We’ve always tried to get our son into different things, wanting him to check out everything that’s out there, and see what he likes. My wife signed him up for “Aqua Babies” back when he was about 18 months old. We’d rotate taking him to this class in the swimming pool every week. These babies would get used to the water… moving their arms, kicking their legs. I think my son’s favorite part was when we were told to dunk his head in the water… haha. Well, that was his introduction to the water, and since then, he’s been in ever since. He was asked to be on the swim team a couple years ago at the YMCA, but he said no. We wanted him to do it, but didn’t want to force him; he was only 7 years old. We took a little break from swimming, but then he finally wanted to get back in the pool; he wanted to be on the Swim Team… of course, the YMCA welcomed him back quickly. Now, almost 120 months old, our son swam in the district championships for the YMCA this past Sunday; it was amazing to see how far our “aqua baby” has come…
He hasn’t been able to dedicate 100% to swimming. They swim 4 days per week; he only does half of that, because the other 2 days he does basketball; the coaches knew this. Plus, he hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet, so he doesn’t have any size to help him in the pool as of yet; that will come. However, none of this mattered when he took to the pool for the first of his three individual heats. He did participate in 2 relays: the first one, his team was trailing big time when he jumped in as the 4th swimmer; he almost caught the team that finished 2nd. His team didn’t do well in the other relay either, but back to the individual race.
His first event was freestyle. Qualifying with a time of 44+ seconds for the 50M freestyle, he would be facing 5 other kids around the same times in his heat. He won his heat, easily, finishing with a time of 40.82 seconds I believe. I mean, he absolutely pulled away from the other kids down the stretch. He finished with the 3rd best time out of the entire age group for that event. Next up was backstroke. He didn’t do as well the last time in this stroke, because his head was up a bit in the water, plus he was worried about hitting the wall, and slowed down towards the end. This time he would be swimming in Lane 1, which meant he was one of the slowest times in this particular heat. That didn’t end up mattering. He won this heat too!!! Actually, the kid from the same Y in the other farthest lane, the 6th, came in 2nd; he almost caught him. 2 for 2 on his heats! We were so proud. In his final individual event, which was the breaststroke, he came in 2nd place, beating his qualified time by almost 10 seconds. What, a, day.
I try not to write about him too much, because I could every day, but I couldn’t resist on this one. My wife and I were beaming, remembering those days when he first got in the pool as a baby. Seeing him out there, swimming so fast in that water, beating all those other kids… it was pretty special. He’ll be in the same age bracket next year, since he only turns 10 in about a month, and if he adds a few inches between now and then… well, what about basketball though? And baseball? Haha… We’ll see. It’s fun though… let me tell you… there’s not many things better than seeing your kid out there competing… and winning… Fun times… fun times.
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