Poolside chat- continues here 😁

[Glittertwins]

Did I get this done right??

5 hours/week at regional level seems very low. Our club has low training hours (compared to other local clubs) and is able to get some pretty good results from it, but even our youngest regional and regional-potential swimmers are doing 7hrs plus 1hr land training, going up to 9hrs for the older swimmers competing at that level.

Our land training for pre-puberty swimmers is fairly gentle and really about laying the groundwork of using correct form for various exercises. The LT for the older swimmers is still body-weight based but pretty brutal some weeks (they come out very sweaty and red in the face!) and includes some lactate tolerance work.
I'm sure the LT does add something, but it'll be a small difference at just 1hr/wk - you might not be missing out too much without this aspect unless it formed a much bigger chunk of the training programme. Is junior gym membership an option? A number of our swimmers do that at our local leisure centre, and it very well run by all accounts with dedicated sessions.

@SkankingWombat yes i agree its low. he's ranked 2nd region and top 25 uk occasionally which is not bad for 5 hours a week but if he wants to continue to develop then perhaps we should consider seconding to another club. one of our swimmers is also national standard on same timetable. its 2 1.5 hr session and then a 1 x1 hour session. probably too late to change anything before regionals this year but we need a plan for next year training.

we have discussed junior gym membership and I'll look into this more. i personally think land training is important.

My younger DS won medals at regionals and qualified for nationals last year in the 13s on 6 hours, he does a couple more now but no land training, and he’s now at the maximum at our club. I’ve felt at points that he should be doing more as it seems like others do a lot more hours, but he is happy where he is, and any dual club options are too far away.

What did you put that made your posts hidden @SkankingWombat??? I’m intrigued as to what could be so controversial here!

My DS (also a para swimmer) pays £55 a month for 4 hours pool time and 1 hour land training (in an upstairs gym, which we can’t always easily get to as the lift breaks periodically). My DS is in a low classification so can’t also train with able bodied swimmers. He wouldn’t keep up but that does limit pool time. We are looking at where we can get more hours, I have been on swimming pool finder a fair bit, looking at gyms and private pools as the other squads book out a lot of the more accessible pools to me. Not found an answer yet though. No idea about meet fees and I am usually either a team manager or chaperone whether for him or others so rarely pay spectator fees.

My phone had a moment and decided to post the same thing 3 times. I reported the spares and asked they were removed as nobody needs to scroll past that 😬 It was nothing controversial!

StrawberryThief1930 that's a fantastic achievement on so few hours.
Has the club/coaches not suggested or even encouraged moving on/dual clubbing? We occasionally have swimmers that need more than we can offer (usually the high achieving LD swimmers) so have a huge neighbouring club who we (bitter-sweetly) wave them off to.
I agree LT can yield amazing results when there is a full programme integrated around the pool sessions with the PTs and coaches working as a team to periodise the training. Our 1hr/wk by an outside provider doing his own thing...? Much less so! We encourage a multisport approach to S&C for our swimmers as we can't offer a proper LT schedule, which definitely makes a difference - you can often tell who does which sports from how they swim. The older ones generally stop being able to manage the commitment to multiple sports as exams loom, which is when they shift to junior gym.

I’ve done that before too!

😂😂😂 me too 🤷‍♀️

Repeat posts is boring!!!! I was almost hoping it was controversial just to see what could possibly be controversial here 😂

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Whereonthestair have you got any para specific clubs near you? I know London has London disability that many dual reg with if you’re that area.
I can ask around if there’s any recommendations if you know what you’re looking for.

do you have any contact with swim England para? They are very good at guiding you in the right direction.

Para has so many different rules and standards even one class to the next you could be talking about 2 different things!

What class is your DS? Have you been to any of the para specific meets? We did the winter para meet in Birmingham. I’m always happy to help if I can and if I don’t know the answer I usually (or ds knows someone specific!) he can ask!!!

That could be a different, albeit rather niche thread! 'Controversial opinions in competitive swimming'

Personally, I support a multisport approach but would ban my swimmers from football, rubgy, and cycling (sorry triathletes!). They all produce a knee-driven kick that is hard to eliminate, and the first 2 regularly have swimmers turn up unable to wear fins because they've been studded and their toenails are now black and hanging off. (Light hearted! Well, kind of... the toenails make me feel a bit ill! 😂)

That could be a different, albeit rather niche thread! 'Controversial opinions in competitive swimming'

I think there would be a fair few contributors I know a few swim parents who could start a fight in an empty room.

The main issue is rugby

Someone always ends up in casualty in the hours before a team gala 😂

I think totally kids should do different things and make sure they are swimming because they enjoy it. A lot of the ones who take swimming mega-seriously at a young age end up hating it and give up by 15/16. From what I’ve observed anyway.

Most definitely!

Without a doubt 👀😂

We’re just the sane ones 😁

We are in the para specific part of our club, but get a small fraction of the pool time the ABs have. Not least because there we are also an area where the planned new 50 m pool was not built. We are also in an area where I can find lots of pools in clubs, hotels and private schools but where there are so many private swimming lessons getting a lane is challenging. I might have found somewhere in a school but waiting to hear. Oh well. So long as DS keeps enjoying it no matter.

That’s good you have a para specific part where. We don't have that but the club are very supportive of ds considering he’s their only para swimmer!

Have you signed up for Junior nationals in June? That’s always a good meet.

We haven’t signed up yet, but will do soon. I can’t get DS to decide what to swim. He can’t compete in more than 3 or maybe 4 events over 2 days without it wiping him out, but once we’ve gone to Coventry he usually wants to swim more than is good for him.

My ds only does 4 events over 2 days. At national events that have finals we do 1 event a day as 2 full out swims a day is enough!

its quite common in para swimming because vision, intellectual and/or congenital myelia you don't get the same physical effects as with neuro muscular and amputation.

It’s probably harder for your ds to decide what to swim because he’s not at a stage of specialising yet?

My ds swims free at AGB events, adds fly for national and will do back and occasionally an IM at county, regional or level 3 meets.

if he’s looking to work towards being on a programme it’s worth looking at the qualifying criteria and focussing on those events.

really depends on what he wants out of it!

If you remember a while back my DD had signed up for the 200 fly for the first time? She's swum it and did a fab job. She was hit with a massive amount of last minute panic as she went to marshalling, which is very unlike her, but held her nerve, stuck to her pacing plan and looked really tidy ☺️ Just a little off a County time which was a pleasant surprise as that wasn't on my radar at all just yet. Her strategy was to not go too nuts and break herself, get a time that could be built on in future, and just generally get a feel for the event (we decided it was better to undercook the first time than die and never want to do it again!). Judging from how she was bouncing up and down and holding a conversation straight from the pool, I would say it was cooked rare 😂 She'll probably have to wait until September to swim it again now and knock off the bit she'll need for Counties, but she's looking forward to it, which is great.
In the meantime, buoyed up from her fly experience, she's signed up for the 400 IM at the next meet 😏 Her head coach is confident about it, so I shall try not to worry so much this time!

Good work there! I never felt the need to race a 200m fly or 400 IM 😆😆

That’s brilliant for DD. I also wonder why they select torture events to race for “fun” 😂

200’s are specialist enough distance without being fly and then LC on top 😵‍💫

Alrhough my brother was 200 fly and 400IM back in his day.

Ds is definitely a sprinter! Although hit his pb doing split 400 LC during race practice at 6am 👀