Poolside chat- continues here 😁

[Glittertwins]

Did I get this done right??

@itsgettingweird the app sounds great - would def be interested

Merry Christmas to you all.

Thankyou for another year of great tips and I've loved sharing and celebrating everyone's achievements.

Let's hope 2025 continues as well for our dedicated young fish!

Happy Christmas...one day off from the pool, two more to go!

Ds trained for 4 hours this morning 😂

The famous Xmas Eve 100 100's! Followed by an hour gym (s and c).

Xmas day and Boxing Day off - back Friday for another 3 hour session at 6am 🫣 then same sat, Mon, tues and back 2nd for full timetable.

Not sure having tomorrow off counts though as they don't swim Wednesdays 😂

Blimey, that's an impressively short break! I think DCs will still be digesting all the cheese and turkey on 27th and would sink like a stone if expected back to training so quickly! 😂
My 2 last swam on Sunday night, with DD1 back in the pool Friday and DD2's squad (who are all either too young or not fast enough yet for Counties) have until 4th Jan. Both DCs are feeling very torn at the moment between enjoying the rest and missing the training, but they've asked to go to a public session to just have a bit of fun and splash about at some point, which seems like a good compromise and it'll be nice for them to be in the water where the objective is just a bit of fun (although now I need to dig out the sinkers!).

It is interesting just how differently clubs manage Christmas. We were discussing this a few weeks back with some coaches from different areas of the country. It ranged from 'full programme, right the way through' to 'complete shut down for 2 weeks', despite the latter's Counties starting early on in January - I don't envy those coaches, trying to whip their swimmers back to full fitness whilst at the same time not over working them so they are fresh to race. For us, all squads have a minimum of 5 days off, and either side of that is a slightly reduced schedule to account for coach absences and give everyone a much-needed mental break.

Our club are pretty full on over Christmas. They only have Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day off and I'm pretty sure that's only because the leisure centre is closed. But my DS this year is having 10 whole days off due to a combination of factors. His coaches aren't happy and he has a Gala mid January but it is what it is and I've learnt enough now not to be swayed by the coaches claims that it will take him months to get back what he loses over those 10 days

Yes I do think counties makes a difference. Some counties you can still qualify after Christmas - ours starts then!

For ds squad they swim through counties are targeting the national window to qualify and can't afford to take their foot off the brake.

For regional squads they are targeting regionals so need to be fit at counties and ours start early January so can't afford to to take their foot off the brake either as they will do some taper for counties.

The other squads (competitive, academy and junior) have sessions but they are a few and very much optional! LTS shuts down!

But yea it's very stark how much clubs differ from each other as well as different squads within the same club.

I think for us because our coaches are really good at explaining their rationale it makes it easier to go along with them!

Our squad doesn't taper down for counties either but the younger ones' will have adapted sessions for them. We're off 3 days due to pool closure, we have swum Christmas Eve mornings before. Think we have 2 days next week then back full on.

Yes just so happens that pool closures (Xmas day and NYD) naturally fall on their day off this year! Also closed Boxing Day and so they never train then either.

Last year xmas Eve fell on Sunday which is also their day off so they got 3 days off!!

Although I'm never sure DS is ever quite "off". We've just had breakfast and he was chatting about Aquatics champs in April and summer 🙄😂

Same here! Targeting April as well as summer.

Our parents group chat has been hilarious this morning.

Lots of merry Christmas.

Lots of see you 2 days and jokes about missing each other with 2 days off.

And plenty of parents laughing at how much our kids ache and hurt after their long training and that the coaches obviously thought they needed to earn 2 days off 😂😂

But mostly I'm so grateful to have such a great bunch of swim parents in RL and on here who get it. It would be such a lonely life if it wasn't for other parents understanding and being there through the journey with you.

No tapering for Counties for any of our squads either, although we do avoid the really killer sets in the week before, adding in a bit more race skills work, recapping lesser-known infractions and role playing a bit of 'what to do if...'.
We do similar for regionals too as we just don't have enough swimmers/pool space to further split the various ages and speeds into regional/non-regional qualifiers too. It wouldn't be fair on the non-qualifiers to reduce their training volume any more.
Our Nationals swimmers taper for that, but that's much easier as it only tends to affect one lane.

Our Counties qualifying period stops mid-December, which I really like. I'd hate to still have that hanging over us as we head into the final Xmas rush. DD1's entry was in on 8th Dec 😌
Yes, some are held quite late - I can't remember where the coach was from now, but one was telling me their Counties didn't start until mid Feb. It feels like that must add so much extra strain on the Xmas holidays.

Yes itsgettingweird , it really has become a second family and so great when everyone is so supportive. I'm sure I see more of our swim family than my DH some weeks 😂

Happy Christmas everyone!

We finished training on Friday, those doing counties have 3 sessions in the middle of the holidays then back to normal Friday 3rd, counties starts with long distance the following weekend. Our county entries were in just before Christmas

Happy new year everyone.

We went back to full training schedule yesterday and our counties starts next weekend for LD, most relays and 12-14 400's.

Youth is 1/2 Feb so we have a while to go yet.

Then age 50/100/200's is 22/23 Feb

Back to normal yesterday too. Was surprised that there were no aches and pains after the gym session!

If anyone needs race suit repairs, I can recommend Neil Ednie. Sent one off Monday, it was delivered yesterday (I had tracking on it) it was repaired and sent back out on 24 hour delivery last night. Got it back today. All done on site as opposed to being sent away.

I agree with this too, had a repair done by him just before Christmas and it was really quick. Just hope another seam doesn’t go on them now!

This was a spare pair but still nothing wrong with them otherwise

So you have a website or SM for him - we have a spare pair with the gusset bit that's come unglued. Would be great to get them fixed if possible!

Here you go https://www.neilednie.com/custom-made/tech-suit-repair

That's the one. I wasn't sure if links were frowned on and removed.

Thankyou.

Sharing link should be ok but if they do delete it I've saved it now!

Does anyone know what you have to do if you move house regard the swimmers registration. I put the new address in our membership forms as the renewal is due soon, do I need to do anything else such as information Swim England somehow?

I don't believe you need to do anything at all. I've not moved house since having the membership however I've only ever had things sent to me when I've had my official's stuff sent like registration card. Never had anything in the post for the DCs or me otherwise.