Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

We are staying through thanksgiving so that my 15 year old can train for a meet next week. Then we will travel to Asia for Christmas and my kids will get laps in there.

Last year we traveled over thanksgiving and stayed over Christmas. But we live in a resort town in the Rockies, so it’s really nice to stay and ski over the holidays. Before we moved here, we were schlepping here from ny to ski over as many holidays and long weekends as we could.

Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

We travel to spend time with our extended family on Christmas and Thanksgiving. But the 15 minute drive means we have no problem going to practice as well. Unpleasant, I know.

Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

I don't understand why families travel on those holidays. I noticed the team at our pool that practices on Mondays only had two swimmer's total, so it must be a thing. I mean who wants to subsidize rich people's airplanes with those cramped economy seats to go places where you can't afford to buy or do anything when there are plenty of destinations near home that you can't afford to do or buy, wow inflation has me in a bad mood. I'd rather be swimming.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

We typically find a local club team and ask to join their practices. Our coach said this is common practice and we’ve found teams to be very welcoming.
I wouldn’t push my DC to do this, but they want to stay in the water over holiday breaks. If they didn’t, we’d take the time off.

+1 a lot also depends on your kid's practice group expectations and their goals. It's not reasonable to expect a swimmer to pick up right where they left off in mid-December especially if they're out of the water for a week or more. With spring champs in early March, you really don't have the space to ramp-up like you did during Sep/Oct. Not saying you can't find balance - maybe your kid misses a practice or two, but not 5 practices.

The ramp up is January/February for March...

Different strokes for different folks. no pun unintended. If a swimmer is close to making cuts for senior age group champs or NCSAs, maybe they might handle the the holidays differnently.

Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

We don’t travel over the holidays anymore, but it’s not because of swim, it’s just because we traveled for years and everyone enjoys spending some down time at home. When we have traveled during swim season my swimmer does try to get in some time in the water if possible. We actually have a swimmer practicing with our group this week from another club out of state who is here for the holiday week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

We typically find a local club team and ask to join their practices. Our coach said this is common practice and we’ve found teams to be very welcoming.
I wouldn’t push my DC to do this, but they want to stay in the water over holiday breaks. If they didn’t, we’d take the time off.

+1 a lot also depends on your kid's practice group expectations and their goals. It's not reasonable to expect a swimmer to pick up right where they left off in mid-December especially if they're out of the water for a week or more. With spring champs in early March, you really don't have the space to ramp-up like you did during Sep/Oct. Not saying you can't find balance - maybe your kid misses a practice or two, but not 5 practices.

The ramp up is January/February for March...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

We typically find a local club team and ask to join their practices. Our coach said this is common practice and we’ve found teams to be very welcoming.
I wouldn’t push my DC to do this, but they want to stay in the water over holiday breaks. If they didn’t, we’d take the time off.

+1 a lot also depends on your kid's practice group expectations and their goals. It's not reasonable to expect a swimmer to pick up right where they left off in mid-December especially if they're out of the water for a week or more. With spring champs in early March, you really don't have the space to ramp-up like you did during Sep/Oct. Not saying you can't find balance - maybe your kid misses a practice or two, but not 5 practices.

Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

We typically find a local club team and ask to join their practices. Our coach said this is common practice and we’ve found teams to be very welcoming.
I wouldn’t push my DC to do this, but they want to stay in the water over holiday breaks. If they didn’t, we’d take the time off.

Anonymous wrote:For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

We will travel as a family and my kids will sometimes try and find a rec pool wherever we are to get some sets in but it is not a priority. I have found that my kids do better with some time off - mentally and physically. Give the body some time to repair.

For parents whose kids practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving, does this mean your family never travels over those holidays? That sounds really unpleasant...does anyone travel and their kid tries to get in some sets at a pool wherever they are?

No, not common or typical.

Pretty commonplace to train over the Christmas / winter holidays AT HOME (with the exception of no practice on the actual holiday), even for the youngest kids.

But def not so for spring break or August.

Anonymous wrote:I loved training trips when I was in college. For a 12 year old? Hell no, unless I had money to burn and they were super excited to go.

You loved yours?! I still have PTSD from mine. They were so brutal. I had nightmares for years after graduating where I was back at training trip.

I was a breaststroker and every year I would end up with this weird overuse injury in a tendon near my ankle, only at training trip. Coach was not very understanding about my request to sub in flutter or fly kick once it would set in, despite the fact that I had more than established myself as a hard worker and the same exact thing happened every year.