Poolside chat- continues here 😁

[Glittertwins]

Did I get this done right??

Yeah that was a monumental cock up for your swimmers and sadly it did have an impact - especially the older swimmers who were also juggling exams. 🤞 they learn from it (SE not the swimmers!)

For this one here, I’d say more work on balancing stroke seeing as it is too much on one shoulder, improve stroke rate and distance and underwater/breakouts on freestyle. The fly underwaters/breakouts are good, no idea why that isn’t mirrored on the free. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes we have balancing stroke work too and also some of his processes are do so with dry land physio work. But that’s more to do with it being para specific for his disability.

Although today we are having a mare because he’s woken up with this …..

Of course it doesn’t hurt because he has no feeling in that lower leg. Wondering whether it needs an x ray or not so just monitoring bruising atm. He said he tripped over something yesterday but he also wears a splint in that leg so not entirely sure what he’s done 🤦🏼‍♀️

That looks painful

Might be an idea to check his foot for anything that seems misshapen if he has no feeling in it? A&E is going to be awful over the weekend too.

That’s my concern. He has no feeling in that foot (actually from his calf down) and therefore no real movement. It’s impossible to know how badly injured he is because he isn’t in pain!

I'm thinking urgent care but he’s resistant. I can’t make him go (he’s 21 now!) but I’ll give it another try persuading him to at least go and get them to check it out and see if they thinking needs an x ray.

I was most concerned because we meg friends on the shore of the river for a cook out breakfast and paddling the kayak and he was cold and wrapped up in 2 towels - it’s 20°+ here. ( he also didn’t kayak which he loves)

@itsgettingweird I agree it's an impossible situation when they are adults and don't want to take your advice but I think that definitely needs looking at.

Oh no that looks nasty! Given he has no feeling in it I think if you can persuade him it would be good to get it checked - would suggesting to him it would make sure it won’t affected his swimming help?!

Tried that one. He is feeling better now and has actually perked up and bruising has remained stable so I’ve agreed to see how it is in the
morning but I’m not taking him swimming if it swells up or he starts to feel unwell again.

He’s probably worried that he’ll be told not to swim if he goes - the irony!

Something has been damaged to cause that bruising so it will need to be checked if that doesn’t naturally fade away otherwise there will be more damage which will lead to more time out of the pool (I know you don’t need to be told that;))

Yeah we had a proper chat tonight and he’s agreed that if it’s still really bruised tomorrow we will go to urgent care. I have the letter from his consultant to say any damage to that foot needs taking seriously due to nerve damage so hopefully they’ll not brush it off as it doesn’t hurt!

Don’t you just love boys who know it all!!
ps - any signs of fading yet?

He swam this morning.

This is the lastest bruising (this morning) - there’s 2 odd circle bruises now 🫣😂bruising is certainly changing as you’d expect with healing so as long as it keeps improving I’ll just monitor. One of the swim parents is paramedic and had a look and said even if he’d broken the toes they wouldn’t do anything but it all looks like it’s healing well with the colour changes.

Have any of you worked through the quitting wobbles? DD is 16 and in very significant exam year with a very heavy course load. She’s gone through almost 3 years of injuries and has a chronic health condition but swimming always been pretty constant in her life. She swims at Nationals level. She’s said she is probably at the end of the road. She wants to see if not swimming improves her health, she’s worn out etc. But on the other side she still very competitive, medalled at summer nationals, was discussing new kit she wants this weekend and making plans for the months ahead.

We wouldn’t push her to continue but I also think this is a mistake. Her closest friends are in the pool and no matter what, the reality is those relationships will change and go if she’s not part of the day to day. She also uses the pool to decompress and that is very important. She is close to her coach and we have said she needs to have a very honest conversation with him. I wonder about cutting back training for a while etc but I wonder what others have tried or how you have approached this.

I think speaking to the coach is a great idea. If she can feel like there is flexibility in training through mocks and GCSEs etc it may break down those fears she has of seeing the next 10 months of demands down a little.

Mu ds has never had the wobble but many of his peers have.

Some continued through GCSE and then decided they didn’t want to do it anymore, some end of first year college and some at end of college. Some swimmers have left end of year 9 and some end of year 10.

This is the age where swimmers start to drift away - depending on club set up some will go to fitness and if older masters. Some decide not to swim at all and join a gym. One of us has switched to a team sport for fun for his gcse year.

Our coach always makes it clear there is a route back if they want it.

I think the fact she’s discussing kit whilst also quitting she’s at the stage where she doesn’t know yet what she wants and it’s the overwhelm rather than not loving the sport enough anymore to out in the hours.

Let’s face it - if you are getting up stupid o clock many mornings a week and then swimming evenings on top you have to really love the sport. It needs to be your biggest commitment and want outside of education and the reality is that won’t be true for many (most?) swimmers - even if they love the sport - at some point.

I would always encourage them to cut back and down before quitting cold turkey which is what most swimmers who have had a wobble have done in our club.

A few have returned to full programme, a few stay at masters and general competitive level and a few have quit eventually.

DD(18), was a teeny tiny bit like @LocallassieDD, but only swam up to Regional level. Our decision was more a case of the club having to halve pool hours, cut gym and switch to race-pace after Covid. We could have moved to another club with many more hours, but DD wanted to keep the “enjoyment” of swimming with her friends. We still entered shorter distances at Regionals (skipped A level year), but it was really obvious to all of us that DD would always stay as a “good” swimmer.

During years 11/12 her attendance was probably 3 hours/week with minimal competitions (she did a lot of extra-curricular/sports/music stuff at school as well as visiting a lot of Unis as overnight trips). The coaches took a “let them swim or we’ll lose them” approach.

I think swimming will always be part of DD’s life. She finds it “mindful” and it helps her to process her day. She runs too, these days, but has to pay a bit more attention to where she is going!

It’s hard to keep track of what the club’s 18 year olds are up to. One (Medic), stopped two months before A levels to get the grades. Two are going to Uni locally and moving to Masters (they might give the Uni club a try, so we’ll see). DD wants to swim at Uni, but wants to move to triathlon. A few of the 16 year olds have stopped and switched to another sport (one strong swimmer is trying another club).

Good luck with the £££ kit request! At the end of the day you and DD need to decide WHY she swims: Will she always want to train to medal? How does she handle disappointment?

We’ve know several (young potentials) burnout (some quite badly) from training through ill health at other clubs. Sometimes it is hard to stand back to be objective when you are surrounded by competitive parents.

Totally agree about burnout madcats. I think one of the reasons Ds has remained in the sport so long is he a) went into it late and b) remained at a smaller club until he was 16. So he’s now 5 years into the heavy training and frequent early mornings.
if a child is doing that at 9yo I can see why at 14/15/16 they’ve had enough and/ or burnt out.

Although I don’t see my DS giving up anytime soon 🫣🤷‍♀️

Thank you both. Burnout is interesting as while the club is high achieving, there is not pressure from the head coach to succeed at all costs. She was also quite a late bloomer and although in a competitive club from 8. Her training hours only really increased massively over the last two years. She hasn’t always trained to medal and still doesn’t (she doesn’t more than she does!)

Shes faced a lot of health issues over the last three years, both injury and other and she’s so so gritty and tough. I feel she thinks not swimming will make her health better, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

Could you arrange a chat with a sports psychologist?

Our club has one because we get uni students doing a masters who use it as work experience - and it’s really helped our swimmers who have been injured or unwell and it’s affected their training.
as one parent put very well “it’s alright once we’ve sorted the body and the joints but they need to realise they then need to sort out their head” (para phrased)

But it’s true. Ds has had lots of support as his muscular condition has deteriorated and it’s really helped him shift focus when needed.

A sports psychologist would be a good idea as well as talking with the coach.

We dropped quite a bit of training in year 11 due to mocks and exams and let them decide when to train according to when the exams were. Keeping the training going (albeit reduced) was the right thing here - still got to see friends and a decent amount of exercise to help a good nights sleep.
Lockdown certainly showed us that when they didn’t get the exercise, they didn’t sleep as well as before. Being at the pool also helped letting go of the school work for a couple of hours.

How’s everyone finding the return to training?

@itsgettingweirdDS has just started back and has moved up a group. Luckily it’s a staggered start so just twice last week and three times this week before back to normal four times next week! Hope he’ll be ok!

Yes we stagger start back too.

3 X 1.5 hrs after 2 week shut down.

last week 5x 1.5 hrs.

this week 6x1.5 hrs and also club champs Friday evening.

next week back to full 9 x 2 hrs and 3x 1 hr gym!!!! 😴😴😴😴

That's great your ds has lived up a group. Hope he’s enjoying it.

Blimey that’s a lot @itsgettingweirdhow old is yours? Mine is 9 so still at the beginning of the jounrey - yup, enjoying it but tired with school as well!

Our club didn’t stop completely, but back to full hours from last week and we also have a new head coach. Eldest seems to have found his enthusiasm again and has been to all the sessions, having only been regularly doing half for the last year or so.