Swimmer of the Week!!

Grace joined the neighborhood swim team this summer.  It's six weeks of practices everyday at 8am for 45 minutes and swim meets with other neighborhood teams on Tuesdays and Thursdays.   Our main goal in signing her up was for her to learn to swim.  We told her she didn't have to swim in a meet if she didn't want to, which she definitely did not.  She really likes the practices and has a few friends on the team.

One of the downsides of her joining is that I have to volunteer for different jobs at the meets (like cleanup, timer, concessions, etc.).  The meets are pretty big events and last almost 3 hours.  Our team is one of the biggest with 130 kids!

Grace is probably one of the worst swimmers in the 7-8's age group and I think the only one to not swim at a meet.  We went and watched one meet, skipped the others and then one of her coaches and I were finally able to talk her into swimming one event, the 25 meter backstroke.

She was pretty nervous.  She was in a heat with two other girls from her team.    I didn't think there was much chance of her winning and we talked about just wanting her to finish and make it across the pool.  She surprised me and won the very close heat (not the whole event), but she got a ribbon for "Heat Winner".  I think the coaches were really happy for her and voted her "Swimmer of the Week" and put a sign in our front yard!

Click here to see the race!
http://youtu.be/VJsf-bCmMds