent to stay and watch the sessions or at least close by if going out for a short walk or shopping as it also creates a good circle of friends where you can all benefit from seeing and understanding what is going on, support eachother and the swimmers.

Hi and welcome @ReluctantSwimMum

I have two who swim, both 6 days a week, although total hours are similar to yours for my eldest and less for my younger one (they are 15 and 12). We are lucky to live very close to the pool so I mainly just drop off and pop home, we also share lifts with someone else. I do try and go in and watch at least once a fortnight, mainly just to catch up with other parents. It is good to develop a network at the club and get to know people.

It’s meets that I find a huge time drain, it tends to be me who goes to them as I’m an official. I also have a younger child who doesn’t swim yet, so I am very conscious that he loses time with me then, and I need to try and balance things and make sure to do other things when we do have free time.

Where possible I try and avoid doing whole weekends at meets now, other than counties and regionals where it is unavoidable, and try and just enter one day of an open meet so that it doesn’t take over completely.

It is a very all consuming sport though! And that’s just from my experience at a small club where the hours are comparatively low, it must be even more so at a large club on higher hours.

For survival experiences - travel mug with hot drink / water bottle (you) Unlimited supplies of flapjacks, cereal bars, fruit for them.
As a PP said, we're also a bit like passing ships at times but we did know exactly what we were letting ourselves in for as I used to swim (my parents are laughing now they're not in our position!)

I'm a single parent.

My ds trains 8 times a week now. 4 of which are mornings. He use to do 5 mornings but dropped a session as it's a kick set and he's a para swimmer.

It's tough. Obviously there's no issues with family time or juggling other children but the time it takes is immense.

What I've found helps is batch cooking and finding a routine that works. Online food ordering midweek so we can order stuff we need for meets at weekends without trying to find time to fit that in.

Also being very strict with my routine. I do washing Wednesday evenings as there's no swimming Wednesday. Then a load in on Friday night to sort Saturday which I can do even if there's meets.

2 sets of needing so we can change it at weekends even if not home for most of it and it gets washed during week ready for next weekend.

Use the time you're at poolside to respond to any emails or just read a book.

And having the confidence when it's too much to miss a session. It's not the end of the world!