Gator bait

The kids had their last dual meet of the season on Saturday before divisionals this Saturday, against the Gators. It was fun to see how much they have improved during their first season of competitive swimming. J, on his birthday, cut a second from his best time in one event and 0.6 in another. He's finishing towards the middle of the pack in his best event and will be in the same age group next year, when he could be a contender for ribbons. Since he has a summer birthday, it's nice that he can be classified as one of the oldest at something for a change.

L has improved by leaps and bounds. At time trials, she would take a couple of strokes, grab the lane line and steel herself, then repeat. Once I called out to her to keep swimming, and she yelled back, "I'm not ready! Stop yelling!" Her time was about five minutes, and that was the only stroke she swam. Now, she has added backstroke and has been gradually improving her times--but Saturday was a breakthrough. In freestyle, she swam the 25 yards for the first time (except right as she jumped in) without stopping or grabbing the rope. Her stroke mechanics weren't quite up to her best, but she still took her best time from 1:41 to 1:05 and beat a swimmer from the other team for the first time. Afterwards, I asked her if she was thinking, "Keep going, don't grab the rope," as she was swimming. She said, "No, I was thinking, ' I want to beat a Gator!" She told me, though, that she didn't want to beat anyone from her own team, because that wouldn't be nice.

In backstroke, which she couldn't do a month ago, her progress is even better now that she's discovering the competition aspect of swimming--and it can't hurt that they were giving out little prizes to any swimmer that improved on a best time. She took her best time from 1:26.32 to 47.56--shaving a whopping 45% off of her previous best--and finished 18th of 30 in her group. Since she also has another year in the same age group and is making such quick progress, she should also be able to move up to the final heat next year, at least in backstroke.