Swimming: James
We signed the boys up for swimming last week and it is conducted everyday for half an hour. We can either choose a morning or evening session. As the pool is just behind our house, it is a nice activity during these hot days.
After less than a week, the teacher said James was ready for the B Meets. I was like, “What is that?” and here they have a very neat community thing going (this is what I mean when I find Americans very community based, which builds strong relations with your neighbours) It is an event almost like a competition with your neighbourhood kids, and it is very relaxed. In the B Meets, or the B team, the kids have no pressure of winning, they are trying to swim to their fastest ability. (Their personal best times) The A meets is more competitive, and you must win the event to let your team win. In order to enter the A Meets, you have to qualify first in the B Meets.
It is so well organised and planned. There is a website where parents can sign up for the meet and it is expected that once your kids are in it, you must volunteer to make the event successful. Parents can opt to go for training because they need judges, so they need to know the technicalities of strokes. Parents are called to bring pizza, bagels, muffins, etc. There is a head timer, then about 9 other parents who time each swimming lane. There is a singer - someone must sing the national anthem at each meet and read the pledge of allegience. A parent must do the ribbons (this is more for the A Meets, which is competitive, unlike the B Meets) as prizes. There is an announcer, announcing each event and the child’s name. It is only a neighbourhood thing but the amount of thought and preparation that goes into it is amazing. This is run twice a week, on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. For Independence Day, there is a parade that starts at the top of our road, with a fire engine. We are all meant to wear the colours of the flag and I have already purchased some T shirts with the US flag on it. We walk about 1 mile down and end at the pool where there will be a party. Again, parents are called to contribute food and kids and adults are meant to sell the food we provide in order to raise funds for the swim team. I am bringing a broccoli salad.
Back to the B Meet, James met with Rockshire on Wed. Rockshire is just up the road and it was nice that many of the boys in the opposition team were from his class.
James completed the 25m freestyle in 32.52 secs. He said he was nervous. Can you hear Cameron’s voice, cheering James on? Also, see the amount of parents involved? I did not even film the other side of the pool, where parents were selling ice cream, packets of chips and pizza. This was on a Wednesday evening at 6.00pm. There are usually more than 50 parents each time. Totally amazing.
What was surprising was yesterday, his coach came up and said that he qualified for the A Meet this Saturday! Yikes. I hope he doesn’t freak out. He is such a perfectionist and when he feels that he has lost or let the team down, he gets very upset. This time, they are meeting students from another school.
We hit the pool at 7.30am at the pool tomorrow!!!