More poolside chat

[Glittertwins]

Just realised we’re a bit close to the end!

I hope they have a great time - club galas are great fun imo!!!! (As a spectator 😂)

Team stuff is good fun, I always preferred swimming relays than individuals. We have the night off as Arena League isn’t for distance swimmers!

We've also been Arena League-ing. It's good fun to watch and the kids generally really enjoy it, but they struggle with the lack of rest between races and tonight was a slow pool with a very slippery shallow end wall - there were a lot of complaints from our swimmers! We're a small club so it's hard to get enough fast swimmers to spread the events across and give everyone a rest. DD1 had 2 individual and 3 relays. One poor lad had the same for his age category plus was needed to swim up an age band on another 2 relays to cover an absence. He'll sleep well tonight!

Both of mine prefer relays.

Dd2 had to do 4 relays 🙈😂. So she felt this was enough without the individual.

I’m sure your swimmer would be picked for our team tbf, we have similar issues to Wombat. Dd2 is a 50 metre freestyle ‘specialist’ though - aka she’s not really that good but can get shifting over short distances.

Whats weird about Arena league is how different it is in different places and the huge gaps between divisions. We have 3 divisions were in the middle one and the gaps between middle and top and middle and lower are HUGE.

We might get our arses kicked in the posh pool for last round as I think we are in line to just about get into the top gala. But at least it will be nicer to swim in 😂😂.

Nowhere near good enough a sprinter for relays and I think there are at least 2 faster on the 100 free. Quite nice having the night off!

If they are male, warm and breathing they are in our team 😂😂

Our club doesn’t do it.

However Ds would t be chosen as he’s a para swimmer so although a fairly good sprinter as a para he’s nowhere near good enough for relay teams!!!

😂😂😂

😂
This is definitely true of some of the male age bands for us too, and at the older end had to get 2 male swimmers out of retirement; one was OK as lane swims for fun/fitness, the other still had most of his speed but was so out of shape he nearly vomited after his first relay, then had to roll out of the pool like something from a SeaLife display after his individual 100 😂 (thank goodness the deck was level with the water or we may have needed to call for a hoist!) Certainly nobody could accuse him of not giving it everything 😬

Snap, I’m talking about the open. There’s always some dad who fancies it though.

This made me laugh too, pretty true here as well 😂 There is always a shortage of boys!

We had Arena league too, I think you are same area as us from what I remember Satisfiedwithanapple, so hope you get your swim at the posh pool! Our club rejoined this year after a couple of years off, before that we were middle division and kept just staying up but it was always tough going and we never seemed to do very well.

Yeah we’re in the heady heights of middle division final. We only just stayed up last year though. The year before we were in premier, after a farcical promotion where we didn’t even get into the final and that was horrific 🙈. We won’t go up though - I think that final is going to be very tough!

The thing is that with smaller clubs a handful of fast swimmers either way can make a huge difference as in that middle division most clubs are a bit patchy.

I can imagine the premier division would be very tough going! I know what you mean about the patchiness, a few key swimmers missing would really affect our overall results. I’m not sure we’d ever have enough depth to get higher than the bottom half of the middle one.

I think that you can be lucky or not with the draw you get in the first 2 rounds and that can make quite a difference. And sometimes a small number of points can make a big difference to place. It’s just a game really.

@porseb- is your DD at BUCS this weekend?

Hello - yes 😃

did pretty well if I got the right swimmer?

Yes - was amazing swim last night 😁

First BUCS as she spent a year in college in the US last year

We’ll be up in rainy Sheffield in a few weeks for winter nationals. This time I will take the umbrella out of the car and use it. I’m sick of getting soaked up there!

I’m not in Sheffield this weekend (watching it on YouTube!) - good luck at winter nationals

Ooohhh so glad your DD had a great swim. I’ve no idea who she is but I’m happy for her!!!!

My ds has a few para swimming friends up there.

We aren’t going to Sheffield glitter. DS never does winters due to timings (and being SC!). We are up in Northampton the following week at their L1 LC meet as its world para sanctioned. (Plus SE suggested all long listed athletes do it although he has 0 chance of actually qualifying 🤷‍♀️😂)

My DD is at BUCS this weekend too!

She is struggling to judge turns with the boom that doesn't reach down to the bottom of the pool, but she is enjoying the weekend away.

She’s not the only one. Someone got DQ in the relay for missing the wall at the turn which was probably due to that.
Fortunately mine has done quite a few SC races in that pool so is used to it (still doesn’t like it!)