Our First Swim Meet

 The boys had the first week of swim team practice and their first meet this morning.  They are going to be extremely fit little boys by the end of the summer.  They practice at 8:30 five times a week and then have a swim meet most Saturdays this summer.  They did great during practice - I am impressed with how well they've done with nonstop swimming for an hour each morning.  Ryan did cut his finger one morning before practice and he thought he couldn't get it wet, so he swam one handed during practice - but other than that, they have worked so hard.  Their swim meet could have started better this morning - but it was our first one and we learned some dos and don'ts for the future.  To start with, we had to be there at 6:30 for warm-ups.  And it was really cold - 45 degrees.  The pool was warm, but once they were out they were miserable.  They also swam so much during warm ups that they were pretty exhausted by the end and Ryan was ready to go home. So we learned that we won't be doing warm ups in the future.  They are little boys (swimming with the 6 and under group) and I'm not going to require them to warm up with the older kids.  They can swim for the first time during the race and be much warmer and more rested.  I also had to volunteer this morning, so I couldn't help them out beforehand and prep them as to what to expect or watch what the other kids were doing.  But overall, they did great.  Luke is such a trooper and didn't really complain  much at all.  Ryan was miserable, but once his race started, he was on.  Since this was their first time they only swam a 25m freestyle.  As they learn other strokes and can swim farther, we may add a couple more events.

They can't dive yet, but they aren't too intimated by the starting blocks.  Luke was great during warm ups trying to dive in, but I think a belly flop caused him to choose to start off the side of the pool instead of the block.  Ryan "dove" off the block, but it was much more of a jump.

 Ryan's stroke has really improved this week.  He has gotten much better at getting his arms out of the water.

 Luke has gotten much better at turning his head and breathing to the side.  It's not perfect, but he is making progress.

Ryan was a rock star in his race.  He won by several lengths.  When he touched the wall he turned around and started swimming back - his coach had to swim after him to get him to stop (she was already in the pool swimming next to another 6 year old swimmer).

And my sweet little Luke did awesome, too.  I do foresee issues in the future when one does better than the other.  Hopefully they can swim in separate heats in the future to help with that issue.  But I'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  It would be nice if they could be cheerleaders for each other, but they are twins, and therefore very competitive.

I now am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and resting on our one day off a week.