Poolside chat - new year, new racing!

[Glittertwins]

Hope this works, am rubbish at this!

DS moved to university on Saturday. One of the reasons for choosing this particular university is because they are in the top 8 at BUCS and they have a strong partnership with the city team. Yesterday, he went to his first session at 5am. He phoned me at 7.30 as I was driving into work absolutely buzzing!! Apparently he had a long chat with the Head Coach and has been put into the National Squad. He went back for the evening session at 4.00 and Facetimed us later on. Again he was so, so happy. Everyone is really friendly and they are all going out on Wednesday night. Apparently the coach even told him to take it easy for the first week and to make sure he goes out for a few drinks!!!

DS didn't have the best 6th Form experience and swimming has been his breathing space. Moving so far away from his swim friends was a tough choice to make, but having such a positive first experience so soon after moving has been a huge relief. He's going to have dual membership so that he can come home and do Regionals with his old team, so roll on November!!!

That's great news @Swimmum1206. DS is currently a bit down because his squad have lost so many to uni this week - his lane is almost empty and the (local) record breaking relay team is gone. He's really happy for his mates though who have gone on to good teams.

That's great to hear @Swimmum1206
Hope he really has a great time

What a relief that must be to have those happy buzzing calls home, Swimmum1206! I don't think you could hope for a better start to Uni life.

I'm still at the Open Day stage with DD(17) and the proximity of a pool does seem to be an important factor!

That's fab news swimmum.

My ds is also older like yours but decided not to go to uni. But we have a uni near us and is loving having some uni students to swim with!

It's so hard when you're looking for a uni to combine education and continuing your swimming so I'm glad he's found the perfect place for him.

Would really welcome some good uni suggestions . DD has sights set on Loughborough for the swimming but it would be good to have a back up as it’s so competitive . She is very academic but swimming is the most important factor . Just started sixth form so be good to hear some recommendations from others .

To get into the top squad at Loughborough, they need to be looking at 700+ WA points on LC.
Their rec squad gets barely any pool time and at least one of our swimmers now does another sport because they can't get the same pool time as they would back home.
Bath has lost a lot of funding and their top squad is being heavily pruned. Kids who factored in being in the top squad for the swimming when choosing their degree are being dropped from it and this is currently happening.

Well that’s depressing…

Anyone got any recommendations where their child is able to coordinate swimming and their degree

From what I can see, it's the ones with the performance squads which are likely to have lectures and training times that don't clash. So, Surrey, Bath, Loughborough, possibly Manchester, Nottingham. Nottingham is more affiliated to Nova centurion rather than having their own team but Nova has always been a very good club. Or look at universities that have a club training nearby in the morning/evenings. Herts has Hatfield there for example.

I've missed loads - University of Birmingham, Swansea, Norwich all have swim programmes. Then there are other uni cities like Portsmouth & Portsmouth North Sea, Plymouth & Plymouth Leander, Cambridge and City of Cambridge, Hull & City of Hull, Leeds. Should find something suitable with a good course as well.

Thanks . Some of these are definitely options if Loughborough doesn’t work out . Thank you !

If you’re willing to go north, then Stirling, Edinburgh and Aberdeen might be worth a look.

Birmingham comes highly recommended as they have their own pool and swim squad.

I also know swimmers who have looked at Manchester, Surrey and Bath.

But Bath wanted 800 para points for para swimmers. They were quite shocked when someone said even the top swimmer in Britain with that classification has top points of 781!!! And 730/750 for other distances in that stroke.

But as mentioned above if they are culling maybe they are making it unreachable 🤷‍♀️ Shame if it's deliberate rather than just lack of understanding of how para points don't really tally to world rankings.

Ds is at Portsmouth NS. He has a number of swimmers from the uni in national squad with him. Feel free to ask any questions.

Portsmouth uni also pick up TASS swimmers - they are so full ds has to do his Tass through Southampton uni!!!

Thanks @Glittertwins, these lists are very useful. We've had one go to Portsmouth and a couple to Derby. Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam are also good for swimming (as much because of the city as the universities).

One issue with Cambridge/Oxford is that the workload is difficult to combine with the hours of training. I know of people trying, and struggling to do both.

We went to Loughborough open day last weekend. To get onto their "silver" level development squad, boys need around 715 WA points LC as a minimum

The general thing I'm hearing from people currently is the known 'swim unis' are asking for very high WA points for their top squads and even their competitive/ performance squads (although I don't think we are allowed to call them performance anymore?).

It seems to have got harder.

Oh is 'performance' squad not a good thing now? My DS is in a squad called performance, not at Uni just at his club so maybe its different?

Our club performance squad is expected to be nationals qualifiers.

Yes ours as well. I just wondered from @itsgettingweird post if it wasn't really the done thing to call a squad performance anymore?

Not quite sure why there seems to be a thing about the name either.

Ours is called competition squad. Not sure why.

My DS was invited to join the squad at his club but sadly it hasn't happened - he's sad about it (things outside mine and his control) - anyone know if it's 'ok' and to just be in the normal training group rather than the squad. He's 9 (just)

Of course its ok. All clubs run slightly differently does not being in the squad mean be won't be entering swim meets? Is this what he is upset about? If he wants to compete he could look at other clubs that might let him. Or he can just train and enjoy swimming.

At 9, they're only just able to compete. It's not going to make any difference at this stage. As long as he enjoys it, that's all that matters at 9.