friends

Swim season has begun in earnest, and 10yo has commenced living at the pool. Today might be the first day we don't go but that's only because it's raining, and also he and his friend J spent a total of nine consecutive hours at the pool yesterday, between time trials and then just sticking around to goof off. 

As far as I can tell, he did pretty well with time trials; I did not check on his times for freestyle or backstroke, and I think he might have DQ'ed the backstroke, though that might have been for another child. He certainly didn't swim the fastest in his heat for either. But what I really want to talk about is his breaststroke and butterfly.

So here's the thing: 10yo has never, in the history of his swimming career (and this is his third season), swum a legal time in either of those strokes. Meaning, he has DQ'ed in every heat, because he screws up some aspect of the stroke and therefore his time is rendered invalid. And going into yesterday's time trials, we didn't expect much different, because he says they weren't focused on those strokes in practice. Which fine, whatever, he swims them anyway in time trials because it's low pressure and you never know.

Free is always first; he swims and does fine. Back is next; he's the slowest in his heat (even compared to J, who is famed for being slow but totally cooked, as the kids say.)

Then come breast. So I'm pretty sure 10yo DQ'ed early on, the stroke-and-turn judge was writing on their papers like mad. Whatever; like I said, we hadn't really expected a legal time anyway. But 10yo was also uber slow. Like, 45 seconds behind the next slowest kid, so there was a good long time where it was only him swimming in the heat. And for some reason, he decided that he wasn't going to put his head under water for the stroke. Which is fine, for breaststroke, that won't get you DQ'ed (or so the stroke-and-turn judge near me said when I commented on it). Definitely  not gonna improve your time, but whatever.

So here's the thing when you have kids swimming a heat, and one kid is vastly slower than the others. When it's just that kid swimming, the entire pool starts cheering for them--other team included, usually. Because it's obvious they're trying their hardest and they're not contenders and they're all kids and it's supposed to be friendly fun, right? You start yelling for them and cheering their name if you know it, and you scream like crazy when they're done. Happens every time. 

And a time trial is your team only, because it's just to get official times so you can properly seed your swimmers during competition, and 10yo is extremely likable and everyone knows him. 

So he has half a lap left, and he's just chugging along, head above the water... and the whole pool starts yelling and cheering and whooping and shouting "YOU CAN DO IT, GO GO GO, KEEP SWIMMING, YOU'RE SO CLOSE, YAY 10YO!!!!"

And 10yo... head above the water, able to hear every word... just gets this big ol' grin on his face, looking around at everyone yelling his name... and slows down.

Because let's face it... the whole pool is chanting his name, and he knows perfectly well he's not going to win, and also probably that he's DQ'ed like insanity (the stroke & turn judge is still writing down mistakes) and if he swims faster, they still stop cheering. Who wouldn't slow down? "Oh, yeah. You all love me. Keep it coming."

Anyway, it was the funniest heat of the whole morning.  

So fast forward about twenty minutes, and it's the butterfly. Now, butterfly is hard, everyone DQs on the regular, I don't know who invented this stroke but clearly they're either a masochist or a sadist or both. 10yo wanders over to me and says, holding half a chocolate donut and still chewing a bite, "I'm done right?"

Me: Uh, no, I signed you up for all four strokes, I told you that.
Him: What? Why? When?
Me: Yes, because you always do all four strokes during time trials, and I told you this multiple times all week.
Him: Do I have to?
Me: Yep.

I thought he might scratch--the kids can do that, if they want, though they'll get a brief lecture/rousing call to action from the coach who won't guilt them into it past that--but nope, I saw him take his place on the line a little while later. At his age, fly is still 25 meters (like I said, it's a hard stroke), so maybe he figured the suffering would be brief.

Anyway, he dives in and starts. His dives are definitely better; he gets a good ways down the lane before he breaks the surface. And his fly looked really good. He wasn't the fastest, but he wasn't the slowest. And I'm actually doing a job here, I'm one of the timers in a different lane so I'm paying attention to the kid in my lane in between glancing over at 10yo, who is on the far end of the six lanes. And I finish timing him (because he's fast) before focusing squarely on my kid.

And the stroke and turn judge never raised their hand, which is how they indicate a kid's been DQ'ed.

And the stroke and turn judge never raised their hand.

And the stroke and turn judge never raised their hand.

Now, I'm only dimly aware of the judge, I'm just cheering for 10yo, who is for once not last, and is still going strong, and gets to the end...

Which is when I turn to another timer and say, "Wait. WAS THAT A LEGAL FLY???"

The general consensus was: Yep, think so!

Even 10yo knew it, though he didn't quite believe it, when he came over to give me the requisite hug after. (Because he's dripping wet and cold, see, and I'm dry and it's hot.)

So after the meet is done, I wandered over to the stats table, and asked one of the other parents there who was doing table work. 

And sure enough... legal. fly. Not the fastest, but 100% legal.

I went over and found 10yo, who was in a group of his friends, and his jaw dropped. All his buddies started punching him in the arms and he got the biggest, silliest grin on his face, even bigger than the breaststroke grin. It was awesome.

So all in all, a really good day. He might actually get to swim in A meets this summer, which is kinda cool, too. (Cause even though he's not the fastest, kids can only swim two strokes in a meet, so at that point, he might be the only option with a legal time.) Hopefully this means he's got it now, and it wasn't just a fluke. (But I bet the coach has him go over it again a few times during the week, just to cement it!)