Poolside chat- continues here 😁

[Glittertwins]

Did I get this done right??

One of ours involves an away stay. He's just opted not to do winter nationals again this year so that negates one away meet 😂 regional's is drivable and the other is his clubs meet!

I think we'll have away days/ camps thrown in as he's just been invited onto 2 programmes and is already a TASS athlete but I'm closing my eyes and ears to that for now 🫣👀

I'm very impressed by the channel swimming - my ds won't even swim OW - he's also far too soft for that 😂

Dd1 likes a bit of open water or outdoor swimming if it’s 28c in the shade. She did do one regional open water but not a qualifying race (and it WAS hot with the water 23/24ish).

Ours is only light as we're not chasing times right now. Winter regionals times sorted for 2 weeks time. Already have the winter nationals times so no pressure there either.

Is there anyone in this group whose child is not getting stellar times, but still in competitive training? We've checked and won't qualify for county times 2025 (age 13 category even though doesn't turn 13 until late 2025).

All PBs in this month's gala and still enjoying swimming... which is the most important thing! But I can see DC's best friend in the club is getting county times and gradually getting faster when they used to be at the same level.

It happens. My DS and a school friend of the same age started the same swimming club at the same time.

They used to be pretty much the same on times sometimes one would beat the other sometimes the other way round with my son being the slightly faster overall.

Now they are 14 my sons friend is medalling at County and Regionals and qualifying for English and British where as my son is lucky to make the odd final at Counties.

Everyone has their own journey and thwir own destination. It doesn't mean they are doing anything wrong it's just nature. And as long as they enjoy it it really is all that matters.

This is prime growth spurt age as well. Children develop at different rates. Mine didn't grow at all in lockdown and people that they'd beaten easily before were now way ahead of them. Tables turned once mine started growing and all that training before was put to good use... they're way way better now. Yea, it can be hard for them when things aren't always immediate. Keep the enjoyment and keep the technique up.

There are plenty in our club who train and compete regularly and don’t make counties. If they are enjoying it then that is the main thing, and it is amazing for their fitness for other sports too.

You haven’t mentioned gender, but as Glittertwins says growth and development plays a part at that age too, and it is hard if they are at the younger end or hit puberty later, for boys in that age you will be starting to get some who look like men where others are still small.

I also think county times can be a bit arbitrary - there has been so much changing around in ours over the past few years, my eldest has one for next year but would have had 9 on the times 5 years ago. There is also a lot of variations depending which county you are in. Too much value gets placed on them sometimes and you aren’t less of a swimmer because you don’t make them.

I think birthdays at that age still make a huge difference.

We have loads of kids in our club without county times (maybe 2/3 of them?). I didn’t expect dd2 to get any this year but she suddenly had a puberty- related spurt.

The other thing is people expect them to progress gradually. They don’t, I don’t think - they plateau for a while then suddenly get faster from nowhere.

Absolutely agree that during puberty you'll see people peak and dip at different rates over a few years.

Our journey has been different as ds is a para swimmer and wasn't classified until he was 17. So he never did a counties until that age. But para swimmers mainly swim open age anyway and there's only 2 comps a year that there is ages and then it's bands rather than single age and still multi class.

So ds did his first counties, regionals and British in 2022 when he was 17/18 years of age and swimming as an 18yo!

So ds arrival on the scene always looks far more impressive than it actually was 😂

Thanks for such quick replies. I am preempting potential wobbles (aka I am overthinking!).

You're all right that I need to keep encouraging training for its own sake, which has been the whole point so far. Puberty must have such a big impact and I'd not really thought it through before as it's our eldest child.

It's always worthwhile looking at the LTAD (long term athlete development) for swimming.

During the teen years it's about training to train and building the engine. (So absolutely what you said). Then you move onto training to compete which is optimising the engine at around 15 for males and training to win (maximising the engine) is from 18 years for males.

Swimmers such as Ollie Morgan and Matt Richard's are a prime example of this and Stephen Clegg (para swimmer).

This is why taking all the opportunities available and using them as part of your process goals is so important during the teen years. And why coaches are always drumming into swimmers that process is so much more important.

Our coaches tell swimmers in their phase 1 squad meeting they don't expect pbs throughout the year. They will target particular meets.

The ages are different for girls though - girls naturally peak young - 13 ish? they get slower after that if they don’t train effectively from what I’ve seen. Boys otoh seem to get naturally faster until up to 16-18 ish from what I’ve seen.

It’s important not to compare boys and girls I think. I know dd1 had pressure to swim all strokes for too long and it caused her problems.

I think in the end later puberty for girls in the long run is better, because if your natural peak is 14/15 you are more mature and better able to deal with the strategy/ training demands to keep getting faster. 13/14 was a difficult age with dd1. Once she hit 15 she was able to mentally deal with the strategy to get faster better. Dd2 has a friend who I fear has peaked and is only 12. Dd2 will probably get there in the next 12 months. She’s never seen the point in any stroke apart from freestyle though so maybe that will help a bit 😂.

Both of mine started periods at 12 and a half ish.

Yes tea they different for girls.

I typed male but should have maybe said that was because female are different - I think on average 2 years lower than males for each bit bit do not quote me know that because I don't remember 100% off the top of my head!!!

I do know it's 16+ for girls at the last stage and 18+ for males.

Is everyone on half term this week? Can't believe it's Thursday already 😂

We have regionals this weekend but thank goodness it's an inset day Monday so I can gather my thoughts before the kids come back 😂

We start winter regionals tomorrow night with the 1500m. Only 5 weeks until winter nationals, that's come round really quickly this year.

This year had flown by.

We aren't at winter nationals but have para winter nationals in 3 weeks! Then a month before Christmas - which is the real eye opener about how fast this year has gone 😂

What's the difference between the para meet and the other winter nationals? Are there more events / classifications other than just MC in Sheffield?

They always use to have a para winter nationals and it's done in age bands 10-13/ 14-17 and 18+. Which is great for para as otherwise it's all open age.

Then they had the para nationals as part of BPSIM (British para swimming international meet) which has run as part of para World Series and they integrated paras into the main programme.

Then in June/July they have a SC junior para national's with same age bands.

I assume to give the younger ones a chance because with it all being open it's much harder to qualify for even integrated nationals because 12yo are racing the 25yo paralympians in multi class (at the extreme ends 😂).

Ds first ever para meet was winter nats 6 weeks after being classified!

Tbh I don't know the rationale for doing a separate event this time but it's a weekend (all day sat and sun am)and closer to home so we opted for it 🤷‍♀️😂.

As far as events are concerned other than the difference between SE and AGB that S14's can't race 100m (they can often do heats but not finals if there's finals at AGB events but 4x100m relay is S14 event so it is necessary for trials etc) the events you can compete in for your classification are the same.

There is no finals at this nationals. And no presentation. (Or prob medals for ds as it's SC and the S14s are bloody good! 😂)

But he loves the vibe of para only events as although the integration is great para events are never quite on the same level. For example at trial in LAC when the ABs had raced and the para races were coming up more people seemed to be leaving than staying. It's actually really upsetting. Also there's something about para events that I think only iras can understand when it's just paras - in that you aren't different. Everyone has a disability and having a disability is normal iyswim?

Hope he enjoys and does well in Birmingham

Good luck to everyone in regionals 😁

In my list of ‘similar threads’ to this one below is Tinder. Eh???

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😂😂😂👀

Just got into our AirBnB for winter regionals and it's nicer than my house! I don't think I'm going to leave. Squatters rights is a thing isn't it?!

😂😂

We are lucky ours are 30 minutes drive away.

I'm doing the 7am car pool tomorrow.

Another parent did the 4.30am one this morning.

3rd parent doing the Sunday regionals run and I'll join them up there at a reasonable hour 😂

Now ds tends to drive the 3 of them most evenings the car sharing means maybe 3/4 times a week each for mornings 😇