Us3

Us3

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Cruisers Swim Team

I cannot tell you how impressed I am with how much AJ has learned on swim team this year. I'm just blown away...

Let me start from the beginning. Last year, a bunch of my friends were signing their kids up for swim team. It's call Cruisers. All that the kids needed to do was swim across the pool once (even with assistance!) and they could sign up. Well, at this time, AJ couldn't swim across the pool unassisted and was lacking confidence. It just didn't click for him even after years of swim lessons. He was afraid he would drown and therefore fought me on joining the team. I KNEW if he joined, he would get better and like it, but he put his foot down. He was NOT joining the team. (Even bribery didn't work!)

So, last summer I heard my friends talking about how fun Cruisers is and how much their kids were learning. I hated that AJ wasn't doing it and decided he was doing it this summer.. no matter what!

Practices started at the end of May and he was nervous, as I expected. He was afraid the aid in the pool wouldn't see him and he'd drown. Of course I told him this wasn't going to happen, but he was still scared. The first few practices, he cried at the beginning. It was nerves. I understood that. But the more he went, the more confident he became. And it helped that he had some friends who were doing it with him. He also loved the aids and thought they were so cool! (Teenagers)

There are so many great things about Cruisers, but one of the best things is that the kids can practice as many times as they want each week! They have morning and afternoon practices so they could go 2x a day if they wanted! We started out a little slowly and eventually he started going about 4x a week. They also have a few swim meets on Saturdays and the kids race themselves. The goal is to beat their previous time and if they do, they get a ribbon. It's pretty neat!

AJ's first meet was a little sketchy. We went to a "practice" meet so we could all see how it would flow. I tried to explain to him what it would be like, but he still had no idea. It was loud, tons of people, lots of commotion and overwhelming. He didn't want to swim and what stunk is that the heat he was swimming in was near the end so he had to sit and think about it for a while. He told me a few times he didn't want to do it, but I wasn't going to let him skip it. When he finally jumped off the blocks and into his lane to swim the 25M Freestyle, he was nervous and had to take breaks down the lane, but he did it. And that was all he needed. His confidence since then has SOARED! He went from needing to take breaks and needing someone in the pool with him at all times, to swimming the 50M freestyle (alone, with no breaks!), learning to do flip turns and diving off the block! I just cannot believe it! He also is going down every slide at the pools he goes to - something he could have done last year, but was too afraid. I'm blow away!

Here are his times from his first swim meet and his last:

25M Freestyle   6/11 44:47 seconds       7/11 31:34 seconds         11 second difference!

25M Backstroke  6/11 1:12                    7/11 47:95 seconds         24 second difference!

25M Breaststroke   6/11 DQ                   7/9 Also DQ'd but I don't know why. However, he's gotten MUCH faster.

50M Freestyle    6/25 1:32                      7/9  1:21                          13 second difference!



He was the heat winner! And Grandma was there to witness!

So proud of this guy


When they aren't swimming.. this is what it looks like