Junior Swim Team

The pools in our area have different levels of swim team.  The levels at our pool start with Guppies, which is basically one-on-one lessons with an older swim team member to learn to swim independently.  They meet twice a week for 4 weeks and have a fun "meet" at the end.  Last year both John and Eve did Guppies and loved it.  Eve has enjoyed Guppies again this year.

The next level is Junior Swim Team.  They practice as often as swim team, but only participate in home swim meets.  They begin working on stroke technique at this level.  John has been on Junior Swim Team and has LOVED it!  He really can't get enough.  He was a good swimmer going in, but I can't say enough about how much he has improved!  Last Thursday was his first meet.  Unfortunately there are only 2 home meets, and we'll be out of town for the next one.  BUT, this one was a lot of fun.  As newbies we had to learn the ropes, neither of us having done swim team before.  It had the same feel as a track meet or crew regatta.  I really enjoyed the energy.  The younger 3 weren't so crazy about the waiting for events.  I think John really enjoyed racing.

 Here he is...ready.  His first race was 25 freestyle.  Junior Swim Team competed with the 8 and under kids.  Unfortunately, they didn't get to practice starts ahead of time.  There is a whistle to signify everyone is in place, "marks", and a beep.  After the first whistle a few kids jumped in as a false start.  John saw they were in, thought maybe he should've started as well, and made it half way down the pool before they managed to stop him (one kid made it the whole length).  Second try...whistle...same outcome (except John stopped a lot sooner).  Since those poor kids were so tired, they let another heat go, then tried one last time.

FINALLY!!!  Nice dive!  (They don't let Jr. Swim Team dive from the blocks.)  Off to a good start!

 Unfortunately that didn't last long.  John's dive was so powerful it knocked his goggles right off and he had to stop to fix them.  Before the next race we had a little talk about making sure they're on tight.

 Back on track and doing great!

 And then there was this little problem with the lane dividers in the way, then he made his way over to the other lane divider.

BUT, he didn't let any of that bother him.  He finished nice and strong.  Fifth place with a time of 1:02.06.  He's almost guaranteed a PR the next time he races.

Several hours later it was time for backstroke.

I love this picture here with his fingers crossed.  I asked him about it afterward.  I think he was just doing that inadvertently with his fingers.  I don't think he realizes that people sometime cross them for luck.  Still, it looks like he's intense waiting for his race.

 No false starts, just clean swimming.  John had a fantastic start and was first off the blocks.

He's actually quite good at backstroke.  With a little more endurance he could do really well next year.

And he certainly didn't let up at the end!  Third place with a time of 47.37.  We were so very proud of him!

 The next day I asked him to write about it in his journal.  Since it's hard to read...
"Last night the 20th day of June I had my first jr. swim team swim meet.  I did freestile and Back stoke. And tuday I got 2 ribbins."