Poolside chat - new year, new racing!

[Glittertwins]

Hope this works, am rubbish at this!

Glad he had a good time. Ds has only ever done swim England and British swimming camps but always comes back enthusiastic about putting what he's learned into practice.

I guess they are a different type of camp because it's all swimmers of same age and level?

We've never done the paid for ones with Olympic swimmers because we aren't sure how helpful they'd be as he's a para swimmer? Even at para specific camps they have to split dependent on need and disability which affects speed etc.

Yes, the camps are split into sprint and middle distance and distance swimmers. The distance is always going to be freestylers too so much easier planning wise than para, even within the same classifications

Thanks for the additional suggestions. The Millfield one looks great. I'll follow them up.

That’s a shame, he was really good

So endless pools? What are your thoughts. My son went in one when he was 9 and honestly although he thought it was great fun didn't get much out of it technique wise as the current was affecting his stroke too much in that it wS pushing his arms into places they wouldn't normally go iyswim. I'm assuming now he is 13 it would be better?

The coaches should be adjusting it for the swimmers to be honest. We haven't done it for ages, rumour has it that we will be doing it again though.

That's confirmed my thinking Chaotica. DD1 is yr5 and County level. She is a keen and able swimmer, but her autism and ADHD means she is socially immature and her ability to maintain focus, follow longer strings of instructions and retain information are a good few years behind her peers'. It would be a complete waste of money at this point, no matter how many times she casually drops it into conversation (alternating between that and how "ferrets make really really good pets"... Also a no! 😂). I'm thinking 12+yo and edging regional times to get the most value.

The endless pools look really interesting to swim in - I quite fancy giving that a go myself!

DS has been offered some free swim analysis endless pool sessions so I guess for free they cant harm.

DS gets a lot out of his endless pool training @Hellocatshome. Free sessions would be a bonus.

It's definitely a plus for DS being able to see his stroke on the video from different angles and find out what he is doing wrong. He can then see the difference when he changes it. We have found that his stroke changes as he grows: he can be really good in a stroke and then he grows a bit and it goes wrong. The endless pool training is really useful for that as his usual coaches can't always tell what's going wrong in the normal pool. It does help that he has a really good coach in the endless pool (who is also funny - it does help that DS has a laugh too).

Random trivia for you all - discovered this by chance today!

2 neurologists invented the Paralympics games in 1948 at Stoke Mandeville hospital. De Guttmann and Dr Silver.

Dr Silver went on to discover ds genetic condition and gene fault in 1959!

So the Dr who discovered his condition also invented the Paralympic Games.

(Estimated 1:1000000 people have the genetic fault)

If he ever qualifies that will make it even more special 🥰

Wow sounds like fate to me @itsgettingweird.

I have woken up today with Post County Relay Day Fatigue. The symptoms are extreme tiredness, headache and no voice. Anyone know the cure? 🤣

Go back to bed!!!

As soon as work and evening training is over I shall be back in bed ASAP. I think I end up more wiped out after a gala than my swimmer 🙈

I don't have to do anything swimming related until Thursday

Drink lots.

Water not Gin!

I hope you dont mind me joining in. I just wondered if anyone knew how consideration times work in the regionals?

It will be same as at county champs if you have them there too.
If a swimmer has a consideration time, they may be able to race if there is enough space in the event. If there are too many entries, then the slower ones will be cut and entry fee refunded. It really depends on the region and their entry T&Cs. Ours just has qualifying times so if they meet that, they're in.

@Glittertwins

Thank you. There probably are consideration times at the counties but he has always qualified with the entry times in his events. i didnt know how likely a swim would be as the club said he had a consideration time for a couple of events in the regionals.
I think i probably wont tell him unless he gets a swim confirmed.

Whereabouts are you, Spend (and welcome)?

Our club doesn't send many to South West Regionals but I don't remember anybody being rejected.

They seem pretty keen to let everybody swim 50-200m events certainly (running the competition over two weekends for the youngsters and the BH weekend for the older swimmers).

I"m in the south east @Madcats and thank you for the welcome.

Welcome @Spendonsend! It’s not our region, but I just had a look and it seems like they have a number per age group in South East, so I assume they take the ones with qualifying times, then top up to that number from consideration times. You might be able to get an idea of how likely he is to be accepted by looking at where he is on rankings? Hopefully he will get accepted on at least one (and still time to improve on his times too potentially) https://www.southeastswimming.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024_summer_qts.pdf

I'd just enter regardless and see what happens! I think we did have consideration times last year but nobody was cut.

Thanks all.it sounds like figers crossed then.

Welcome @Spendonsend. Yes consideration times are basically a case of submit your entries, cross your fingers and see what happens.

South east is a hard region and have changed their qualifying criteria this year.

Dependent on whether you swimmer is age (14 and under) or youth (15 and over) I'll have a go at explaining because we are same region.

Oh - and welcome!