Poolside chat- continues here 😁

[Glittertwins]

Did I get this done right??

just catching up.

Ours only had a few days off at xmas.

Interesting to hear about a tech suit repair - I'll bear this in mind if we need it.

Counties has started for us. Gold for DS. Crazy to think one year ago he just about qualified & didn't make finals. I'd say his "want to win & train" got him here. v proud.

But absolutely gutted im going to miss my younger daughter swim in her first counties (im away). I've bought her her first racing suit as mum guilt. My mum will take her, its been a few years since she was at a meet but she's in good hands.

its all go with swimming. so many meets in the next couple of months!

Well done for your DCs in counties.

Ours started last weekend with 10-14 400's, long distance for age and youth and relays.

Ds made the relay team - which was a shock for us 😂

His youth weekend is 1/2 Feb.

Luckily we aren't manic for meets. Ds has qualified for champs in April and as long as he doesn't get DQd in counties that's summer champs done and dusted too!

I expect that's the 3 meets we will do between now and end of season!

DD9 has just started at a local swimming club this term, so far absolutely loving it. I've been sent the details of a gala she can attend in a couple of months time. I know she's going to be super keen. Obviously this is our first time, we're looking at the second day as it has 2 events of her preferred stroke and a couple of other events she could do. Is 4 events in one day too many?

@Hellocatshome you can log in here using his membership number and update it https://www.swimmingmembers.org

@StrawberryThief1930 well done to him that’s brilliant!

Our counties started last weekend with long distance, we’ve got a weekend off then the following two weekends in a row.

Really glad she is enjoying it! Assuming that’s across two sessions, it will be a long day with a lot of waiting around. When my eldest first started doing meets at that sort of age I tended to pick a session with a couple of events he liked and just do one to start getting into it eg 50 breast and 100 free. But if she is keen and wants to do 4 and doesn’t mind being there all day I would say 4 is fine.

Yes, its over two sessions, it's quite a long way from where we live, so feels like it makes sense to make the most of the journey!

Also can anyone recommend training fins that don't fall off? We've got Maru currently, one size is way too small, next size up keep falling off when she's swimming!

Well now i'm really confused.... I've just gone onto the application form and it's got her in the 'open' catergories not the girls? When I look at the info the open is open/boys which seems really unfair?
Is this because she doesn't yet have times? Or have they got her in the wrong section?

@Heckythump1 - they've made an error on entries, there should be an email address for entries@ .... if you did the entry yourself. If it was done through the club, your entries organiser will be able to get it fixed. Open is the new name for male category so she doesn't want to be in that (although aged 9 she might be better than a few boys!)

Is that through your club’s entry system? If so it may be an error in how her gender was entered when she joined - send your membership or competitions person a message and I’m sure they can sort it

I've fixed it, for some reason she had no gender in her profile on swim manager, updated it to female and the entry form is now corect! What a kerfuffle! :P

We always used Maru fins when they were little. We have Arena Powerfin Pro2 now but these will be far too heavy for a 9 yr old. Does anyone else in her squad have any other brand she can try?

How about the junior Arena power fins? They would be suitable for her age, never had a problem with sizing but we all have quite wide feet here.

i think 4 races over 2 sessions sounds fine. my DD is similar age and only just started too, I enter the same for her and tend to stick to just 1 day if its a 2 day meet.

can't help with fins as we all use Maru. I did try the decathlon ones for DS once but they only lasted a couple of weeks before they got snapped. he probably was rough with them though.

I think this one is child dependent.

We have 9yo who would do 10/12 events over 2 full days and be fine.

Others who 2 events over 1 session is enough for them.

9yo very massively in terms of independence, stamina, resilience, self entertaining etc!

Some girls of 9 are almost through puberty and some are years away!

You know your DD best is so what you think is the max she can cope with and be the boss of that decision of pressurised to do more.

Then if she loves it and wants to do more next time then she can do more. She's only at the start of her journey and the important things is for her to continue to love it!

Fins are really personal, so you may need to try a few before you get the right ones. I've always bought ours second hand without issue, and they sell on again afterwards for pretty much what you paid originally. If they are between sizes, a pair of verucca socks can help to bridge the gap.
10yo DD1 and I like the open heel style and we both have Arena Powerfin Pros, but I agree they're heavy. They are super-fast to kick in though and have massively reduced the amount of cramp I was getting in my calves and feet in my old closed-heel fins. DD1 doesn't find them too heavy, but she's already got 5 years of club swimming with lighter fins under her belt plus with size 6.5 feet, any style of fins are going to be weighty. Some of our younger swimmers have the junior version, and those seem great. Arena are a lot of money new, but we've paid around £20 a pair from Facebook marketplace/Vinted.
8yo DD2 has the Finis Zoomers, which she's very happy with. They were somewhere in the range of £12-15 with the postage from Vinted.
A lot of the DCs have the Maru fins because they come in a set with other equipment. They are perfectly good starter fins, but do snap/split fairly frequently IME.
If you can find Kiefer fins, these are a great combination of a soft shoe and hard fin (I don't think they're available new any more, but there are often second hand pairs listed).

Counties starts this weekend with the 1500m, but as DD1 is too young for that, I'm enjoying a weekend off racing before the marathon that will be the following 2 weekends of all day both Sat & Sun. I'm coaching at most of the sessions, so it'll make for a long weekend for both me and DD. Her excited anticipation is beginning to become noticeable though, which is great (and infectious!) 😊

The other thing to think about with how many/which events to enter at a first meet (especially when new to club swimming too), is does the DC know how to do legal turns etc yet. We won't let DCs even enter 50s until we're confident they are unlikely to get DQed on a technicality as it will destroy their confidence. These DCs race 25m events at our level 4 galas instead. I'd speak to the coach for advice on what to enter.

Definitely agree with this. Backstroke, breaststroke and IM turns and finishes feature very heavily in the under 11s age groups.

Absolutely.

Same with distance. If they can swim 50m well but would tore and struggle on 100 meaning feeling deflated or loose technique and risk DQ it's not worth entering. It's too easy to push young children early and they loose their love.

Our coaches are heavily involved in what swimmers enter in development squads or we have parents of academy level swimmers thinking it appropriate to enter them for a LC 400m free (level 3 meet) when they've barely even done any LC training! It's not the parents fault if they don't know and so it's the coaches responsibility to do right for their swimmers.

Even at competitive and performance level there is some input because it depends what coaches are targeting. And often split events over meets. (For example 200's at 1 and then 50's and 100's at another)

It's only really my ds and distance specialists who just do the same events over and over so we enter less meets!

Yes, agree with the longer distances too: Being able to swim a distance generally and swimming it under race conditions are very different. My 8yo swam 2.5km non-stop at a 'fun' (ha!) 1.5hr distance swim the club ran a few months ago - the kind where they see how far they can go in the time given - but, even if she were allowed sooner than the restrictions permit, she is still literally years away from being ready to race an 800 or 1500.
I watched a young girl (from a different club) swim at an open meet last year, who had been entered to swim a 100Fr. Poor kid. At least it was Free, so few rules to trip her up and she avoided a DQ, but it was a difficult watch. She plopped in on the dive, no tumbles, and after the first 25 her stroke completely fell apart to the level the lifeguard was watching her very closely. By the time she had swum the first 50m, the others in the heat had comfortably finished. She shouldn't have been put in that position, I don't know what her parents and coach were thinking ☹️

Ahhhh - the good old T 30/60/90.

It's odd they enjoy them 😂

Honestly the number of kids I see entered for events especially fly at long course galas where I wonder if the coach has ever actually watched them swim it before. DS won his first ever long course gold medal just because he was the only one his age who managed a long course 50 fly without being DQ'd.

First long course gala this weekend and the first gala DS won't have a supporter in the stands but at 14 he has assured me he will be perfectly fine and "it will probably be better" so that was nice.

A lot of parents don't talk to the coaches and do have a strange grip on reality. I've seen a few 200m fly and 400IM where the poor thing couldn't manage the first 50m.

I think this sums up my liking of 200m fly!

It’s not just fly breastroke 200 for little ones is a hell of a long way to keep up legal stroke.

DH does fixtures, he’s had 9 year olds in the first gala entered for 200 IM and when he’s raised it with the parent they’ve said ‘what’s IM’? 🤣