Poolside chat- continues here 😁

[Glittertwins]

Did I get this done right??

Strange grip on reality 😂 sums it up perfectly!

I remember when ds started out and he couldn't even get into level 3 meets as wasn't fast enough and I didn't have a clue what I was doing (still not convinced I do!) and asking coach's what he should do but never thinking about further than 50m.

DS obviously started late at 12 though and didn't really do any proper open meets until his teens.

I'm quite taken aback sometimes at the confidence of the younger swimmers parents that their 9yo can of course do 200fly and 400IM LC. However when you talk to them more it often transpires that really the parents just know not many their age do it and so as long as they aren't DQd they'll get a medal.

Our coaches work so hard to inbed the process not outcomes but I feel they are talking to themselves at times!

That's why I'm glad now nearly every swimmer needs coaches permission and swims signed off before they enter.

It strange how clubs do things differently. Until you are in our top squad the coaches choose your races not parents. Even in top squad you email coach what you want to swim and they either agree or offer alternative ideas.

I think more high powered clubs do that. My two would have quit for sure 😂

@Heckythump1 we use these too

I think sometimes parents just have no idea about swimming and what the events are, and just click to enter them in everything when they start doing meets.

Our county has more generous times on 100 and 200 fly and 400IM, I presume to encourage swimmers to have a go at the less popular events, but with our counties now being long course I do worry that some of them will really struggle with a legal stroke without the turns.

DD1 will be swimming this (SC!) for the first time in March. Fly is both her favourite and #1 form, and she's been hassling to try the 200 since September. She doesn't do half-measures, so I figure it will either be a raging success or disaster (be it DQ or discovering it's actually not a lot of fun in reality, although I doubt the latter as she's a bit odd... 🙄), but at least it will give my ears a rest, no matter the outcome, and she knows the score regarding DQs and won't be disheartened by it. I've been carefully eyeing her fly for months and she'll be absolutely fine if she holds her nerve with her pacing strategy and doesn't get carried away on the first 100. It's also, rather handily, the last event of the meet, so if she breaks herself it won't affect anything else 😬

We let the parents decide what DCs enter, but coaches are vocal about being happy to advise, will say if you've missed something off they want them to race, and will block anything totally unsuitable. Targeted events that coaches use to track progress tend to be the basis of our L4 meets, so there is no need to force specific entries at open meets. A lot of parents are totally clueless, but are pretty good at asking for help and, if anything, often slightly conservative in their entries.

Our less popular events at Counties have very generous QTs too - fair enough getting a medal in those due to lack of entrants for a comparatively slow time but clean swim IMO. Even just legally completing a 400IM is a huge test of skill, fitness and determination for a younger swimmer that should be celebrated, no matter the time achieved.

I hope her first 200 fly goes well when the time comes! It sounds like she’s a strong fly swimmer so I’m sure she will be fine.

i definitely agree that they more than deserve their medals if they can get through the tough events legally in the younger ages. With counties I just worry we are going to have some heartbroken ones who get DQed if their stroke just held up SC to qualify but they struggle LC. The first time DS2 did 400IM he said he didn’t know why everyone went on about how tough it is, then when he did it LC he said he got it!

Mine won't swim 200m fly LC, happy to do it SC though.

Neither of mine have ever swum 200 fly or ever will. Crazy event 😂

Even just legally completing a 400IM is a huge test of skill, fitness and determination for a younger swimmer that should be celebrated, no matter the time achieved

This a million times,

Yes, I think she'll be fine too. She's just had another 1.5hrs training added each week with the squad up, so that will have further boosted her strength and fitness by the time March comes around. They swim it in training as a light-hearted and 'fun' (it's that word again!) punishment fairly regularly, and she has no issues despite it always being added towards the end of the session.
She has her first (and probably second very shortly after, given she should make the final 😬) LC 100Fl next weekend, so it will be interesting to see how that goes as a step up towards the 200 SC.

In more important news: the Counties hoodies have arrived and been distributed, so a very happy DC here! I think I went a bit overboard on the growing room however, as went one bigger than last year's then-oversized garment, pushing her into the smallest adult size. It could easily be worn with tights as a jumper dress without anyone batting an eyelid 🙈😂

All the early hoodies could have been worn as dresses here, it's the rite of passage!!

I have a 200flyer and until very recently her LC time was faster than her SC! Think it’s marmite. She’d choose that over 100 free any day!

Tough call here. 100m free is too short an event!

Blimey, does anyone else feel like prepping for Counties (and above, I suspect) feels like preparing for a siege? I've been on the go since I got home from the school run, and have finally sat down for a bit of dinner before I don my hairdressing hat to braid up DD's hair and, finally, finish the bag packing. It isn't even this much effort to pack for a week's camping! We'll be out of the house 7am-8.30/9pm, so it's either be prepared or spend a small fortune on food and drink and spare noseclips 😏 I am coaching at one of the sessions too, so that's another set of stuff I need to pack...
Car boot is prepped for a lunchtime make-shift rest area (was full of tools and sawdust a few hours ago!), tomorrow's dinner is made and in the fridge, tomorrow's breakfast, lunch and snacks are prepped as far as they can be, and we have bags so-far-mostly-packed for each session (fresh towels, race suit and tracksuit etc). I am going to sleep well tonight!

Meanwhile DD1 has had a lovely long bath, watched a film, cuddled the cats, and stuffed her face... 🙄😂

I'm still at training!! Luckily I don't have hair to braid and most things are easy to grab to repack in the morning. Also helps that I'm not far from the pool so I can go home part way

good luck to everyone with counties this weekend.

its the shopping that gets me, i just cant seem to buy enough food!

Good luck for everyone at Counties. Our Counties start next weekend but I honestly find them less stressful than a normal gala but I guess that's because it's spread over 2 weekends and we live close enough for DS to go home at lunchtime, although I'm stuck there all day as a volunteer.

Ds is first event in morning session both days (ours is next weekend) and mid session both afternoons. We are about 30 minutes from pool so we'll go, warm up, race, come home.

Go back rinse and repeat!

He has shoe string bag always packed for racing and one with spares. They come out the draw, packed in rucksack, come home, dry and repacked ready for next time!

I've not been to evening training last 2 evenings as he's driven him and local kids. It's definitely easier when they are older! Other than preparing his food I do nothing else to prepare!

And when his new wheelchair arrives in next few months I'll be surplus to even more requirements as when not on crutches he can carry his own stuff too 😂 his current wheelchair needs me to push him (or his friends) but his new one is built for him and he can self propel better and it'll fold down without needing someone to help him.

Sadly he'll always need ridiculous levels of drugs in the morning and so won't be able to drive himself at 4.30am as he's too drowsy 😴

Hope everyone competing at counties this weekend has a good meet. We have training at 7-10am and then I plan to batch cook and read and catch up on some tv the rest of the weekend.

At training tonight Glittertwins ? I'm assuming your Counties aren't on this weekend, otherwise 😱 on the turnaround time. Training was cancelled tonight for us as the pool is in use for the LD events, but they always give anyone at the morning session of a meet the night before off training (how generous!).

I got her into bed for 9.30, which is pretty good going for a DC who shuns sleep, with orders not to roll around too much and mess up her hair 😂 (we've misplaced her silk bonnet) I might have mentioned a few times that life would be a lot easier if she let me have 5-10 minutes with her hair and DH's clippers, but she wasn't having it. Everything is now sorted. I think...!
We'll be at the pool all day Sat & Sun both this weekend and next. It is just far away enough that it isn't worth going home in the middle, sadly. I am poolside for all the mornings, but thankfully only coaching at one afternoon session; at least we can go home as soon as DD has finished for the day on 3 out of 4 days.

In total agreement about getting through so much extra food. I always think I've over catered, yet somehow it all goes.
The days when they can drive themselves to the pool and be self sufficient feel very distant still at the moment. DD1 is AuDHD with the concentration skills of Dory, and I'm generally ecstatic just if we come home with everything we took. Even packing her own bag feels a long way off - I trusted her to pack her own suitcase for our Summer holiday last year, only to discover on arrival that she had packed (amongst many totally unnecessary things) 5 swimming costumes and 8 thick jumpers but only 3 pairs of pants for a 2 week stay...
The new wheelchair sounds amazing itsgettingweird , and like it'll provide a fantastic new lease of freedom for all. And the idea of a dedicated always-packed race day bag is great!

Yep, I'm up already for the run to the pool this morning 😀
I don't live far and don't have to contend with many races, the one good thing about having an older one.

Ours don't have the night off before counties. It's only National 1 who train Friday evening (Nat 1 and 2 do morning) and they train through counties.

But then again our evening sessions are 5-7pm so it's not a late night!

Skanking I still have to provide ds with lists! He has autism alongside his neurological condition and the severe problems with executive function skills that go with it.

We did A LOT of bag packing training as he started doing away on camps- first for a few nights and then a warm weather camp and then to a different country 2 years ago so he needed to up his game 🫣😂

We've only recently had 1 disaster whereby he put the power bank in his suitcase and they removed and destroyed it at Berlin airport. 👀😂

Yeah I'm up.

Ds to swimming, me to gym and then it's the mad rush to get tickets when it opens at 9am!

Just about to head off to our last ever trip down to Millfield for Counties. It's a sunny day as well, so we can have a mooch around Wells between dropping her off for warm-up and racing. No snow or flooding to contend with, either!

DD wants to swim at Uni next year (location TBD but some have nice looking pools), but I can't imagine we'll watch her race ever again.