Swimming Time Trials This Saturday

This Saturday April 30 your local swim club in the Marin Swim League will be having time trials in preparation for the opening week of the competitive season, scheduled for the following Saturday May 7.  Here in San Rafael that means the Terra Linda Orcas, Swim Marin, the Marinwood Waterdevils and the Lucas Valley Lightning will all be diving into their home pools and posting their first official times of the season which will be used to place them into heats the following weekend.  There will be no ribbons or team points on the line: that comes the following week.

Last year both my daughters were Orcas.  This year my nine-year-old Skylee will be swimming against 9 and 10 year olds for the first time.  My seven-year-old Sabrina won’t be swimming, much to my chagrin.  The coaches are right there with me, chagrining alongside.  Sabrina is a natural swimmer who doesn’t want to practice.  She loves the meets because they’re like great, big parties every Saturday morning.  Who doesn’t like a good party? 

Sabrina really could be a good competitive swimmer.  Like a horse I led her to the water, but I couldn’t force her to swim. I tried to push her in, and (not surprisingly) that didn’t help.  I tried bribery, only to have my chagrin grow. Even sweets, treats and money weren’t enough to get her to practice this year. Last year I literally practiced with her to get her into the pool, but my methods actually slowed her down. Her times declined towards the end of season while most kids got faster.  She didn’t want to practice, and it showed.

Skylee has talked about going to the Olympics on more than one occasion.  I know it’s in the back of her mind, part of a driving motivation.  Can she be an Olympic swimmer? Two years ago she looked dreadful in the pool, but we encouraged her just the same. Then last year she was in the top ten in the county in two of her events, the breast stroke and IM. Skylee is a super bright kid with an attitude that she can accomplish anything.  So I believe she can be an Olympian one day if she sets her mind to it. I’m certainly not going to lead her to believe in anything other than her greatest dreams.

I grew up with a kid named Pat Doyle in Tiburon. Pat wasn’t much of an athlete, but he was very bright and driven, just like my daughter. In high school he got big and strong and played rugby for the Redwood High Club. As a junior he was on the team that won the National Championship. Knowing what Pat did and watching him develop leads me to believe that my daughter will accomplish great things athletically if she sets her mind to it.

Will either of my daughters be Olympic athletes?  Will any of the kids on our local clubs be able to take it to that level one day? This season is another chance to say, “I remember when.”