By the time the kids are in grade 5-7 pretty much the only kids on the school swim teams are kids who are on swim teams outside of school too - so the numbers decrease a bit. Unfortunately by gr.5 if you aren't practicing outside of school you just can't be competitive in the water (there are a couple of kids who are the exception - but they HAD been on a swim team previously). Jacqueline swam 3 events plus a relay. She swam the 50m butterfly with a time of 55:83 (previous pb 1:03.51 - she knocked almost 8 seconds off her time since she last raced that event in November!). She also swam 50m back - 51:20 (53:20) and 50m free - 42:21 (43:95). (Jacqueline's 50m free time when she started last year was 55:19)
Very proud of them! Jacqueline is the fastest female gr. 5 swimmer (in all events) at her school, and Delaney is either first or second fastest (depending on event) for gr.3 girls at her school.
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Congrats to the girls...awesome times.
Swimming is such an awesome sport for kids to be a part of....
thanks Veronica - Jacqueline loves it. I think in the next year or two she will have provincial qualifying times. Delaney doesn't love it....but she likes to quit EVERYTHING she ever starts. She has started/stopped piano 3 times now. I think part of it is the cold water of the pool - she is super tiny and has no body fat whatsoever so she gets cold. I really don't want her to quit as she is good for her age and would hate for her to look back and ask 'why did you let me quit'....and in as little as 2 years (gr 5) you just aren't competitive if you aren't swimming outside of school...and I'd hate for her to lose that 'edge'. She is swimming faster times in grade 3 thank Jacqueline was in grade 4. Delaney has the 4th fastest 50m kick time in the whole club right now for 11 and unders (about 40 kids?) (her time was 7 seconds faster than Jacqueline's! and D was 8 when she recorded that time and J was 10!))
It takes a while for some kids to find their niche... with Jeremy it was a new something every 6 months or so, until he found swimming. To keep him focused we offered rewards for every PB (icecream, meet sweatshirt, nachos at Boston Pizza, new lego pieces)....set mini goals (one new PB for every meet, one provincial time at a meet)..it seemed to keep him going year after year. Now, he is in the swing of things and can't imagine living with out the swimming. (and he now has a lot of sweatshirts, tshirts, and medals to show for his hard work!)
It is cool that your school has a team...Jeremy belongs to the City Swim Team. Our schools are too small to have Swim Teams....presently he is on his way back from the BC Northern Winter Games.
thanks for the tips Roni - I think those kinds of rewards might work for Delaney. How long have your boys been swimming?
The private schools here all have swim teams - but it isn't a huge thing....lots of kids means not a lot of 1-on-1. They both belong to Vancouver Pacific Swim Club as well - that's where their improvements are coming from - J swims 4x week and Delaney 3x (when I can get her to all 3 - sometimes she is stubborn and refuses to go)...in addition to 2 or 3 x/week at school.
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