Swimmer

When Jersey #1 was only 7 months old, I enrolled her in a parent/infant swimming class.  It was held in a therapy pool, which was nice and warm.  She loved it.

My Mom teased me, saying that I just could not wait to get my child signed up for activities.  

There was some truth to that.  I love sports and activities.

Jersey #1 is real social like her mother, and she always seems to enjoy the sports and activities too.

Unfortunately, as much as I love to play sports, I am not a natural athlete.  I am the player with "heart" (but not talent).  

After watching Jersey #1 participate in gymnastics, dance, soccer, and various other activities, I joked that she got her athletic prowess from her mother.  She really enjoyed herself, but she was not a natural athlete.  She does not run very fast, she is not very flexible or coordinated, and she is not bursting with energy.

When she first joined this competitive swim team, she was quite a beginner swimmer.  Her dive-start included her entering the water knees first.  She finished each race in last place.  It was a struggle for her to swim continuously during practice.  

I always encourage her to do her best, and to keep working to improve herself and not worry about how fast the other swimmers were swimming.  I remind her that everyone is blessed with strengths, but we are not all blessed with the same strengths.  It is good to be challenged and humbled, and to not always be great at everything we do.  We also talked about how important it was to remain active to be healthy and fit.  She enjoyed swimming and was really improving quickly.

Her competitive nature came alive the day she told me she was going to try to swim fast enough so that she did not finish in last place.  She reached that goal, and finished second-to-last in most of her events.  She was thrilled with that accomplishment.  I was thrilled right along with her.  She put her mind to something, and accomplished it.

A week later, she informed me that she was going to swim the individual medley event.  I was surprised.  I told her that event included swimming the butterfly stroke.  She nodded in agreement.  I asked, "Can you swim the fly?"  She nodded yes, and gave me a sly smile.  I could not contain my surprise,

"When did you learn to swim the fly?  I have taken you to every swim lesson you have ever had, and you  were not taught the butterfly stroke yet."

Jersey #1 just laughed at my surprise and my comment.  She explained that she had been practicing the dolphin kick during swim team practice, and was getting quite good at it.  She then just had to learn how to pull her arms up out of the water, in rhythm with the kick.  It all made sense to her, but it left me speechless.

Sure enough, she swam the butterfly in that meet.

      

And then there was talk about moving her up a lane in practice.  The way the swim team works, the kids practice in a specific lane, with a specific coach, based on swimming ability.  They compete in meets  based on age category.  Jersey #1 was in the 2nd lane for practice, and the coach of the 3rd lane thought it was time to move her up now that she could swim the fly.

And then, she finally figured out how to dive start from the side of the pool...

And then, she won first place in her heat for the 50 Freestyle.  She even swam faster than another swimmer on her team who had much more experience.  It was quite a shock to me, as well as to that other swimmer.  

She moved up to the next lane in practice, even though there were only a few weeks left of the swim season.  Jersey #1 was quite pleased and started working even harder.

The following meet, the head coach caught sight of her swimming, and went running over to the side of the pool near her lane.  I overheard his conversation with her new lane coach.

Head Coach:  "Is that Jersey #1?"

Lane Coach:  (with a chuckle) "Yes."

Head Coach:  "She can swim the fly?"  (He could not contain his excitement at this discovery).

Lane Coach:  "Yes.  And, I just got her in my lane this week and haven't even started working on her fly yet."  They both looked at each other with huge smiles on their faces.  They were seeing stars.  

Their conversation ended right there, as the head coach followed Jersey #1 up and down the pool, as she swam her event.  He cheered her on the entire time, and then praised her highly at the end.

I was taking pictures nearby.  Her Lane Coach approached me and explained that she moved Jersey #1 up a lane for practices because she thought she needed more of a challenge.  I was speechless.  All I could say was that she has really come a long way, in such a short amount of time.

I kept saying that she was really strong-minded.  She has such determination to keep working diligently in practice, and giving her best, to improve her times.  Considering she is a pretty compliant child, and not strong-willed, I have been impressed with the strength of her determination with swim team.  

Another swim team parent pointed out to me that Jersey #1 was also showing great physical strength.  She was training her muscles, and developing the body of a swimmer.  Her strokes looked good, and her body was streamlined in the pool.  I had not really considered that she had such physical ability.  I was thinking she was just putting her mind to doing something, and so she was accomplishing it.

During last weekend's meet, she won 1st place in her heat, for 3 separate events.  She was so proud of herself that she was walking on air!  

She had a moment of disappointment when she realized she was in heat 2, and that the faster swimmers are placed in heat 1 even before the meet begins.  So, she was the fastest swimmer in heat 2, but not the fastest swimmer in those events.  

Then, I reminded her that in 2 months time, she has gone from being the last place swimmer in heat 2, to being the first place swimmer in heat 2!  That is quite an accomplishment for such a short amount of time.  As she ran through that math, she swelled with pride all over again.   

That other swim team parent approached her during that meet and praised her highly for the way she swam an event.  That parent was a former swimmer, and she really had a lot of complements about Jersey #1's form, speed, and ability.  I stood there with my jaw dropped open, and Jersey #1 was quite stunned too.  Those were some serious compliments being bestowed upon my daughter.

That was when I realized that I could no longer joke that my daughter has the athletic prowess of her mother.

Apparently, my daughter actually has some athletic prowess.  

She is a swimmer.

She has passion, determination, and physical ability.

She is an athlete.

She has found her sport.

And, she trains to win.