Poolside chat - new year, new racing!

[Glittertwins]

Hope this works, am rubbish at this!

Having done two AP race clinics (different strokes), I wouldn't do any more. I personally don't think they have enough time in the water but they seemed to have a good time. As far as I know, there was no such thing as selection, you signed up and paid. If you are talking about the race meets, then there will be entry times posted on the web page for the competition. We did the first Intl meet in 2023 but a lot older than 9 yrs old so I don't know what those entry conditions are.

That's brilliant he got back in spend and even better he enjoyed it and wants to keep going. Best of luck to him.

Oh yes I was thinking of race clinics and also sprint with the stars. I've heard mixed views on race clinics and do think it's related to cost. But all our swimmers who have done race with the stars have loved it.

Don't know anyone who has done international meet but o do remember having had a nosy last year it's very tough Emmy try times as attracts international swimmers. They didn't have para times but paras could enter and I'm sure ds didn't have times for it.

Some of my Masters squad have done the Masters Sprint with the Stars and said it was a very well run meet. A couple of our younger swimmers have done the race clinics and really enjoyed them, but they are very expensive IMO.
A larger number of our swimmers have done the Swim Swift Elite camps, which are also spoken about very positively (plus are cheaper!), and will likely be the one we go for over AP. I'm waiting until 10yo DD1 is around 11/12 to shell out for these though, as I think that's when she'll get the most out of it.

I agree with the others about the training hours for younger DCs.
We're at a small club with limited pool time and use HIIT-style sets plus a bit of land training. The club get a number of medals at Counties and Regionals, and we get some swimmers to Nationals (with one getting a gold over the summer), so this style of training must work quite effectively. The big exception to this is the older long distance swimmers who need the hours slogging up and down; they get handed over to/dual club with our nearest city club. Our top senior squad have 9hrs in the pool per week and some of our younger County swimmers are doing just 2 (although most at County level are on 3-6hrs, depending on age). Taking part in other sports or hobbies is encouraged (with the exception of football, which ruins their flutter kicks! 😖), both to complement their swimming fitness and to keep life interesting/stop burnout.
DD1 is just chasing the last couple of County times she's narrowly missing (in her #4 form) and, although she is unlikely to get any medals, should make a good number of finals in January. She moved from 3 to 4.5hrs in August, and this feels like plenty for her age and stage of development. She is also able to continue with her second sporting love of martial arts as well as Scouting with this schedule. I wouldn't want her to have to be making the hard decisions on what to give up just yet.

@Spendonsend that’s great news, well done to him on getting over the nerves to get back in to it.

On the AP race stuff, I know a couple of people who have done the clinics and said it was good, Sprint with the Stars looks really good too, but in both cases I have looked at them and ruled out due to cost - Sprint with the Stars was £20 a race and I just couldn’t justify it on top of all our other swimming costs compared to normal entry fees

@SkankingWombat your club sounds quite similar to ours in terms of hours and levels swimmers reach, we don’t have any land training though.

I agree in terms of balance, it’s much better for younger ones to have the time available for other sports and activities and make their own decision to focus on swimming once they get to teens if that’s what they want, rather than being pushed so hard they have no time for anything else

I suppose it depends on age/ability for the AP intl meets. The first year it was done, the entry times were rapidly dropped as they just couldn't get the entries. The entry times this year on all the freestyle events were a lot slower than the finalised 2023 entry times.
It's a long day with huge gaps between sessions and there's nowhere comfortable to go between sessions either. Felt a bit of a rip off having to leave the building so they could run paid for tours - the race entry fees weren't cheap either! Maybe it was run better this year but due to the scheduling, we're in no great rush to return.

Our younger swimmers who are swimming 1 or 2 sessions a week are actively encouraged to be doing a multi sport and hobby approach. As mentioned above it's far better for their overall development.

I'm a great believer in if when older they want to pursue it seriously they absolutely should my ds is at that age now and swimming is his focus. But I've also seen that it not being his whole being from 9yo, or 12yo or through his younger teens it hasn't held him back and whilst those who he caught up with left through burn out, falling out of love of the sport or struggling when others caught up - he's kept going.

I do think as well there is a very stark difference in the journey for boys and girls.

One thing I noted at Aquatics summers and nationals this year is how the girls heats generally had a mix of age groups in each - the boys were quite uniform in as you went through the heats you went up age groups (with an odd outlier or 2!)

We’ve never done the AP race clinics. My two would be up for going just to meet AP, they get a photo 🤷🏻‍♀️.

We’ve always been on holiday for any vaguely do-able though.

Yet again just not committed enough 😂😂

For those who have para swimmers.

Swim England are hosting an aquatics GB para only nationals in November at Sandwell. Classification opportunities and classification review opportunities.

Details aren't yet posted but entries open 14th October. I'll post a link to the SE page when it's all up for those interested.

My ds raced at British champs in April and his final was the same heat as the breast final. He was desperate to watch Peaty.

He got called for doping testing straight after his final and missed it all 😂😂😂😂 He was gutted!

Not same heat (for a start he's shit at breast stroke 😂🤦‍♀️) - same session.

There is definitely a gender difference, from what I have seen girls don’t tend to get much faster beyond 13/14, at a similar point to when boys start to get faster than girls. Whereas boys have barely started puberty then and don’t level off until 16/17. It feels like they should be treated a bit differently in age groups - with winter regionals with only 2 age groups there is a big jump in the male times between the under and over 16s, whereas the girls have little difference, and much younger girls qualify in the junior age group than for boys

That’s such a shame it had to be then that he got called for testing and missed it!

@SkankingWombat I know when DS switched to the HIIT training club he was warned that his overall fitness would decrease as he was slogging up and down for hours, but training at racing pace would pay off (why train swimming slowly when you need to swim fast when racing?). It was effective enough to get one of the older swimmers to the Commonwealth Games.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/extra_curricular_activities/5178828-poolside-chat-continues-here

we’re almost full!

Our coach sets sessions according to the competitions being targeted and will build up race pace training when needed as well building in stamina when that's needed.

That’s such a shame it had to be then that he got called for testing and missed it!

Anti doping seems to have their timing. They also turned up at our house one evening - the night before I had an OFSTED inspection 🤷‍♀️🫣

Although I am actually very glad it's taken seriously and wholeheartedly support random dope tests.

Gotta say though one evening out of 364 a year in a 4 year inspection cycle is pretty impressive timing 🧐😂

That is really unlucky

SabrinaThwaite it is definitely a really interesting variable to play with. We have one swimmer who returned to us after 3 years of Uni and no notable swimming, but was going to the gym 5 times a week. He was placed with us oldies in Masters initially, but it quickly became clear he was far too fast for us (and some of us - not me! - are fairly speedy) and he is back with the Performance squad now. He's still a gym bunny, swimming twice a week, and is getting some very respectable times from it. He is a little off his 18yo times, but not by much TBH.

My eldest hasn’t swum competitively for 10 yrs now as he changed to weightlifting (so bigly gym sessions), but can still swim some impressive 50 times - fly not so much now, as his shoulders are too big.