Poolside chat - new year, new racing!

[Glittertwins]

Hope this works, am rubbish at this!

Madeira!!

Hopefully it'll be a bit warmer and drier than here 😂

Ooh nice 👍 he will have a great time. What a fantastic opportunity and well deserved.

That's so exciting - well done DS

Thanks @SkankingWombat - I'm very much hoping she'll have sorted it out by 11! Fingers crossed! Thanks so much for the info though

In other news - loving this chat, thanks for being so welcoming all

Exciting news @itsgettingweird, hope it's streamed so we can watch!
I think the competitive start award is a mythical type thing. It's always read out at the start of counties (well I doubt a swimmer would have the qualification time if they really dive in properly) and other galas but I've never seen it physically.
My biggest bugbear on dives is when the little one get on the block, move the backplate right back and then try and do a track start with straight legs. I don't let them use the backplate. They need to start off with 2 feet at the front and do it stage by stage. It's like them learning to walk, they didn't get straight off running from tiny baby. Crawl, pull up, cruise, toddle, walk, run - same stages apply on racing starts.

• really can't...

The Competitive Start Award is certainly a thing in our county/region (it used to be only relevant for diving off the blocks at the shallow end, but now swimmers aren't allowed to dive there at all). Not that swimmers are actually checked (as far as I know but I presume it's an insurance thing) but everyone does it fairly quickly.

Well done to your DS @itsgettingweird that’s brilliant!

I also thought the competitive start award was a hypothetical that no one actually had, I’ve only heard of it through the announcements at the start of galas that swimmers must have reached the standards of it

I can well believe it isn't the same everywhere after reading so many of these threads and seeing how much variation there is between areas, but equally surprised as it seems a relatively simple way to reduce potential injuries/cover one's arse.

It's definitely a real and official thing. Coaches have to be qualified to assess it, and the swimmer gets a certificate and pin badge at the end. It's not been checked at open meets/Counties, but our coaches know who has and hasn't got it. There is at least one DC at every internal gala who is told they must get off the blocks as they haven't passed it yet, often accompanied by much huffing and puffing by the DC... By the time DCs reach the squads where open meets are an option, they all have their award.
It has caused quite a stir recently within the Masters squad, as the club had tried to insist on us needing to do it too. Most of the squad competed when younger and have therefore been sucessfully diving from the blocks long before it was 'a thing'. They were very resistant to it and the demand has been quietly dropped 😬

I bet he is! That's a huge achievement 😊

Yay!!! That’s fantastic.

That’s definitely not a thing in Scotland - it’s Swim England training for diving into shallow water. We’ve never allowed that though (although we had a knobhead coach that encouraged some pretty dangerous diving stunts with his performance swimmers, but at least that was into the deep end).

I hope miniweird has a fabulous time in Madeira. It's one of those places I intend to visit for a winter sun break once DD goes to Uni. It hadn't dawned on me that they had big pools.

With the shallow dive starts, I thought those were stopped a couple of years ago (or maybe that was a local rule about min pool depth). I seem to remember that my teen had to learn how to do them many years ago.

When we send in our regional entries we have to certify that our swimmers can dive "as required by the competitive start award".

Do any of you know of any other specialist courses reachable from the Midlands for dives, underwater, turns etc? I had a look at Swim Swift Elite the other day (which had been recommended to me) but they are not setting up new dates because they're going to be parents. Are there other recommendations @SkankingWombat?

Sorry - I just shamelessly crashed into this thread. I hope you don't mind. Hello. I only just realised that there was a thread on here for such things. DS is 16 and at a comparatively small club. He swims at regional level but has chronic health problems which affect his swimming.

Gatecrash away @Chaotica !!!

Gate crash away.

It's great to have a community of swim parents from around the country with all sorts of experiences to share.

Hi Chaotica! Are you looking for east or West Midlands area? If West, Swimgainz seem to have built up a strong reputation, and I know one of their coaches who is very good. Although they mainly do endless pool stuff, they do run some holiday skills sessions too. It could also be worth looking at Mark Foster’s swim academy which does days in locations round the country so there may be one in your area, we’ve done one a few years ago which was good (and much cheaper than the Adam Peaty ones!)

I've only seen the Swim Swift and AP race clinics promoted by our coaches. I'm going to have a look at Swimgainz and Mark Foster's that Eccle80 has recommended to log for future reference (I don't think DDs would get the most benefit yet, but it's worth knowing about for when they will!). Up to now they've just done the odd stroke or diving booster run by the local leisure centre - it isn't fancy but is only £7 for 30 mins, which isn't too bad and fills a bit of time in the school hols!

To be honest, we didn't get much out of the AP clinics. It's repetitive and everything bar the stroke is the same.

Thanks for the suggestions, @Eccle80 and @Glittertwins. I'll look at the Mark Foster sessions - they look really good. I wasn't too tempted by the AP Clinics either, although some of the younger swimmers got a lot out of them. They are expensive though. The AP race gala was great though, although also on the expensive side.

DS already does endless pool sessions which have helped massively. He goes to the SwimCube and it really helped him improve his technique when being fast and enthusiastic wasn't enough any more. Endless pools are no good for underwater work, dives and turns though, which is why I was looking at Swim Swift Elite.

@SkankingWombat I think that your swimmers need to be a certain age and mindset to get the most out of sessions like this which is going to vary by child. DS did a county training camp when he was 10 in Y5 and was not ready (not my idea but the county's). On the other hand, by 13 he really paid attention to what was said about technique and tried to put it into action.

Mines just come off a nationals swim development camp residential and has finally taken notice of everything!!

@Glittertwins Glad it's happened eventually.

It looks like Mark Foster has retired from coaching too. I'll keep looking.

Both mine had a great time on the Mel Marshall week long camps.

Jazz Carlin (who was lovely in lockdown) is doing some camps at Millfield at Easter/Summer:

www.millfieldenterprises.com/swimming/swim-camps

The best coaching DD ever received was from this (kid/tri coaching club) in London called Love Swimming. It wasn't cheap, but we typically just needed an hour or two over 2 - 3 days to fix technique before Regionals pre-lockdown.

Annoyingly they are still waiting for the pool to be refurbed: loveswimming.co.uk/pool-closed-2022-3/
If you can hire a lane somewhere, they might be able to help.