Poolside chat- continues here 😁

[Glittertwins]

Did I get this done right??

She did the Barcelona and Canet legs - it’s a train through meet for the summer nationals

Summer internationals

European juniors? Aiming for worlds?

European U23s. Missed the Worlds qualification at trials.

Making U23s euros is a great achievement.

How’s she getting on in France?

did anybody's kids swim at the AP gala in London at the weekend? It was our first time at the aquatics centre - v exciting.

No we didn’t and couldn’t go up because of training. Have been to LAC though.

Worth visiting Ponds forge if you get a chance - that’s even bigger!

No, we did it the first year it was on, it was a very long weekend as we were in heats and finals. Too long a day really.

ah we weren't in the finals. But we did stay to watch the finals & super finals! and we only did one day. was great to see some famous names swim in real life and not on the telly!

In case it isn’t wasn’t obvious it is usually fairly easy to go for a regular swim at LAC. It is run by Better (so timetable is online); they sorted out a keycard for DD on the spot a couple of summers ago. My last trip there coincided with a training session with the diving team (so that made spectating with an audiobook far more interesting!)

Did anyone swim in the grassroots races? I’m wondering how the children were children (I know they said local clubs but how did they decide what clubs to include and then which children from those clubs)?

It’s EA now

Ds have never swam in an AP meet. They were at the Aquatics GB champs though and Peaty and his team are really passionate about grassroots swimming being more available.

i wondered that too @FlyHighSky72 the grass roots kids were pretty good though! they also had a load of kids as "kit carriers" (reminded me of ball boys/girls at Wimbledon!)

Yeah @StrawberryThief1930I saw the kit carriers too - I wonder if they’re swimmers or local school children (I think for the recent aquatics GB they were locals rather than swimmers?)

I think kit carriers at a lot of big meets are usually young swimmers from local clubs.

@itsgettingweird- she was decent - a few A & B finals

That’s brilliant. Hopefully a good block of training now before Europeans and she can smash it all over again!

I also understood kit carriers were from local clubs but I think in London some were also those invited to the sessions in between - no idea where I got that from though!

Thanks all - was more interested about how the young ones got into the grassroots races than the kit carriers. I agree, kit carriers for all these events are local children

Have a look at AP race online. There’s info there on how to qualify for races and what competitions you can take part in.

I have no idea tbh because it’s not something we’ve done (some of ds teammates have done sprint with the stars). Also not something we’ve are likely to do due to scheduling and the fact ds is a para swimmer! So far I’ve been very impressed with the work they've done and the publicity they are bringing to grassroots swimming and the costs involved. Maybe they need to improve on how to make it clearer how to get involved though?!

Thanks @itsgettingweirdI had a look a couple of days ago and couldn’t find anything on it at all! Nothing on grassroots at all - not even mentioned! Maybe I’ll try contacting them on instagram

Last summer they had inflatable obstacle course sessions down the length of LAC too, if DCs fancy soaking in the space (and water 😬) in a different way.

Friends took their DC to watch the AP races and had a great time. They said most of the 'grass roots' swimmers were from local-ish bigger-named clubs (and extremely quick!) rather than smaller local ones - was that not the case?

Our club (co Sheffield) always get invited to be kit carriers for nationals. But they must put the invite out to lots of clubs as I definitely do not recognise all the children

DD was a kit carrier at the European under 21s in Dublin a few years ago. She had a great time, but learnt that warm up at high level racing is a brutal business. Swimming is the most violent non contact sport i know. She also loved seeing the female swimmers, strong muscled women. A great influence to balance out TikTok.

Does anyone know in practice when DCs fit adult-sized goggles? DD has been pestering to upgrade her competition goggles for some time and her birthday is coming up, so I think I'll finally relent... There is more choice if the adult ranges are a possibility. I'm going to give her an IOU for her birthday so I can get her fitted for them properly at the next open meet's pop-up shop, but will need to manage her expectations in the meantime. She was looking particularly longingly at the Arena ranges, although thankfully not the 'top shelf'!
She has needed adult hats (for out of the pool eg caps and bucket hats) for a couple of years as she has quite a big head, and her current Arena Tracks Junior goggles are fitted with the 'L' nose piece, so it feels like the adult pairs might be an option.

DS just wears the decathlon own elite googles. He wears them for training and racing. £30 a pair thanks to inflation but not expensive for racing googles.
He has 3 pairs on the go at once. Training pair, racing pair and spare (which are at home).
When the training ones break his racing pair get used for training, spare for racing and then we pick up a spare pair when we have time!!! (Always make sure it’s before a huge meet just in case! And take a spare pair to nationals etc)

I don’t remember when he transitioned from junior to adult ones - I don’t remember what he wore when he first started but they weren’t racing style ones even for meets!