swim moms: quick question

[WatchingThemGrow]

DD has just started year-round swimming as a 14yo. (Has done summer league for 7 years, begged every year...I realized only year round athletes will get to do any athletics.)

She's in the less-competitive high schooler group. They've put together a meet and all the events for her age group (13 & up) are 200's and 500's. Coach said she could sit out or swim in the lower age group and do 100's, so I signed her up for that. Also got her the team swimsuit, cap, shirt, more gear this week.

She's hysterical about swimming 100's with the 11&up crowd and demands that I pull her out. She already laid out of the meet last month because she was "new" and hadn't been swimming. I am inclined to leave her in the meet and let her swim 100's with the younger kids to a)get a time and b) get the experience participating in a "real" meet that's not summer league. It's 20 min from home on a Sat. morning. It'll be over by 9:30am. She has the suit, she can do the distance...she swims 2800m in each practice 5x a week.

Keep her in it or let her skip this meet also?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Can she switch to the races on her age group? That’s what I’d do. A 200 isn’t that long.


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[cckwmh]

Have her swim the 200s. She will feel better, and she will get a starting point for times.

[georgiegirl]

If you can switch her, have her swim the 200 free and 200 back or 200IM. It is weird that they aren’t offering 100s at the 13&Up session because they are standard events. I also think it’s fine if she swims with the younger kids...after all it is 11 and over. Plus she can gain more confidence. It can be hard for new swimmers to swim with kids their age who have been swimming for 6 years. But I wouldn’t force her to swim with the younger kids if she doesn’t want to.

My DD is 14 and has swam competitively since she was 8. She still likes swimming 100s. DS1 started at 6.5 (in long course season ) and swam 200 free at age 7, and 500 free at age 8. I think he’ll kill me if I sign him up for a 400IM or 1000 free (which he can swim now that he’s 11).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MSWR0319]

I would let her choose between the 100s or the 200s but not let her sit out. Could she do a combination? My 8 year old did 200s in practice, so I'd think she could swim a 200 free at the very least. DS1 is 12 but we switched to a move competitive team last summer that swam 100s and 500 free in his age group (along with 50s) and he wasn't use to that because our old team only swam 50s. He wasn't mentally ready to swim 100 in most strokes, but did want to try it in the breaststroke, which is his favorite. Of course, someone on the team got covid so they cancelled the only meet planned (which was the right thing to do) and at the first practice for winter season he dislocated his knee so we had to quit that team because we don't know when he'll be back and by then he'll be out of shape compared to the rest of the swimmers. So he may never find out what it's like to swim the longer events I think just trying the first meet with help get the jitters out of her no matter what length she swims.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Thank you all SO much! I should have let her do this all the other years she wanted to but I couldn't stomach fitting it into our daily schedule. I told her what you all suggested and she said it would be okay after all to swim with the slightly younger kids...and at least get some times in 100's. I think that's the norm...but I don't know! AT least we will get to participate in a meet, if covid doesn't cancel it like MSWR319's!

[georgiegirl]

Thank you all SO much! I should have let her do this all the other years she wanted to but I couldn't stomach fitting it into our daily schedule. I told her what you all suggested and she said it would be okay after all to swim with the slightly younger kids...and at least get some times in 100's. I think that's the norm...but I don't know! AT least we will get to participate in a meet, if covid doesn't cancel it like MSWR319's!

I’m guessing there will be some older kids as well. It’s really not a big deal to swim with some younger kids. My kids have swam next to masters swimmers before (like in their 70s) . Staring with 100s is definitely easier, and I assume the summer league didn’t swim 200s. Racing longer distances definitely takes practice. 200s can be kind of hard because they aren’t quite a sprint but aren’t distance either. DD prefers the 100s of stroke but the 200 free and 200IM. Swimming is such a great sport, and all of my kids love it so much.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[newnana]

My DD just doesn't like being told what to do., doesn't matter what it is. If she had picked the event, she'd be okay but nervous. If I had picked the exact same event, she'd be furious. I try to let DD work this sort of thing out with her coach and leave me out of it, especially as she gets older.

She and I had talked in the past about a particular STEM club in school and she opted not to do it in the past due to some of the other participants. This year when the email requesting she join the club came in, she came into the room I was in, livid that I had signed her up. I calmly told her that I didn't sign her up and it was probably a leftover signup list for information from last year since they couldn't do the club round robin this year at school due to remote learning. She talked to a couple people and the folks she doesn't like are no longer participating so she signed up. She's having a blast and it's one of the best things she's getting to do this semester. If I had recommended it, she would hate it.

There is no swimming here this year, but DD is a swimmer and desperately missing it. But if I signed her up for anything swim without asking her first and her coming to her own decision, even though she's begging for the general idea of it, she'd be livid. Good luck, sounds like DD is on board now and ready to go for it. Have fun!!!

[mom2binsd]

Honestly, with our high school swim team, the coach is the only one who decides what you swim (or even with club swimming, the coach just makes those decisions).

DD is a senior, we just hosted the pre conference spaghetti dinner/team bonding party. The girls all wore masks, carved pumpkins and had spaghetti, bread, gondolas etc, did their final gift exchange. We did what we could to make it covid safe (paper towels in the bathroom, hand Sanitizer, the coach served the spaghetti etc.).


Anyways, our meets are very safe, limited number of swimmers in deck, no parent timers, no locker rooms, masks until they get into the pool, exiting the pool at the opposite end to the race ending).

Also, my since starting high school my DD only swam the high school season, she plays hockey and lax so no time. She is often as fast as the year round swimmer.

Your DD should get her feet wet, no pun intended, and then start to work her way into the older group. This is a good season to start, everything is bit more relaxed.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[WatchingThemGrow]

My DD just doesn't like being told what to do., doesn't matter what it is. If she had picked the event, she'd be okay but nervous. If I had picked the exact same event, she'd be furious. I try to let DD work this sort of thing out with her coach and leave me out of it, especially as she gets older.

She and I had talked in the past about a particular STEM club in school and she opted not to do it in the past due to some of the other participants. This year when the email requesting she join the club came in, she came into the room I was in, livid that I had signed her up. I calmly told her that I didn't sign her up and it was probably a leftover signup list for information from last year since they couldn't do the club round robin this year at school due to remote learning. She talked to a couple people and the folks she doesn't like are no longer participating so she signed up. She's having a blast and it's one of the best things she's getting to do this semester. If I had recommended it, she would hate it.

There is no swimming here this year, but DD is a swimmer and desperately missing it. But if I signed her up for anything swim without asking her first and her coming to her own decision, even though she's begging for the general idea of it, she'd be livid. Good luck, sounds like DD is on board now and ready to go for it. Have fun!!!

SO true! What's funny is that she WANTS to be signed up for stuff, then some anxiety sets in and she wants to back out. We deliberated about "buying the suit" a few days ago...but I'll totally keep this in mind for the future. We had to Opt In for the meets this year, otherwise, I'd be letting the coach work it all out.