Swimmers to Your Starting Blocks...

... Swimmers; on your marks,...
... Get set,...

...BANG!

And so was spent our first swim meet ever, since the Eldest Unfortunate started swim team training this past mid-March. She is really stoked about being a team swimmer. The fist signs of swimming becoming her love was during her first serious swim lessons at 5yr, now swimming has become her passion. So much so that our life is starting to branch out from being just aikido as an obsession... Okay, to be honest, aikido is my passion--okay, near obsession--I just swept everyone aboard this ship, into my wake. Now Sapphira has found her passion, and I saw the glitters of possible obsession in her eyes today when she was talking about it on the drive home and then at the table during lunch. She participated in only two events, due to poor communication by the coach and misunderstandings not only on Eldest's part but over half the team's part. Despite having to wait two hours past warm-ups till my Unfortunate got to part the seas, the Eldest FINALLY got to swim her favorite: the butterfly, 25m and came in 3nd. Then she participated in the 7-10yr free-style relay. She was the anchor and made up time bringing her team into 2nd place. YOU GO GIRL!!! She may not be the fastest swimmer of her age group, but girlfriend has form and she is no longer contemplating drowning as an option to getting out of the pool when tired or embarrassed.

Don't get me wrong, girlfriend's form goes in and out, but it is starting to stay in more often than not; and her journey to competitively swim has been rocky, but the treasure the Eldest gains through this is far more than its weight in gold, regardless if she quits by summer's end or stays in it till she up and dies far past my kicked the bucket day.


Here I am, still reveling in the glory of her moment, getting a thrill each time I look at the good pictures, I took; I can't help but think back to when she started school swim team nine weeks before the summer break. Yeah,... that was sunshine, rainbows, and joy.

Beginning in Monterey, she started at the Monterey Bay Swim Club; where practice was five days a week, with her only going three out of the five days. It was only for 1 hr. on a 50 meter pool, . She was slow, tired, sore, frustrated, slow, not in with the group, and did I mention slow and frustrated, without friends during practice? Her first night of practice, it was obvious that she was exhausted with 30 min to go. She kept going though, with encouragement from her coach Johanna and pride... Well, she got out of the pool with tears in her eyes, took the towel from me and said that she hurts so badly. I asked her if she wanted to just shower at home. In a firm yet, tear sounding voice, she straightened up and told me, "No." As she turned to walk away, I smiled knowing that girlfriend was hooked. Later in evening, she let me know that she contemplated drowning during that grueling hour. This statement fascinated me, "Really, why?" I replied. "I was so tired and my legs and arms hurt so much, I really wanted to get out of the pool. I know you would yell at me and Ms. Johanna would yell at me too, if I just got out and walked away; but I knew if I was drowning, then the lifeguard would come and save me."
"Wouldn't you have been embarrassed? You know with all those new team mates and you trying to make friends and all... you would have forever been known as the drowning girl?" I say with a chuckle.
"Yeah, I know, but I thought about that too, and I was ready to have it; because I knew that I was out of the pool and they weren't, and I didn't have to swim anymore today."
Outstanding! I had taught my baby well; Whatever action you decide, be prepared to accept the consequences. It brought a big smile to my face and nearly a tear to my eye.

Yet, just as the team started to warm up to her, and her to them and practice, we yanked her out and whisked her away to the other side of the puddle. After about a two week travel break, I threw her into the Yokosuka Seahawks Swim Team. She was feeling more confident and eager to go; she held the same schedule, except two minor things... practice was 2 full hours, sometimes running into 2 1/2 hours on 100 meter pool. Yeah, we were pretty close to being right back to square one, without all the soreness. Frustration on the part that the assistant coach in charge of the younger kids didn't really help out on technique, or lap-lane rules. Girlfriend set herself a mission: improvement, improvement, and improvement. She was tired of getting ran over or crashing into a teammate coming from the other end of the lane (and there were really bad accidents involving most of the jr. members just from the six weeks we were with them), and she felt that she wasn't getting the help she needed to get better. I gave her my tips of course, (then again I am only mom) and a good nudging to go and hound all the coaches for pointers. She took to this idea after I shut her down from complaining to me for the second week in a row with out asking her coaches for help. "If you don't like where you are standing, move your feet." Seek and you shall find--Oldest got the help she been craving and took the advice to heart only in a way a 9yr can. I was proud, she really did dedicate her self to what she asked for. Slowly yet surely, she began to improve here and there; then school swim team broke for summer break.Bring us now to summer swim team...

... And it stinks! Disorganized with lots of play and down time. I'll go on about this phase of swimming in a different post. Sapphira isn't too happy about it either; and I know I do color my children's views, but when she is complaining about playing another swim game (i.e. Marco Polo, sharks and fishes...) something is wrong especially coming from, 'let's play in the pool,' girl. Another thing is that the competition distance for her age group has been pushed back to 25m not the 50-100m she had been training for. Her goal for this summer was to advance in technique and endurance. Of course she wants speed--who doesn't; but I told her that will come with the territory. With her goals--that SHE made out for herself-- in my mind, I suggested to her after the first week of summer team--only two days a week for 45-60 minutes--that we could go to lap swim on the off days to practice. I got the polite form of the incredulous pre-preteen look of, "are you serious?!" By the end of this week; the second week of practice, she asked if I could take her in the mornings for lap swim, after my swim class. Today, now that she has had the taste of competing and the savory dish of placing, she is really on me to getting her to the lap swim.


We hope you like the pictures, it is rainy season here so it is all over cast, but the weather held for the meet. After enduring my camera and all it's cannots, I am really holding myself back from just chucking the camera. It takes excellent pictures when the environment is right, no matter how you adjust the settings. It is so damn busy auto focusing that when you try to take fast moving shots you miss the action, and just dream-on on getting continuous pictures. Click... wait, wait; click...wait... wait... oh,... no... wait... ah, click. Of Eldest's 25m butterfly, I only got six action shots, and only three for her relay. I a going to get a camera that does what I need and want it to do!!! Today, I really missed my film camera, but I am trying to keep with the times and fully embrace the digital age... now that I think of it, I think I have by-passed my camera and it's abilities... must find better camera... Oooo, the Nikon... Ohhho, the Canon... ~sigh


The next pictures are of a good friend to the Eldest Unfortunate.