"This Was the Best Night of My LIFE!"

Those words were spoken by Ben on the way home from the swim awards banquet last night. You see, he won the BIG award.

He talked about this all season and would often wonder aloud if he could win it. We kept telling him it was unlikely, because we honestly thought that was true.

This award, called "Screamingest Eagle", in the two past years we have gone to this banquet, has always gone to the older girls who wrangle the younger kids and lead the cheers, or to the boy who always has an Eagle drawn on his back and paints his hair green during the meets.

This year, the coach prefaced it by saying when they decide this every year, they take a whole bunch of things into consideration... how much the swimmer has improved, how they performed in meets throughout the season, general attitude, how hard they work, how they cheer on their team... etc.

Then he went on to say that this year's winner "Loves swimming.... BURNS for it, lives and breathes it.... he's at practice every day and gives it everything he has. He does everything he's asked during practice, swims extra laps just because and pushes himself as hard as he can during every single one....

(at this point, I started to think he might actually be talking about Ben because yeah... of all the kids on the team, Ben is definitely the most passionate.... that's just his nature... he's ALL in on his favorite things... LOL)

Then when he said, "And this kid starting winning races this year... crushing some of them! Did an amazing job at the trophy meet yesterday....  And he does all this while facing the unfortunate obstacle of swimming as an 11/12 in a 7/8 body...." (then I was kicking myself for not turning my camera on because at that point, the entire room knew it was Ben. LOL.)

"When he hits his growth spurt, he'll be one heck of a swimmer!!! He's also one of the loudest on the pool deck cheering on his friends!  Ben Graff!"

Ben practically FLOATED to the front of the room, I kid you not. He was SO excited. The last time I saw him THIS excited, was when he won the most improved award at the same banquet two years ago.

Anyway, it was a huge honor and we were all so surprised.  Two years ago, the first award sparked the passion.... this one will fuel it for hopefully a long time to come.  :)

Simon has been inspired too. He says he wants to do the trophy meet next year and also that he wants to win most improved next year. (he is a actually prime candidate. LOL) He has asked to do the stroke clinic over the winter, so we'll see where that goes. His little award was adorable. We knew who the coach was describing right out of the gate. ;) 

Anyway, so another swim season in the books. It was our best one yet! 

Trophy Meet 2015

The league trophy meet was this morning. Ben, having moved up to 11-12 this year, had to be there for the morning session. We were up and out of the house by 6:30 this morning. (yawn) Warm-ups started at 7 and the events started at 8.

It ended up being really nice though. WAY less crowded in the older kids' session. We were done by 9:50!

He did well this year! 8th in fly and 10th in back… doesn't sound impressive, but he beat his seed times by 8 and 5 seconds respectively. Pretty cool! He was also competing among a group of mostly 12-year-olds. (eerrrrrg….. as if other 11-year-olds aren't big enough!!)  They give trophies up to 10th place so he walked away with two, and was pretty pleased with himself!

His 4th grade science teacher who does the announcing at one of the pools in our league was the announcer for the trophy meet and he made a big deal out of Ben's name when he announced it both times and when he announced the results. Ben LOVES that. Mr. H is awesome! :)

As always the trophy meet was nerve-wracking for him, but when all said and done, a great experience that he was glad he participated in. Looking forward to doing it again next year!

50m backstroke results

50-fly results

Two trophies = awesome day! 

With Coach Doug. This guy is awesome. He's tough on them, for sure, but the kids love him. He has pushed Ben hard and gotten great results!

With Doug and Asst. Coach Lindsay. Lindsay actually played field hockey in college, but got drafted to be Doug's assistant last summer and returned for another year. It was nice to have a familiar face as his assistant this year instead of someone new! She's super sweet! :)

Final Meet...

Our last regular season meet was Monday.

Not the Graff boys' best showing, although Ben was involved in an "almost too close to call" freestyle race. It came down to the backup timers. I was standing right at the finish line with the timers since I was clerking and it truly looked as if they touched the wall at the EXACT same time. I couldn't have called it! At any rate, after some comparing of times amongst the timers and backups and officials, and it was finally determined he got third. He was disappointed, but happy it was so close. He took third in back too, which he wasn't happy about… he spent too much time picking his head up to see where he was relative to the other swimmers. The coach talked to him about this at practice the next morning and spent some time showing him how doing this impacts his time, so I don't think he'll do this any more! LOL.

Simon did free and back and came in second to last both races.  :( BUT… he used arms and legs the WHOLE time in back, which was great. (there's always something good that comes out of races!)

Tonight we have the pep rally and Saturday is the championship. Only Ben is competing and he is swimming back and fly. He found out yesterday he is seeded 10th of 12th in back and 9th of 9 in fly. LOL. At first he was annoyed at this…. but eventually agreed with me that it's better to be underestimated than overestimated though. ;) (he only has to place 10th or higher… so  he'll get one in fly no matter what!) Regardless of the outcome, he has had an amazing season and has held his own in a new age bracket with swimmers who are almost universally MUCH bigger than he is. He should be proud of himself!

Jonathan is determined to do swim team next year… so I have to get him swimming across the pool over the winter.  I hope he can do it. I think he'll love it!

Swim Meet #7!

Coming down the home stretch!

I was flying solo on Wednesday at what is truly the most challenging pool all season. Challenging in so many ways. First off, it's crazy long. (33 yards… the rest of the pools are in the 25m/20yd range) Also, there were bees literally EVERYWHERE. It was truly awful. The kiddie pool was on the opposite side of where they put our team, and there was a small playground, but it was behind the bathrooms out of my sight line. Not particularly useful for entertaining Jonathan. ARGH.

Anyway... Ben was SO nervous about this meet. And when Ben gets anxious, he gets angry. As the time got closer and it was clear that thunderstorms weren't going to cancel it, he got more and more worked up. He threw a shoe at his wall and broke a poster frame. Then, he came down and told me had had ripped his team suit in half. (!!!!!)

I threw everyone in the car and ran to the sporting goods store an hour before the stinkin' meet to track down a suit. Of course, it being July, not much is left, so we settled on one that was the wrong color and size smaller. So annoyed.... at least Ben apologized later and admitted he didn't know what he was thinking. ARGH.

The meet though. Not enough people on our team were there to cover all the events we usually swim, so everyone was shuffled around. No one swam fly or IM. It was weird. Ben swam free and back... first time not to swim fly in two years! Simon swam free and back too. This ended up working out well for Ben, who got TWO second places. (against the second toughest team in the league!) AND Simon,  who managed to win his heat, which thrilled him. :) It luckily happened at a pool that gives out blue first place ribbons for heat winners. WHEW!

All in all, a good night... glad we ended up going!

Swim Meet #6…. First Place!

Last night was an awesome meet! We swam against the only other country club in the league. The rest are dedicated swim clubs and attract WAY more swimmers and, in general, much better swimmers than we have. Usually our 40 or so swimmers are swimming against clubs with 100+. Last night was much more evenly matched and the score was actually tied halfway through. Exciting stuff! :)   The other team ended up winning, but not by a landslide. :)

Anyway, exciting stuff. Ben got a legit (no one DQed) FIRST PLACE in backstroke!  Then he got second with on one DQing in fly.  Man was he excited.

Simon swam really well too! He won his heat and then he swam fly and actually would have taken 2nd place except he only touched the wall with one hand. He was SO angry all the way home. :( I felt sorry for him… but… rules are rules and that's the only way to learn.

Simon started this trend last night. He calls them "Power Gauntlets". Even the older boys caught onto it and started running around with cups on their wrists. LOL. I'm sure the concessions people were thrilled. 

Coach Doug kept wandering around writing random things on the kids with sharpies…. he got Ben during relays…. the result is below…. cracked me up!

Boom Shaka Laka….
Also, please note, off in the distance waiting to swim…. the guy in the far right lane. He was as big as Michael Phelps and he swam in the relay against a kid Ben's size. I swear, the guy swam the length of the pool in ten strokes. RIDICULOUS!

He Did It!

Ben finally got the first place finish he has wanted so badly. :) He got his shot last night when he swam an AWESOME heat of fly. He came from behind for what looked like a great second place finish, but the kid who was in first DQ'ed (and pretty horribly so… like, actually STOPPED and stood up in the lane… ?! in 11/12?!?)  so first place was all his.  Suffice to say, he was ecstatic.

He also had a third place finish in back, which he wasn't thrilled about, but I think he will be when he sees his time on Friday. I'm pretty sure he beat his record.

Simon was put in free and back (ARGH) and finished 7th and 11th. Have I mentioned he's basically over swim team? LOL. I just signed him up for a robotics camp in two weeks, so I'm excited for him to start something this summer that will give him a self-esteem boost… because swimming kind of knocks it out of him. :(

Three more meets to go, two home and one away. Coming down the homestretch of swim season!

Swim Meet #3!

This guy had his best showing EVER in butterfly last night. He finished a SOLID third. The 4th, 5th,  and 6th place boys ate his bubbles!

This pictures was taken right after he exited the pol. He was so pumped up!  I'm shocked he even had the energy to swim because after the one-hour practice in the morning, we went back to the pool and he spent the entire afternoon swimming every boys event just to see if he could do it. He swam every age group and stroke combination. LOL.  Suffice to say, swim team passion has once again kicked in. 

Simon did great last night despite a stomachache all evening (he ate too much right before he swam). He swam heat 3 of freestyle (lots and lots and LOTS of heats last night because the other team was enormous) and he finished third in his heat. He also swam fly and I don't think he DQ'ed, which is HUGE. He may have even gotten fourth or fifth out of six because even though he came in last, I'm pretty sure at least one of the other boys did DQ.  We'll see when the ribbons come in! I know he'd be excited to get one of those! 

This team we swam last night offered Ritas Italian Ice at their bake table which was quite popular. LOL. 

First home meet coming up tomorrow!

In other excitement, we have a four-day wedding extravaganza for my cousin coming up from Thursday-Sunday. Jonathan is a ring bearer, which should be interesting, if nothing else! LOL. 

Another Day, Another Meet….

Meet 2! Another away meet… one more after this and then we finally get to be at home for a few in a row!

Ben did not swim his best in freestyle, mostly because he froze and jumped instead of diving to start.  WTH? Not sure what happened there. He did swim fast after that, but it was too little too late. I think he finished 6th.  On the positive side, he did his first ever flip-turn during a race.  He does them in practices all the time, but hadn't worked up the confidence to try it in a race, so this was big! :)

He swam fly later on. It was a bit of a confusing combined event. (boys/girls/11-12/13-14), so I wasn't entirely sure who his competition was. I THINK he either came in 2nd or 3rd. We'll see on Friday when they give out the ribbons.

Simon swam heat 2 of freestyle and did AMAZING! He was on fire! :) He ended up finishing sixth overall, I think…  he swam fly too and finished 4th, his highest place ever! I'm hoping he didn't get DQed for his feet, but we'll see…  ribbon Fridays are always exciting. :)

My clerk of course job was a little on the crazy side last night. We have a set of seven-year-old twins on the team this year who are new and they won't tell anyone which is which --  they also disappear and don't show up for their events. One missed his freestyle swim, which was annoying. I had to chase down a lot of kids and I'm still learning who some of the new ones are, so it was rough at times.

I leave you with this photo of Simon right before his butterfly race. ;)  He is convinced the speed button actually worked!

First Swim Meet….

We had our first meet on Monday night.

We started the season off away, which I don't love… but, whatever. It was at a nice pool that we enjoy going to and everyone had fun. It's also a historically quick and efficient meet, which I always appreciate! ;)

 Anyway, Ben swam 50m freestyle. I believe he took 4th. He was happy with his race. It was his first 11/12 race and given the size differential (it's huge), 4th was pretty amazing. If he could really nail his flip turn, he could pick up a couple seconds and maybe place higher next time.

 Simon swam 25m free. It was actually one of his best races. He hung with the middle of the pack the whole race. He was in heat 2, but finished 6th overall out of 10!

 I worked clerk of course the whole first half and it was chaos! We couldn't hear the announcer and so there was lots of shuffling around of lanes and they combined a lot of events which made it ultra confusing.

 After freestyle, we had a LOT of downtime because BOTH boys weren't swimming again until fly. Yes, Simon too! We discovered just a few days ago that Simon can swim butterfly! He had no idea he was doing it. He calls it "two arm freestyle". LOL. I had sent an email to the coach because he ALWAYS puts Simon in backstroke and honestly, it's a lost cause. He just can't do it. But butterfly, he can! I wanted the coach to see him do it in practice to make sure it was passable, but instead, he just stuck him in it for the meet. (face palm) Whatever. Simon was unfazed. I reminded him over and over again what he was swimming. Then it came to his turn and…. he swam freestyle.

 Sigh. On the bright side, it may have been his FASTEST freestyle time ever. But… obviously, DQ. ;) 

Ben was the only one in his age group swimming fly for our team. He had been worried about it because it's the first year he has to swim two lengths. He did great though. He came in third and was thrilled with that. I'll be interested to see his time when they give out the ribbons on Friday.

 We have another meet tonight. Forgot how exhausting swim season is. Fun, but exhausting! Not sure Simon will do it next year… I think he's kind of over it. :( We'll see.

Another Swim Season!

Last night was the official pool opening and swim team meet and greet.  It was COLD…. my kids all three still tried the pool. Jonathan was the only one who stayed in for any length of time. I finally made him get out before the hypothermia set in.

We're all excited to start a new swim team season! Ben advances to the 11-12 group this year, which will be a huge challenge for him. Most 11-12-year-old boys are substantially bigger than he is and this year, he has to swim two lengths of everything. I think he's up for the challenge though and he practiced all winter at clinic. I'm excited to see how it goes.

Simon can't wait to get started! I'm hopeful he'll make some progress with his freestyle and backstrokes this year because he has the body-type and size to actually do REALLY well in his age group if he could just get some speed going.

I was hopeful Jonathan would be ready to swim on the team this year, but we never got around to winter swim lessons AND  turns out they have to be five to be on team anyway. Next year! He is signed up for swim lessons with our favorite teacher though (Yay for Miss Tara teaching again!!), so I'm hoping he's off and running er… swimming ...a few weeks into summer.

I'm excited to volunteer at the meets more this year since Jonathan can be trusted to just play with Simon and doesn't require constant supervision. I was in a groove with doing Clerk of Course last year and really enjoyed it!

The boys are also signed up for swim team at our other pool…(the one where Tom golfs but we rarely actually swim) I'm not sure how that will go, but Ben was excited to give it a try because a lot of his school friends go to that pool and many do swim team. It's also a MUCH shorter and easier season, less practice, and the team wins all the time.  The first pool's team is more challenging, swims against much better teams, but is way too small to ever win… there is only one team in our league we can realistically ever beat. We stick with that one though because the kids so much out of it. The coaching is great and they do an awesome championship meet at the a local high school at the end of the season that is HUGE and the real deal. Just a neat confidence and skill-builder all around.

Anyway… exciting. I can't believe a year went by so quickly! Feels like winter never happened. LOL!

Greased Lightning! ;)

Last week of session 3 stroke clinic for Ben yesterday. They always do something fun and different for the last week. The first session, it was dry land training stations, the second one, they did a mini-meet, and this time, they did time trials. This wasn't much different than the mini-meet except that after freestyle, they just sent kids by age group and they could swim whatever stroke they wanted to check their times.

Ben did free and back. Check out his freestyle video! WOO! He shaved 22 seconds off of his best time from last summer. 22 seconds!!! Even HE couldn't believe it. He has been kind of angsty about swimming in the 11-12 group this year, but this was a 9-12 group (mostly older and perhaps more importantly, almost entirely TALLER) so he left feeling really great about the upcoming season!

He swam 50 Back too and I think his time was 57 seconds and change. He needs some work on backstroke turns, which he has never had to do because the 9-10's in our league only swim 25 Back, so this was new for him…. but otherwise, it was awesome!

Swim Banquet....

Last swim team entry for at least 11 months!  ;)

So last night was the awards banquet. It did not disappoint.  Like every year, the coach said a little something about each and every kid and they were all just so spot-on and well thought out.

I missed video of Simon's because I was focusing on trying to take a picture and it came up faster than I was expecting. It was a funny little bit about how many times he would tell him to use his arms and he'd stop moving his legs.... and his legs and then stop moving his arms but how someday it will come together for him. (trust me, it was cute) And then he got his trophy, which he had LITERALLY been counting down the minutes for.

He didn't even stay with the team on the floor after that, he came running back to the table and spent the rest of the evening polishing the top of it with his dinner napkin.  

Ben's was adorable and funny too.  I'll put the video here later when I get it off of my phone.

There was a slideshow and special awards. The little girl who swam the five-minute backstroke two strokes at a time got a special determination award. Love love love. 

Ben was surprised to get two third place ribbons from the last meet of the regular season with his trophy. We thought he had placed 4th! YAY!

With Coach Doug (blurry pic... I was trying to hurry because people were waiting)

Most of the 2014 team. A few kids couldn't make it. :)

Trophy Meet....

One of our loftier swim team goals this year was to get Ben to compete in the league trophy meet.
It was HUGE deal that we made it to all the away meets this year. We didn't do any last year.
I think making him do the away meets pushed him through a lot of the unfamiliar pool anxiety. After the first one, he didn't seem worried about it anymore. So we took the momentum and went with it!

The deal with the championship is that any kid from the league can go as long as they have competed in at least half the meets of the season. Trophies are given to kids placing 1-10 and ribbons for 11-20th. Little kids (8U) get ribbons just for swimming.  We heard it was a great experience for the kids and the ones who go are always happy they did.

SO, he chose his two events (back and fly) and practiced CONSTANTLY.  The kids were required to do at least ONE practice over three days to be allowed to compete. There were two a day. He insisted we go every day (which we would have done anyway) but then also twice on Friday. LOL. Then he continued to practice during the pep rally for the team that evening. The coach finally told him to stop and save his energy. LOL!

This year, the championship was held at Loyola High School. The 10 and under group warmups started at 10:30, so we arrived at 10. The 11 and up group was finishing up and then both groups would do relays together. So ALL the kids were there together for awhile and when we arrived, we realized what a crazy event it was going to be. Cars EVERYWHERE.

On the way in, we ran into one of the first grade teachers from the kids' school and we chit chatted about the general awesomeness of swim team and the structure it gives the summer.  Inside, we ran into several more people we know who swim for other pools. So fun!  It was such an electric atmosphere.... all the kids were so excited. Ben walked in and was immediately amazed by the whole thing... and the school... "I LOVE this place. Could I maybe go here?!" he kept saying. LOL.

We were put into a holding area in a giant gym in a designated spot for our team and everyone just made themselves comfortable with chairs, picnic blankets, snacks, games.  The kids were called for relays and warmups and then they started lining up for individual events. It was like a regular meet multiplied by 10.

Event lineup and seed times for fly

Lineup and seeds times for back

Ben was anxious, so Tom and I tried to keep him busy and occupied. We took turns walking up to the viewing area so he could watch the races. He saw a few of his team mates come back with trophies and started getting excited. Eventually, he took off with some of the kids from the older group and camped out outside of the viewing window overlooking the pool and cheered everyone on.

From the viewing window...

Then, after three hours of waiting, it was time for him to line up. Grandmom, Poppy, and Aunt Debbie swooped in to watch in the nick of time! I took him down and then ran back upstairs to the bleachers in the viewing area and within minutes he was on deck for 9-10 boys backstroke. He swam it SO well! His seed time was in the top 16 of 32 kids racing, so he actually had a shot at a trophy if he had one of his better races.  Unfortunately, he didn't get a particularly good push off and then, in a super frustrating moment, the timer didn't stop immediately when he touched the wall!!! Tom's video shows the pool AND the scoreboard (which was updating in real time with the kids times and places in the heat as they finished) and there is a good 2-3 seconds where it keeps running after he gets there. He probably could have finished about 11th if it had been right.... but the time they had put him 18th. ARGH! Ben said he saw that happen a few other times during the day too.... we don't know why. But I guess it is what it is.... at any rate, 18th out of 30 swimmers is pretty respectable for a first big meet!!

Lined up for backstroke!

Almost there....

Name on the scoreboard right before the race... (times and places are left from the heat before) 

We stayed put because butterfly was up shortly after....his seed time in fly was not nearly as good. Fly is SO hard and he is SO small compared to many other boys in his age group, especially the ones who swim that stroke. The hope was for him to just swim it his best. And swim he did! He placed 17 out of 19.... 27-something seconds... not his best time of the season, but it was so fun to watch!

Name on the board before his butterfly heat.... (times are from the previous heat... holy COW some of those kids are fast)

We had forgotten about the 11-20th place kids getting ribbons, so left without them. Hoping they show up today at the awards dinner. :)

It was a FANTASTIC experience and he can't wait to do it again next year. He's also talking very seriously now about doing winter swimming.... so we'll see where that goes. As it turns out, all the local private high schools host year-round swim teams that are open to everyone, some are more intense than others. So we're going to check all that out.

As for Simon, when we were celebrating at Chipotle (of course) after the meet, I asked, "So do you think you'll do the trophy meet next year?" He thought for a minute and said, "I think I'll do it when I'm 10." ;)

Last Swim Meet....

Last night was the final swim meet of the regular season. It was away against a team that had also lost every meet of their season thusfar. LOL.

The kids were psyched.

Simon is counting down the minutes until he gets his trophy on Sunday.  Every half hour, he asks me "Is there at least a 50% chance it's shaped like a cup?" "Do you think it will be tall?" "Will it be gold, silver, or bronze?" I finally had to say, "I don't know anything about the trophy, can we please just wait and see?"

Ben was just in full-on swim manic mode, excited to swim, excited for another chance at a 1st or second-place ribbon, excited for his new shirt.... EXCITED! Bouncing off the wall.  It was quite a ride with him last night.

Here he is in his butterfly shirt, which of course he insisting on posing in while striking a butterfly stroke position.  (we won't discuss how I am annoyed about the question mark placement on the shirt..... that would be totally off topic and crazy.... LOL)

The swim director also had a surprise for the kids. Under Armor shirts with their names on the back. OH BOY were they thrilled with these!!! 

Lined up for their last team cheer of the season.....

Tom had a work dinner last night, so I was flying solo at the meet. It worked out okay. Jonathan played a little iPhone, spent some time in the baby pool, and cheered on his brothers in their races. Also showed his team spirit. ;)

It was a good one. Super fun. The other pool did a lot of neat, fun little things throughout, like randomly announcing certain heats were "Sweet treat heats!" and the kids who won (though it ended up being all the kids who were in that heat) got vouchers for a free treat at the bake table. They also played music the entire time, which made it fun and helped keep the kids pumped up. 

Simon swam his freestyle well, second heat. Last place, but good swim for him! He also swam backstroke.... used arms more than usual, tried to kick hit feet really hard like we had been working on. Great job!

Ben swam back and swam it SO HARD. He was outmatched in size though... came in 4th. His time was a good one for him though and his intensity was the best I have ever seen from him!  He also swam fly and ROCKED it.... strong swim with another too close for me to call finish. 3rd or 4th.  He was mad again, but the timer in his lane even told him he swam it AWESOME. He should be proud of himself. 

The coach put every kid in relays last night, so Simon swam his first relay. Not sure how those went because I was busy packing up.

The other team won (again, their first win of the season.... all losses, just like us), and it was really cute how they celebrated -- all jumped in and splashed and yelled and the music got cranked up again. 

What a great season! We did our first away meets, and competed in more meets than last season (only missed the one when we were on vacation!), Ben got his second place ribbon and improved his times, Simon swam in his first meet and he got better with every meet he swam in! It was a success all around. 

Saturday is the championship meet which will be another first for Ben. He's nervous and it's a little out of his comfort zone, but I think he's also excited about it. Can't wait see he how proud he is of himself for doing it! :)

He DID it!

I was watching Jonathan in the pool this morning while the coach was giving out ribbons for the last three meets when I heard the loudest "YES!!! YES YES!!! WOOHOO!!!!" in a familiar voice come right after I heard him call Ben's name. I knew exactly what that meant... but I wasn't sure how it was possible? 

He most definitely placed third in this particular race, but he DID say that night that he thought one of the kids who beat him DQed for not touching the wall with the right number of hands. (I can never remember if its one or two in fly... but Ben always remembers... thank goodness. LOL!) 

Well, apparently he was right! And there it is. His much wished for second place ribbon. 

Whew. This is enough motivation to get him through the next two meets and the trophy meet! ;)

Swim Meet #6!

Last night's meet had a dramatic beginning, as a round of crazy storms had just come through. We took our time getting there, knowing that every time we heard thunder was another 30 minutes it would be delayed. Arrived around 5:15 and the skies were still grey. Just as we were putting our things out on the chairs, there was more thunder and two massive lightning strikes SCARY close. Everyone ran under the snack bar awning and into a nearby pavilion. This turned out to be a good thing, because Tom and the boys and I found a quiet corner and ate the dinner I had packed. It was relaxing for a change as opposed to shoveling food into our mouths between events. At 6:05, they decided to skip warm-ups (genius!) and the timers and kids were getting in position.... and.... more thunder.

Thankfully, that was the last of it, so things got under way around 6:30 and moved super fast. It was the most efficiently-run swim meet we've attended thus far. 

I had forgotten that Ben's science teacher from last year goes to this particular pool and we ran into him when we walked in. Ben was awkward in that "I just ran into my teacher in a place outside of school" way. ;)   Then it turned out, Mr. H. was the announcer and he was so funny. Cracked jokes all night and gave sports scores. The best though was when Ben stepped up to swim his first event and he announced him as: "And swimming for Eagles Nest in lane 2, the best science and social studies student I have ever had the pleasure of teaching.... Ben Graff!!" LOL. Too funny. 

Between that and having to reset after someone else's false start though, I think Ben was a little thrown because it was NOT his best freestyle swim ever. I was hopeful he'd have a good shot last night too because that pool is significantly shorter than any other in the league and he could push harder from the start without fizzling out. But.... no dice. Came in fourth of six. 

Simon swam freestyle next and did AWESOME! He stayed right with the pack. I think he came in last but he swam really great!! 

After that, we had a huge break until Simon's backstroke and Ben's butterfly. Jonathan is such a trooper at these meets. He is loving the away ones because there is always a new baby pool and playground to explore. :) 

Simon swam backstroke and forgot to use his arms. It was a little disappointing because he had looked SO good in practice yesterday morning... arms and legs... the whole deal! When I asked him about it after the race, he said he can't use his arms once he bumps into the lane line because he can't get his butt and legs back up. LOL. So we'll have to work on that.  ;)  He gets out there and does it though. No fear. He's so brave!

Speaking of brave, after Simon were 6U's and a little girl from school swam backstroke for the first time. She would go two strokes and stop. Two strokes and stop. The other team sent a teen swimmer to jump in the pool and assist but our coach yelled at her at the top of his lungs! "NO!!! Get OUT of the pool!! These are MY kids!" The poor older girl was so confused....  after that, the coach encouraged and coached little Anna all the way across that lane all by herself, two strokes at a time. It took a full five minutes to get her to the other end,  but it was quite an amazing thing to watch and I know every mom in the place had tears in their eyes.  I totally get why he didn't want the older girl in there with her and I love that he is so protective of "his" swimmers.  It's one of the things I love about our swim team...  on a bigger team, that kid wouldn't even be allowed to be ON the team yet.... but on ours they can all do it, no matter how well they swim and they learn as they go! That little girl will have the pride of knowing she did it by herself.... and also will now even get a ribbon because she did not have an assistant in the water. :) (I believe if they have someone in the pool with them and they don't qualify for any ribbons or points) 

Anyway.... next up was Ben's butterfly. I REALLY thought this was his night because of the short pool. I told him to give it everything he had and not hold back. But, alas... he didn't get a very good dive start and started off behind. He finished 4th of 6 again. Came over to us afterward and burst into tears. I've never seen him want something so badly.... but he has GOT to get that start down if he is ever going to have a chance.  He was in freestyle relay as the last event and did great in that. He said those are easy because there is no pressure. ARGH! 

Two more meets to go... and then the championship. Ben is nervous there are starting blocks.... and I think there might be.... playing that down for now. :\  Simon won't be doing that one... he's not quite ready for it yet. ;) (truth be told, Ben isn't really either... he'' probably get crushed... but he has a chance at a trophy and a medal since they give them up through 10th place and medals for relays up to fifth place. I've heard it's a fun meet... so I think it will be a good experience for him for sure! Plus it will give him a taste of what a much bigger meet is like... if he were to do winter swimming at some point or swim for whatever high school he goes to)

Here's some video from last night. Not sure what order the clips ended up in... but it's Ben's freestyle, fly, and relay... and Simon's freestyle. Ben is in lane two (second from left) for freestyle and lane four (second from right) for the other two. Simon is in lane 2 for his. :)

Swim Meet #5!

I think I may have possibly exhibited some bad form last night when I freaked out on Ben for stopping in the middle of a relay that he was WINNING to grab the lane line and adjust his goggles. But seriously. What the ever loving heck, kid?! As they say in Nemo, "JUST KEEP SWIMMING!!!"

What a great night though! Ben was SO determined to get that 1st or 2nd place ribbon-- he worked on getting his dive start out further in the water all week and spent part of the weekend watching videos of Michael Phelps YouTube videos. (if you haven't seen 11-year-old Michael swim, go google it.... it's jaw-droppingly amazing) The race was SO close. If this had been the other night's team and he had swam this 23-second butterfly he pulled out of nowhere, he would have won... but last night's kids were faster. As it was 1st-4th were SO close. I don't even know if he got 3rd or 4th because it looked liked they touched the wall at the same time!

He rocked the backstroke earlier in the evening.... also a dead heat. 4th in that.

Simon swam heat 2 of freestyle and was AWESOME! Best I ever seen him swim. It helped that the pool was deep all the way across... wish they were all like that. He was IN the race this time for the first time ever and beat at least one kid, maybe two.  He was also in backstroke and USED HIS ARMS!!!  So proud.

It's amazing how there is measurable progress every single time they swim. Ben was mad at himself again (he always is), but also proud of his time and Simon was proud of all the new things he accomplished! Nobody loses in swim team! 

(Oh and I assisted with Clerk of Course for the first time and survived. Whew. No one swam out of order, at least for the first half. LOL. )

Swim Team Adventures... continued....

I have learned a lot more about the whole swim team thing this year because I was finally able to start volunteering at the meets. Tom watches Jonathan for the first half, and I have been taking the first half ribbon writing slot.

As it turns out, this is an awesome job. All the things that used to be a total mystery to me are starting to get cleared up since I have been camped out at the scoring table where all the action is. I'm still a little fuzzy on the actual scoring because the sheets don't come to me with scores on them, just times and "the sweep" (I just learned that term last night), which is the order in which the lanes placed.

I've learned that kids DQ a lot less than I thought they did, so I finally understand why Ben got ribbons last year when I could have sworn he DQed every time. Turns out, he didn't!

I've also learned what is a competitive time in the various strokes and age groups, which has helped a LOT in motivating Ben.

He was DETERMINED to win at least a second place ribbon last night. DETERMINED. (He has only ever won as high as third.... so the elusive red ribbon is his big goal right now)

He was put in heat 3 for freestyle last night (which kind of surprised me? I thought at least heat 2? But whatever....), so he had no shot at second for that because 1-4 go to the first heat swimmers. After that, places up to 10th are given. He had the 6th fastest time out of 12, out-swimming three out of four kids who were in heat 2! He won his heat handedly and was over the moon when he got out of the pool... came running over to the scoring table to confirm that he won. Then he ran over and told Tom and his parents that he felt like he had had six cups of coffee he was so excited. LOL!

Then he found out he doesn't get a blue ribbon for winning his heat.... he was SO deflated. I had looked at all the times though and the winner swam it in 48 seconds and change.... 2nd-4th swam it in 50 and change.... 5th was 52 seconds and Ben swam it in  52:87! So he was not that far of and he improved his last freestyle time by almost 8 seconds... so really, he should be CRAZY proud of himself.

His next event was his usual butterfly, which he has now completely embraced and is determined to take a higher that third ribbon in since he always swims the first heat.  He swam it BEAUTIFULLY, probably the best I have ever seen him do it. He beat our team's other swimmer, but lost to the two swimmers from the other team. He swam it in 33:37, which is good, but not his best time. To have a chance to win, he needs to get it down to something like 28 or 29 seconds. Maybe by the end of the season! :)  He was pretty happy with himself for getting third on this one, though I know he really wanted second...

Then there was Simon. Sweet Simon. He has made GREAT strides. He now holds his own in his freestyle heat (usually the last one... they have to work their way up). Last night was the first time he swam it without taking a break in the middle. He did really well! He still does not quite grasp (or care?) though that it's a race. No urgency whatsoever. LOL.  At the start, when the buzzer went off, instead of jumping in, he slowly sat down on the side and slid in and then started swimming.

He also swam backstroke, in which he simply refuses to use his arms.  I do wish the coach would just stop putting him in this event for now, but he does it for the learning experience... so maybe he'll get it soon. As it was, I'm sure he'll come away with a couple of 9th and 10th place ribbons, so he'll be ecstatic on Friday. ;)

Truly. I am a total swim evangelist now.... swim team is SUCH an amazing experience for every kid involved. Last night, I watched a mom of a six-year-old (one of the kindergarteners from our school who I know... so cute...) stand at the end of the lane making wild freestyle arm movements and shouting "Swim!! Swim!!! Swim, baby girl, SWIM!!!" and it was seriously the cutest and funniest moment ever. I wish someone had taken a photo. The little girl finished dead last by about thirty seconds but everyone cheered when she got out of the pool. I seriously don't think a single kid leaves a swim meet NOT feeling proud of themselves, which is kind of awesome in the world of kid sports these days.

Anyway... so... onward to the away meets, which will be a new experience for us. We are braving them this year! Ben is hesitant, but I pointed out that no meets = no ribbons, so I think he'll come around. ;)

Swim Team Time!

Big shout-out to my super swimming boys! Simon continues to surprise me. He was tired yesterday, but he as soon as we got tot he pool, he got right in with his group and did SUCH a great job! Their group even tried no kickboards freestyle and backstroke for the first time last night and he gave it his best shot (no complaining.... Ben has me conditioned to expect complaining) Held his own in freestyle too! I can't wait to see him in his first meet. He's going to do a great job!

Then, the older group practiced. Ben did great, but kept grabbing the lane line when the coach wasn't looking (which drives me nuts! But all the other kids were doing it too....argh) At the end though, the coach had them swim a 25m freestyle as fast as they could and Ben came in first against three much bigger kids. I need to come up with some kind of size and speed-related nickname for him...  Hrm.....

Summer Can't Come Soon Enough...

Ben is working hard on his dive starts and flipturns! He has the diving down,  hates the flip turns. He has also fine-tuned his breast stroke, freestyle and backstroke... now needs to put some time into his butterfly. Love watching him swim! Can't wait for swim team.... and summer.... and warmth.