Poolside chat- continues here 😁

[Glittertwins]

Did I get this done right??

I believe it is a thing!
We're only 25 mins away from our pool so am now at home on the sofa having watched the post mortem of tonight's race.

First time posting in this thread so hello everyone. My DD is 11 and swims with a competitive club. She enjoys swimming but is one of those who is not hitting county times. She is also smaller in size. I believe everyone develops differently, plus agree that the most important part is to enjoy the sport. So glad to find this thread, lots of helpful advice here!

Welcome hot choc.

How did ds get on glitter?

Welcome to the chat and thank you. It's a big commitment for us of 5 days training a week but only for the love of it.

Though i realised after my first post that encouraging love of the sport for its own sake and the resilience of not being the best but carrying on is a good life lesson regardless.

He did alright, he's pleased with it!

My DD’s don’t train 5 days per week. Dd2 (12) is still only training 3 and Dd1 (15) trains 4. Dd2 will need to up her training a bit at some point probably in about 12 months time, dd1 likes to balance time with friends and has GCSEs this year otoh. Dd2 also does drama club (and likes the PlayStation too much)

Is it compulsory at your swimming club to train so much @ReluctantSwimMum? Neither of my two take swimming particularly seriously in truth and I don’t know that many in real life who do.

Welcome 😁

Well done to him

That's good glitter 🥳

I think different clubs run differently with regards training and hours and timings.

Ds swims 5 times a week. 4 of those days he does morning and evening and 2 of those 4 also does gym 🫣

Saturday is just a morning session followed by gym.

Weds and Sunday off - except today when we are at regionals!

It's not "compulsory" but the timetable is such for their squad. There are younger squads too and they build up to it from twice a week, then three times a week. There is also a non-competitive squad at their age group that chooses 2 sessions a week. It sounds like every club does things differently.

In reality, I'd say we miss one session every 2-3 weeks owing to tiredness or other commitments and it's not an issue.

Both of mine are timetabled more than they actually swim though. They are timetabled that much partly so people have choice rather than needing to go every single one. As you say it’s different at different clubs - but if you are struggling with it a bit the obvious answer at our club would be to just not go to one (or two) of the sessions each week. The expectation at yours may be different though. Our development squads have about 5 sessions a week, but very few people go to anywhere near all of them.

Sometimes it’s some of the newer people who turn up to pretty much every one thinking it’s what’s required.

Our neighbouring club from what I’ve heard would probably kick my kids out tbh otoh 😂

But my opinion is that balance with other interests/ school and rest is also important. And from what I’ve seen doing loads of training doesn’t necessarily make kids super-fast.

At our club it would depend on which squad you are in to whether you are expected to turn up every session or not!!

The national squad you are expected to turn up!! Dependent on age you will be directed to do 7,8 or 9 sessions a week but other than illness or missing an odd session for genuine reason the squad criteria is you turn up!

Ds has missed sessions due to stag weekend and wedding this season and they are fine with that!

This is it - it’s all different. And it took me years to work out how our club works. Smaller clubs don’t have enough top level swimmers to form a ‘national’ or ‘elite’ squad anyway.

DS does 14 hours swimming over 7 sessions and 2 hours land training over 2 sessions. That's the minimum you can do in his squad. Not sure what we are going to do next year in GCSE year as this is already quite a struggle with the homework in yr 10.

We dropped a few sessions in year 11 due to school trips at the start of the academic year, then for mocks and the actual exam's themselves. It was usually the mornings we dropped, the evenings were good for a break from the revision.
We do 8 sessions over 6 days (15 hours pool) plus 2 hours gym. There is another pool session which we don't do. He's happy with that, others have since given up because they didn't want to do that kind of training.

I think it sums up how fast years fly by when I couldn't believe your ds is now ye 10!!!!

It's worth speaking to the coach if the commitment is too much/clashes. We're a smaller club with limited pool time. Our squads swim fewer hours than at neighbouring bigger clubs so it isn't so commitment-heavy, but as a general rule you are expected to turn up to all sessions unless unwell/injured/on holiday etc. There are DCs who always miss a specific session due to other commitments, but this is discussed with and agreed by the squad's lead coach. Their space in that session can then be offered to swimmers in the squad below to 'swim up' whilst waiting to move officially/transition to the squad. We just don't have the pool time to allow our swimmers to frequently and/or randomly miss sessions; there is always a list of DCs ready to move and waiting for a space in the next squad across all levels. Although the club encourages participation in other sports and hobbies, those who prioritise attending all their squad's sessions are the DCs who get offered the spaces first when the move arounds happen, so that can be worth bearing in mind if the club works like ours.
I know at least one bigger nearby club will actively move swimmers down if their attendance drops without a good-enough reason, and their training hours are much higher than I'd want my DCs doing at the younger end (so high that 10yo DD1 would be doing 10hrs with them vs the 4.5hrs she does with us). Again, a chat with the coach will allow you to work out what their expectations are/possible implications of missing sessions.

We have swimmers who drop a session or so during exam periods and coaches will work out a bestoke timetable around exams and key sets for each swimmer.

The issue at our club tends to occur when they only want to do 6 sessions but don't want to swim with the squad that do 5-7 sessions a week

But as tea said size of club will also have an influence. We have regional and national squads (2 of each) so there's plenty to meet wants and needs of training.

I'm not sure how big our squads are compared to other clubs though? Our top squad (Nat 1) is only about 15 swimmers (maybe a few less) and Nat 2 is about same.

We’re a smaller club, both mine are at the maximum of 9 hours over 6 sessions (all evenings), no land training. Next squad down is 6 hours over 6 days. The range in the top squad is wide with some going to nationals and some not making counties. Whilst the coach would like them to attend all or most sessions, in practice many don’t, but it isn’t a performance club. So whilst most of the better achieving swimmers do attend all sessions, I don’t think there would be a real issue if they did due to exams etc.

I know! I can't believe it either, definitely a blink and you will miss it situation.

Does anyone have any at home land training tips - currently DS does nothing and I wonder if there's anything easy we could do once a week?

Personally I'd be talking to the coach @rainyboo as it is so age and physical body development related.

Ok thanks

Our sessions tend to be longer, so dd1 does 7 hours pool time and an hours land training over 4 days. Dd2 does 3.5 pool and an hours land training over 3. Dd1 is in the highest squad, Dd2 is 2 squads below her. Dd2 is still naturally getting faster by growing and so she doesn’t entirely see the point of training more and doesn’t like swimming for longer than an hour particularly. She’s reasonably good because she’s strong and has good technique, plus will fight to the death in races. She was moaning yesterday about her friends being moved up me and DH were like this 🤔.

County times are so hugely different in different places also. I mean Surrey etc if anyone is there😲. Ours are pretty fast by midlands standards but nowhere near that. Some counties they are also really quite slow otoh.

We have a 16+ age group for our counties whereas as Surrey has a 16 and a 17 followed by 18+ (seems fairer to me). The 1500m SC time looks very slow compared to the others and is 40 seconds slower than ours but the rest are all faster