I knew long before we joined this community pool that they had a swim team and that 4yr olds could participate. I thought that there would be a meeting to say when it started, but the pool is run by high school kids, so it just started and it was hard for me to get info until they were already 2wks into it. Anyway, I asked the coach if Lucas could still participate and she said he could, but that she recommended that he take swim lessons since they had already reviewed the strokes. Lucas didn't seem that interested, and so we dropped it. Then... the next Monday Wendy told me that Charles had joined on Friday and loved it. Lucas and Charles are about the same level of swimming, so I asked Wendy if she thought Lucas could do it. That afternoon we were at the pool with Charles and when it was time for practice I told Lucas that it was time for swim practice and that Charles would show him the way. He eagerly got up and pranced over there... until we got near the line of kids. Then he dug his heels in said he didn't want to do it. I KNEW he would like it if he tried it, so I told him to just give it a try. He said no, and instead of dropping it I kept talking and told him that I'd get him a transformer if he just TRIED it. As soon as I said it I regretted it, but it was done. So he said okay, and then changed his mind. I said that was just fine and that we'd just go play some more in the shallow end. Then he whined that he still wanted the transformer. We went back and forth about how he could only have that if he gave it a try. He asked if he'd have to jump off the block and I said no. So he walked up and got in line behind Charles. Seconds later they were playing fake gun shooting... silly boys. Kids kept breaking in front of him in line and I didn't know if he wanted them to or if he wasn't paying attention, so I told him that if he wanted to jump in he needed to stand in line. Ellen ran away as it was almost his turn to jump in, so I watched him from a distance. The first thing he had to do was get into the water, hold onto the diving block and blast off into a back stroke. There was a coach in the water to help him and walk him through it. He had never done that before, but he did it exactly as they said to. My heart was bursting with pride! A few minutes later they had to jump off of that darn block. Again my heart bursted with pride as he got right up there and jumped out into the water.
Since then he's had a handful of practices and has continued to do well. He doesn't talk about how proud he is to be on the swim team, but he seems excited to participate each time... especially when Charles is there. Tomorrow is his first meet, which I'm not taking too seriously. I don't want it to be intimidating, with the start gun and the cheering, so if he doesn't want to do it then we'll just watch. Stay tuned
Waiting his turn to jump...
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