Swimming Along (Summer)

For the last week of school, I've been picking up Shane from Walton. It gives him more time to be home, get changed, and get some food before we run off to swim practice.

He doesn't need sunscreen for a mere hour or so, but I immediately seek out shade!

Swim hasn't been as spectator friendly as some sports. The kids are in the water below sight level.

On the plus side, that means I don't feel bad about ignoring most of the practice! I can't see anyway!

Our swim team is small. Shane is one of only 4 boys in his age group. A parent told me that it used to be bigger. COVID aside, lightning struck the pool one year and fried the generator. The team was allowed to practice elsewhere when other teams weren't using their pools, but those same teams gave some swimmers deals to join their teams at reduced rates.  

The are more girls in Shane's age group, but a chunk are a pack of close friends from Shane's school. He said one of them teases him at school, so he's not a huge fan. 

The kids aren't allowed to swim once practice ends, so I've learned to show up a little early. Shane's allowed to fool around and swim until his practice starts.

It's warm outside, but Shane said the water's been feezing! The coaches joked that some of the kids had blue lips and chattering teeth whenever they got out to run around. (ALSO - Shane still has long hair in this photo, but he won't the next time you see him!).

All parents have to volunteer and their was a desperate plea for someone to be a Stroke and Turn Judge. One of the coaches told me it was the hardest position to fill. I was optimistic from coaching soccer, so I went ahead and volunteered. I hoped it would teach me something that I could pass on to Shane.

I found out why it was hard to fill when I had to sit through a nearly two and a half hour zoom meeting.

Then I had to do online videos and quizzes over the weekend to get my certificate. I had Shane watch a few bits here and there when he was curious, but I didn't make him stay when his attention wandered.

Practice was M,W,Th from 6-7 PM during school. The team added a morning practice Tuesday at noon. Shane and I were the first ones to arrive!

I told him to offer to help and the coach eventually had him help pull out the lanes lines. I'm a big believer in that getting involved helps them out and helps you to be invested.

Not a lot of people showed up to the afternoon practice. I've hoped there would be morning practices to go to instead of evening ones, because I like to get up and do. I didn't want the super early practices that made my siblings and I hate swim team in 6th grade. I just don't like to sit around all day waiting for something to happen. However, they never became a big thing. A Monday evening and Friday noon practice eventually went on the schedule, but we went to mainly evening practices.

The water was still cold week 3. Shane was gratefully for the warm concrete whenever practice ended!

I learned about the sun. I tried sitting on a different side of the pool and my shade all but disappeared!

We double dipped and went back for evening practice that first Tuesday off school (and this is your best look at Shane's new haircut!).

I learned my lesson and new where to always sit for the rest of the season!

I intended to go to every single practice possible! Especially since we'd be travelling or Shane would be at camp for three of the seven meets!

Shane started to make friends with another boy his age named River, but we haven't made any super close friends from the team. It's still exposure to other kids and a workout, so I've been very happy we signed up! 

I "accidentally" forgot to turn in my work computer at the end of last year. I spent some practice time in the beginning rearranging files in folders to do something practical to make up for it. Later, I'd bring the laptop to practice to work on writing blog posts.

It's roughly an hour round trip to get to swim practice, so Shane and I have been getting a lot of audiobook time. I believe we finished up Stargazer by Dan Wells before moving onto Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia next.

If Shane falls in love with the swimming world, I'll have to look at how to get him involved more in the year. I like soccer better, but it's not about me (If it was about me, we'd be doing wrestling or jiu-jitsu together!). 

Well, it's been an interesting new adventure so far! I'm already thinking we'll do something similar next year.