Parents Swimming before a meet

[NY Dad]

I understand that most of you are in a different boat. NY DD is a low-level gymnast in her first season competing. I know that she wants to do as well as she can at her meets, but since she’s 8, I’m making some of the decisions for her.

She’s improved at her meets as the season has progressed. That is, until her most recent meet.

This was the first time that we stayed at a hotel the night before the meet. I wanted her to be able to spend some time with her friends outside the gym. We got to the hotel mid-day, over 24 hours before her meet would start.

She and her friends wanted to play in the pool. I was thinking they would swim for ½ hour or so. When I suggested that it might not be a good idea to swim for a long time to the other moms, they said that their dd’s were going to continue to swim but if I wasn’t comfortable with it, I should have my dd get out of the water. I didn’t want to act like a CGD so I didn't pull her out. My dd and her friends were in the pool on and off until 9:30 pm. (Not the whole time, but at least a couple of hours.)

She still got about 10 hours of sleep the night before the meet, which is plenty for her, and she said that she wasn’t tired the next day. The coaches had made it clear to our dds' that they should not swim on meet day, so it never came up.

My dd was off for the entire meet. She was sloppy and didn’t have her usual bounce. Does it seem likely that swimming could have contributed to her poor performance?

She has a meet in Florida and I want to make sure that this really could have been the issue before I become the CGD dad that spoils the fun.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I know that many people (if not all but me) will say that the swimming was a no-no and a contributor to the issue. I’ll disagree. My DDs have gone swimming before a meet at every possible chance. Before my ODDs first regionals she swam for probably four hours the day before. It was a great meet. Some of the others were awful, some mediocre, some great. All were in line with her regular performances at those times. My YDD doesn’t sleep well in hotels, so she tended to do worse after a hotel stay than at local meets. Could that be an issue?

 

[josie55]

I obviously can't say whether it was related, but can say that our gym doesn't allow the kids to swim before a meet. The coaches say the water does something to their muscles and also tires them out. It can be a bummer at times, but I guess it's nice that it's team-wide so parents are not put in the position to decide. I've seen kids do one run down a waterslide or splash their feet in the ocean the day before a meet, but that's about it. The kids are pretty disciplined. That info probably isn't all that helpful but what may be helpful is that fwiw, I leave all of these types of decisions up to my kid, and have since she started. I highly recommend this approach. It's their sport, and there will always be decisions and trade-offs, so swimming before a travel meet is a good time to let your kid make the call. The risk is actually quite low either way at this level, IMHO, not b/c swimming will or will not impact results but b/c those results don't matter that much, nor does missing out on one day in the pool.

 

[Natasha]

Given that she had plenty of sleep and stated she wasn't tired and that it is a low level, I would say the pool time likely wasn't that much of a factor. The bonding time with the team sounds like it was fun! Everyone is going to have an off meet sometimes- there will be times that you can possibly figure out contributing factors and other times it will just be off for no known reason.

 

[sce]

It is more likely just an off day or not being sued to staying somewhere other than home the night of a meet. Having a chance to play and relax a bit was probably a good thing.

 

[Sasha]

I have always let my kiddo swim (more like "Water play", is never really swimming like doing laps or anything, lol) the day/evening before a meet (not the day of). Bonding with friends, laughing, getting out energy (and many gymnasts have a LOT of energy! Sitting around is the worst!) - I think it all helps lessen the pre-meet nerves and brings joy to the sport.

Not sure if she spent a lot of time in a hot tub, but that can be dehydrating, which could affect performance.

 

[gymgal]

There is no doubt that swimming affects the muscles and general alertness. I saw it first hand with my son's baseball team over the years. From experience, I do no think it affects gymnasts to the level of ball players however. Maybe it is because gymnasts need to be alert for very short periods of time.

I have allowed my dd to make the decision over the years (though I did limit the timing, like I would any other time). When she was younger, she felt pressure to go in the pool with her friends and had fun but in recent years, she has been less apt to swim the 24 hours before the meet. She says it weighs her down mind-wise (going back to what I said with the ball players) and makes her legs feel like jelly. She does like going into the hot tub for short time frames though.

As for whether it made a difference in your dd's performance. You won't know unless you do it several more times nd see a pattern. But she could have just had an off day. It happens to all of them - pool or no pool.

 

[M2Abi]

My dd went skiing the day before a meet and had her best meet of the season. I was hesitant to let her but is seemed to work out fine. I'm going to guess that it being an off meet for your daughter was a fluke.

 

[gymbeam]

Chalkbucket is actually the only place I’ve heard this recommendation. Our team always swims unaffected.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Our coach would lose it if our kids were swimming the night before a meet.

And for my kid as long as she gets good rest she is fine.

It’s a case of what happens in the pool stays in the pool. Of course that’s only if coach is at a different hotel.

 

[sce]

I think if they are really swimming for hours it could be fatiguing but most kids just play around in the pool. One thing it can effect is the hands. The water softened the skin which can mean it will rip easuervtge next day.

 

[skschlag]

We had a coach that never allowed it. He would flip out. Our current coach does not advise it either. The day before nationals in Florida, he and a teammate went "swimming" the day before prelims. I use the term loosely because they walked around in some water and floated down the lazy river. It kept them busy which was good. D had an amazing meet, making finals, his teammate did not. . They both did the same thing. Then...before finals, we spent the day at Universal....all day. He placed 10th in the nation. Neither thing was advised, but I trust him to know what he can/can't do at this point.

 

[acam1103]

Our coaches usually stop down at the pool the night before a meet to say hi to the kids and parents. All the boys swim and so far it hasn't seemed to have a negative affect and definitely helps with team building.

 

[John]

DD always swims with friends on travel meets. We limit the fun the day before to an hour or two in the water. It's not a tired thing but a hand and loss of callous thing. Kids tend to pick their callouses after they've been in the water missing callouses and bars do not go well together.

I think sleeping in a strange bed in a hotel is hard for some. The fun experienced is just as valuable as the competition.

 

[duyetanh]

It comes down to you have to know your kid.
Mine can't swim the night/day before. She just gets too wiped out. I find this almost funny when I look at her six pack abs and think of the workouts she does....but it's true. So she opts not to do it before, and parties hard in that pool afterwards. I do get that it wipes her out, because I was a swimmer, and it is one of the sneakiest sports out there in terms of it wiping you out. In all my years of traveling for swim meets, never once did I set foot in that hotel pool or Jacuzzi until after the meet was done.

 

[duyetanh]

ETA: my kid’s gym coaches say ok to swimming beforehand but no go to the jacuzzi. And some girls do swim before and are fine. It really just depends on who you are.

 

[Jazzjerz]

Our gym addresses it in our team handbook. No swimming allowed after 6:30 the night before a meet. Coaches have been known to stroll by the pool around 6:45 to check. There is also a curfew time for girls to be in room, but I'm not sure what that is, as my daughter is always in bed by 9 the night before.

 

[profmom]

Based on the insanely stupid stuff I have seen gymnasts doing in some pool areas, if I were a coach I'd be tempted to ban swimming more out of fear of injury than anything else. No, it's not cute when three eight year olds are racing each other to the pool's edge and doing front tucks into the shallow end, and you parents laughing and videoing it are idiots.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

, it's not cute when three eight year olds are racing each other to the pool's edge and doing front tucks into the shallow end, and you parents laughing and videoing it are idiots.

I might have video similar to this. No running though. That would not be safe. But handstand twist into the pool perhaps.

 

[tucktwisttumble]

Swimming before a meet was an absolute no-go at our club.
Same for cheerleading competitions when I switched over to that.

Like someone said above though - if your gym doesn't have a strict rule, and gymnastics is there for fun and friends. Let her swim.

Fun story - my first ever gymnastics competition was in Kingston, Ontario (for those of you not from Canada/Ontario) its is a small 'major' city in between our nations capital & Toronto. There isn't a whole lot to do there. But since it was about 4 hours from where I lived, and I competed in the first flight in the morning- we stayed in a hotel. The hotel pool had a HUGE water slide and we all really wanted to try it. I remember our groups parents (despite coaches instruction) let our small team (about 5 girls) play on this water slide for a few hours. Even the parents got in on the fun. It is something I will never forget, and old gym friends and I still reminisce on it almost 15 years later... - oh and I placed top 4 in every event and won the all around (out of 17 kids).