After taking most of the summer off from swimming Lily got thrown back in at the deep end. so to speak, last night. She swam a couple of nights this week and she swam 2 nights before we went away but that has been it for 6 blissful weeks. When it comes to swimming one day out of the pool is equal to 2 days of not swimming, this means her skill level has dropped off significantly.
Tonight she swam in a Lap-a-Thon to raise money for her team.
Her coach does this every year. It enables him to keep the costs down and allows him to keep the coaches on staff throughout the slower winter months when his numbers drop off. Some parents get very upset about it and others understand his reasoning. I can honestly say that I can't imagine any other activity where you pay $115 for 25 hours of instruction a month. If you think that is expensive then all I can say is, you have never had a kid take horse riding lessons or heaven forbid ride competitively.
We arrived poolside at 5.45 and all the kids were ready to swim. The coaches divided everyone up into lanes and the parents who had volunteered were given lap counters. I was one. Due to the obvious conflict of interests we couldn't count our own kidlets. Lily was a little nervous as she had to swim for an hour non-stop. The coach told them to stop and get a drink just like they always do but if they needed to stop then they were finished. He told them they would be fine that they were competitive swimmers and it would be easy for them but they had to pace themselves.and without further fuss he blew his whistle and they started.
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| Only the under 12's swam tonight and not too many participated |
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| Just keep swimming |
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| looks to me like she is body surfing here but I'm sure she wasn't |
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| Afterwards they had a pizza party. |
Kidlet swam 112 laps with each laps being 25 metres. Thats a whole lotta swimming especially for someone who is out of shape...in the swimming world. The kids that she usually swims with who didn't take 6 weeks off swam 118 laps. These kids are fit. Lily is frustrated that she couldn't pull off what she normally can. Sheesh, next year I bet she won't want to go on vacation, darned competitive child of mine.
6 comments:
[on soapbox]
Here's my thing....as an ex-kidlet swimmer, the phrase "lap" as used by non-swimmers bugs me [sorry]. I try to swim during the workweek during lunch. And to me a "lap" is starting on one end, going to the other, and then returning to where I started.
People get confused. Is say, "If you were running in a stadium, would you say that a lap is halfway around the track or would you say a lap is when you end up where you started?"
Then, the lightbulb goes off.
[now, off soapbox]
A "length" is going down one direction. Two lengths = One lap.
Okay, that was really anal.
That is incredible....in my book!
Do I count though as I won't go in water over my knees!
I have a problem getting my face wet in the shower!
Johnny, nah, it was just that I rattled your cage. Funny thing is I wrote "lengths" initially and then changed it. For future reference I will indeed stand corrected. and BTW I don't expect anything less from you.
I'm impressed! That's a lot of swimming no matter how you look at it!! ~Nancy
Wow...go Lily! I don't care whether it was a length or a lap or a mile...you ROCK!!!
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