WAG Swimming before a meet?

[nameless]

even our L3's were told no swimming the day before a meet.

 

[GymBeeMom]

I let my level 7 girl and level 4 boy swim at the hotel and it has not yet had any adverse effects. She is not doing a swim meet the day before, perhaps that would wear her out and not feel like competing in a gym meet the next day. Not really sure, but a little hotel swim is fine by me

 

[cbone]

Our gym doesn't take the stand that it tires the girls, but rather softens calluses and contributes to rips.

 

[clark222]

It is discouraged at our gym. The explanation was that it messes up the hands. I would say every single girl on the team ignores this and they DO the all day run around the waterpark thing. I am sure it is tiring and perhaps not optimal but they have so much fun, I am certainly not going to tell dd no. Pools and waterparks are a real novelty for our kids. We travel 4+ hours for these meets and we come from an area where winter swimming is never an option. We have no superstar gymnasts in this bunch. If a swim is going to be the difference between 18th and 20th place, we'll take the 20th and the fun. And for the record, dd is a L4. I might have a very different opinion if she were a L7+.

 

[emorymom]

You guys know your own kids. I'm at a loss for how a typical gymnast could OVERDO it in the pool. If that was true, wouldn't every gym want their kids to go play in a hotel pool 3x a week for conditioning?

Also what is this with the hands? This sounds nuts. Just pack some coconut oil and oil their hands down and have them sleep with their oiled hands in socks if you think it's going to dry out the calluses. The other worst case scenario might be a case of pool toe. They could wear swim shoes.

If they are swimming a lot of crawl their shoulders will get tight. That's all I can think. Don't have them hang out in the hot tub getting dehydrated, have them drink while they're swimming and don't have them do a lot of freestyle and have them stretch when they get out. They don't need to take super hot showers after either, and they should recover just fine.

My daughter used to do swim team MWF and 2pm and gym TTh. I avoided TTh swim team only because her shoulders would get tight. But due to an academic class schedule change, she is now doing MTWTh 2pm practice, showering, eating in the car and going to gym. I think she's old enough to deal with the tightness issue, that is to say, recognize that she needs to stretch a little more than usual.

I'm feeling snarkier than usual about the anti-pool bias in the gymanstics coaching community Seriously, do whatever you guys want ... I can't imagine telling my kids they couldn't go in the hotel pool.

 

[BlairBob]

As far as gymnastics, if anyone can ever explain why and it made sense

Swimming is one of those activities that burns a lot of energy. That means burning glycogen stores.

There is also the possibility of too much sun exposure.

It is true that most swimming involves a lot of internal rotation of the shoulders so that might make them a bit tight.

We have to determine whether they are just goofing off around the pool or actually swimming laps. If it's the former, I would only be concerned about sun and chemical exposure besides their callouses.

Anytime sitting in the jacuzzi should be allowed within reason and the same can be said about just hanging out around the pool for stress relief.

L3 and L4, who cares really.

Again this all gets down to an issue of how much exposure.


Most gym bans against swimming have to do with actual swimming laps be it rec or competitive. This taxes into muscle recovery when combined with gymnastics. It's the same as balancing out soccer and gymnastics.

Definitely no swimming before gym practice and I wouldn't recommend it afterwards. I guess this gets down to priorities.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Swimming before a meet is a very bad idea. Try it yourself, go for a good swim. How do you feel after woulds, probably nice and relaxed inside. Meaning your muscle twitch has temporarily slowed down.

 

[gymgal]

So, I'm thinking a little more about the hands here... It just really doesn't make sense. Maybe if the girls are in the pool just before the meet but even the night before, there is plenty of time for recovery. And we are not talking about a 60minute bar rotation. My level 7 gets maybe 5 times on the bars during warm up and then her 15 second routine. I know rips can happen anytime, but I'm thinking she's pretty safe for that 1 minute at the meet. And if it really is a concern for the hands, then coaches would be banning swimming year round because that's when it causes the most damage.

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[emorymom]

Swimming before a meet is a very bad idea. Try it yourself, go for a good swim. How do you feel after woulds, probably nice and relaxed inside. Meaning your muscle twitch has temporarily slowed down.

To the point that a highly trained athlete who is not otherwise working out that day, would not be recovered the next day?

 

[Natasha]

So, I'm thinking a little more about the hands here... It just really doesn't make sense. Maybe if the girls are in the pool just before the meet but even the night before, there is plenty of time for recovery. And we are not talking about a 60minute bar rotation. My level 7 gets maybe 5 times on the bars during warm up and then her 15 second routine. I know rips can happen anytime, but I'm thinking she's pretty safe for that 1 minute at the meet. And if it really is a concern for the hands, then coaches would be banning swimming year round because that's when it causes the most damage.




I was wondering the same thing Gymgal. The timed warm-up is 2 minutes and then the routine. My dd swims (plays in the pool) all the time in the summer time and then does 60 minute bar rotations at practice.

As far as no "swimming" before a meet, I think most can agree that actual swimming (as in laps) is not a good idea, but as far as these travel meets go, usually people are referring to an indoor hotel pool where kids are playing around- I have yet to see a pool big enough (or empty enough) that you would actually be doing laps.

 

[Galadriel]

I had a ds in gym and competitive swimming. Gym coach was dead against the swimming if he continued into higher levels (he didn't).
Btw swim coach loved him doing gym!
Gym coach said something about muscles but not 100% sure what!

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

Our girls have a 15 minute time limit in the pool before a meet.

 

[Mom2twingymnasts]

My kids and I are rule followers - so generally don't swim before meets. Next week we are heading to California for a meet for my son. We will get there early afternoon on Friday and my son doesn't compete until Sunday. I'm hoping I can get him to at least swim on Friday. I know he won't swim on Saturday. He is the most strict rule follower. We are from Michigan and going to be in beautiful southern California. Who wouldn't swim a little bit?

I'm also trying to convince my son to have a surfing lesson on Monday. He doesn't want to chance injury during meet season. Seriously!! He will be taking a surfing lesson!

 

[coachmolly]

I really don't see why it would be a problem if it happened early enough the day before and she was just floating/playing around in the pool for a reasonable amount of time(I don't imagine she intends to swim laps). She'll have plenty of time to recover and refuel, just make sure she has time to "unwind" before bedtime, eats a good dinner and breakfast the next morning, and gets plenty of sleep. Especially if it is an indoor pool where sun exposure is essentially a non-issue. You're paying for the hotel and trip, might as well let her enjoy it! A little time in the pool probably isn't going to hugely impact her hands.

 

[cbifoja]

Our coach said no swimming not because of soft skin or fatigue but for water in the ear. If you get water in your ear, it throws off your balance and apparently balance is sort of important for that balance beam thing.

That being said, the coach has never told me personally about the no swimming thing (got the information second hand from more experienced team parents) so I have no guilt about letting Bella swim for about an hour the night before a meet. Like someone else said, that's part of the fun of competitions and since she loves it, I wouldn't dream of banning her from the pool.

 

[2G1B]

I had a ds in gym and competitive swimming. Gym coach was dead against the swimming if he continued into higher levels (he didn't).
Btw swim coach loved him doing gym!
Gym coach said something about muscles but not 100% sure what!

Interesting. I know that we have had some older boys on swim team and the optionals levels gymnastics teams. One of them got a full swim scholarship and said he thought that gymnastics was part of what made him such a strong swimmer. Another one ended up going into diving and got a scholarship for that. They haven't said anything at all about limiting the other activities that the kids are in. I know at our old gym our top boy (who went to nationals for I think level 9 when he was 12 years old) was also very heavy into rodeo and baseball. He has since dropped baseball; but still does gymnastics and rodeo.

 

[gymmomtoo]

We used to have the absolutely no swimming before you compete rule, but at a recent travel meet to Florida, they simply said no swimming the day of the meet--it was fine to go the day before. (these are optionals)

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

Our coaches used to swim with us the night before a meet! The last away meet we went to, one of our coaches was helping us do stunts in the pool. My coaches generally trusted us to know what we could do the day before a meet and still be able to compete to our potential the day of the meet. One year at a big meet, I ended up swimming in the ocean before my meet and not doing my best at the meet. Did I not do my best because I swam in the ocean? Or did I not do my best because I competed the day before so I was tired? Or did I not do my best because I had an off day? We will never know my coach was not happy with me after she found out I went swimming! Sorry for digressing, but basically swimming is completely fine the night before as long as no one is trying to do their beam routine on the side of the pool, etc, etc. that didn't end well for me either.

 

[wallinbl]

This thread is really amusing! Nearly everyone around here has a pool in their backyard. A pool - I don't see what the big deal is. A few hours in the ocean? That will wipe you out. The surf takes a toll on you. Same goes for the sun.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

as i've posted before on all this, it's all just ole wives tales. same as "gymnastics stunts your growth". lol.