swimming

[fidelma]

My dd aged 11 is now in a swimming club. We have been told that she is a "real prospect"

dd loves it and can't seem to get enough but the intense training scares me a bit (although I trained as a ballet dancer so am used to hard training)

What are your swimming experiences and how long/often do your dc train?

Thanks

DS is also 11 and swims at county standard. He is supposed to train 6 times a week (we do 5) - and this is 8.5 hours swim plus 1 hour land training (soon to be 2 hours). Plus competitions.

It is a big commitment, both in time and financially. As they improve, the training requirements also increase (as do the fees). Competitions are a nightmare - all day besides a hot hot hot swimming pool for 2 30 second races. Madness!

But if she loves it, then Id say let her go for it - all the time they are in the pool, they are not hanging around on street corners or glued to the computer! Ive bought myself a kindle and get a couple of hours peace for reading on a regular basis.

Thanks Hatti

She is doing 4 hours with the club
1 with her origional coach and 1 hour at school.

So quite light compared to your son.

It is juggeling the other 3 that is also a nightmare!

tell me about the juggling! I have 2 others, and this year DD turned 14, so can babysit DC3. We do a lot of early morning swims too, which work better for us with the juggling.

If she is talented, then the discipline of swimming will stand her in good stead moving forward.

It's getting dd to the pool and back again with a 9,6 and almost 2 year old. I think I have got it sorted for the moment. dh is changing his squash sessions to help and my mum is doing a couple of drop offs.

It is just the homework for the others and their clubs (the 2 little boys don't really do any clubs thank goodness)

No morning swims needed yet.

she had to swim 50m on 50 seconds 16 x tonight! she was very red in the face afterwards but she loved it.

I can't speak from experience but we are friends with a family, their 13 year old son was just accepted last week on the Wales Squad and is expected to swim at next years Paraolympics / olympics (he would be eligible for paraolympics). He trains 1.5 hours a day, 5 days a week and often goes on week long training "camps" in his school holidays as well as competitions at the weekend.

ds(14) has been in a club since he was 7 - he currently swims 6-7 times a week for 2 hours at a time with land training twice a week on top of that

the only way I can manage it is by sharing lifts with other parents

our club is full of parents who're convinced their dc is going to be at the Olympics ... but the truth is it's extremely hard to make any kind of impression in swimming, partly because there are so many kids doing it and so few needed to be part of the team

it's also impossible to predict at 11 how good a child will turn out to be long-term as so many different factors are in play - height, body shape, motivation, luck, staying injury-free etc ... most of the best swimmers at 11 will have given up before they're 16

ds does it because he loves it - he actually prefers the training to competing, although he has a stack load of medals - he's always in a much better mood when training's on (the summer break plays havoc with his body/mind) and he needs the discipline and camaraderie, and the satisfaction he gets from simply being exceptionally good at something

some of the parents we come across cajole, persuade, bribe, even force their children to keep swimming, which seems complete madness to me

dd's pretty good as well but also likes lots of other activities, and tbh I'd rather she kept up a good variety of things instead of concentrating solely on swimming, so I'd only encourage her to follow ds' example if it was what she desperately wanted to do

I hope your dd continues to enjoy herself

ps this morning ds' set was 1500m flat out, 800m flat out, 400IM flat out, 200IM flat out followed by 100m sprint - makes me feel exhausted just thinking about it

Thanks iwillbegreythats good advice.

We have been told that dd has real potential.But I don't care.Having spent my life in the ballet world I know how hard it is to make it to the top!

My dd is however loving the training.
the exercise and the whole team spirit.

I am happy to support her for as long as she wants to do it. (you couldn't make anyone swim like that if they didn't want to)

I am also going to avoid the competitions for as long as possible.