Swimming

It's not unusual to see some swimming regression in young children at the start of the swim season. Typically I've made my kids pass a little "swim test" before I unleash them in the pool, but with a season of competitive swimming under their belts, I wasn't too worried about Benjamin, Zoë, or Alexander this year. In fact, I told Benjamin that he's 100% in my worry-free zone (along with Rachel, Miriam, and honestly Zoë). Alexander was a bit of a grey zone for me, but he jumped in the pool and started swimming like a champ so I think he's fully confident.

Phoebe, on the other hand, who has been asking "When's it gonna be May?" and begging to go to the pool since the beginning of October (the pool closes at the end of September), was a little less confident when she dipped her toes into the chilly water earlier this month. 

And then we had a spate of unseasonably cold weather that prevented us from going to the pool at all...so we've only been to the pool three times this month (maybe four)!

The first day Phoebe would hardly do anything. Yesterday she saw some of her little friends from co-op (who are a bit older than her) doing things like bobbing under water to look at each other and they invited her to join in their game...and she did! They'd count out—1, 2, 3!—and then all the little girls would go under water, blow some bubbles, and bounce back up to yammer about how good they all were at holding their breath. It was cute and really helped Phoebe feel brave again.

Today she declared that she "can swim now!"

And she's really doing pretty well—she even held a back float for a few seconds!

I have no doubt that she'll be quite confident in the water by the end of September.

And then next year perhaps she'll get her dream of joining the "rappa-barra-tudas" (the Rapid Barracudas), which is something else she's been talking about for about a full year. It's like a life goal for her at this point. 

Lucky for her the only qualification necessary for Junior Barracudas is to be four years old. 

Benjamin was asked to be an assistant coach for the Junior Barracudas this year and he's so excited about it! He's going to miss the training because we'll be at the beach, but Ms. Julie said that I could just work with him a bit because I've been teaching children to swim for years (literally a quarter of a century at this point). 

The only requirement to pass Level 1 is bobbing with breath exchange.

Benjamin asked what that meant and I told him that it was essentially...breathing. The goal is to have the child blow their bubbles out under water so they can take a breath of air in when they surface and then go straight back down again to blow more bubbles. Inhaling above the surface, exhaling below the surface.

I had him practice some bobbing with Phoebe. She's...okay...at it.

"Another thing you can try is to hold her hands while she bobs," I said. "To help keep her..."

Benjamin grabbed her by both hands, told her to take a big breath, and then pulled her under the water.

"What are you doing?!" I gasped. "Let her up!!"

"What?" he asked, letting her up (she was just fine, for those wondering).

"What do you mean what?!"

"I thought you were going to say under the water!"

"No! I was going to say balanced!!"

"Oh...that's different..."

"It's quite a bit different, yeah. Good thing that was your sister and I was right here—sheesh! You probably don't want to be yanking anyone else's child under the water like that! It's very important for new swimmers to feel like they are in control in the water. So you don't hold them under...you help them gain the confidence to stay under."

So...some instruction is probably warranted. But he'll have on-the-go training and supervision from the head coach, so he should be fine.

I pulled all the kids out of the water (that I had with me—which was just Phoebe and the boys because Zoë had piano lessons before swim practice (Rachel drove her there and then dropped her off at the pool) and then Miriam had music lessons during swim practice (Andrew drove her)) and made them play "Tall as a Tree" with me. 

There's a little video of it here, but that's not the way I played it (or said it).

I learned it in gymnastics when I was a young assistant coach (about the same age Benjamin is now). Darlene (our head coach) would call out, "Tall as a tree! Wide as a house! Small as a mouse!" (we did not include "thin as a pin") and she would repeat those calls in various orders while forming certain "body shapes" with the kids, who'd all be doing their best to keep up.

For "tall as a tree" everyone would stand tall, legs together, arms raised over their heads. For "wide as a house" we'd all stretch out like stars—arms and legs wide. And then for "small as a mouse" we'd scrunch down into a little ball (balanced on our toes)...only to have to spring back up again into tree or house pose. 

This game can be surprisingly exhausting. But it's fun and it gives young kids language for how to talk about what their body is doing, as well as drilling some muscle memory for them. 

That way when they're in the pool struggling to get the right position for a "starfish" back float, you can remind them that they need to be as wide as a house. Or if they are scrunching up as small as a mouse while they're trying to do a glide, you can remind them that they need to be as tall as a tree instead. 

Practicing those "body shapes" on the dry land and then moving them into the pool tends to lend the kids some confidence in the water. 

And, indeed, after we played "Tall as a Tree" for a few minutes (kids like to take turns being the one to call out the shape names as well), we got back into the water and Phoebe did her best back float of the whole season, really nailing her form. 

Anyway, Benjamin is so excited to be a junior coach this year. I'm sure he'll do great!

*****

Side story: after finishing Call Me Adnan (by Reem Faruqi), I thought it would be fitting to go through Longfellow's WHALE Tales Water Safety for Children curriculum. 

We finished reading that book just before the pool opened and Phoebe was getting really anxious about "when's it gonna be May" so I thought some water safety was a good teaser for the pool. 

I used to teach this curriculum at the Orem Fitness Center and, boy, those little ditties and jingles they have for each rule really do get stuck in your head. They've changed them a bit since I was teaching them (the whole thing got a makeover, it seems) but most of the rules are timeless. 

For example, 25 years ago we would say/sing, "Don't just pack it—wear your jacket!" but the current line is much more explicit: "Don't just pack it—wear your lifejacket!" 

The kids were rather surprised when I could quote each rhyming rule along with the videos (which were new to me—we had different videos 25 years ago). 

One line that Phoebe has really clung to is, "Do your part—be water smart!" which I think is heard in every single video. 

Today when we got to the pool she took off her sunhat (which she only wanted to wear on the deck, not in the pool).

"Mom, will you put sunscreen on my part?" she asked before falling into song. "My part. My part. My...part... DO YOUR PART! BE WATER SMART! Do your part..."

She sang that line on repeat while I dabbed sunscreen into her part.

I'm not sure how her little brain is melding those two ideas (water smart + sunscreen = my part) but I'm sure it's a bit of a muddle. I guess I can't complain because water safety and sun protection are both very important things to consider during swim season. 

Who am I to dictate precisely how she should consider them?