Having been a water lover myself, I guess I could never understand the parents who raised water fearing children or how children got that way if it wasn't something that the parents themselves were afraid of. Why would any parent not want their child to learn to love a sport that is fun for play, exercise and could potentially save their life. Knowing how to swim is so so important that I just couldn't fathom not having children who know what to do should they encounter it at some point in their childhood. No, not everyone has access to a deep water pool regularly, but the drowning statistics are mind boggling... google it, you will be amazed. Just an inch of water is all it takes.
Anyways, I digress. Back to Colby and swimming.
When Colby's preschool class finished their swim session at school, I decided to put him in the lesson that would be his level with the instructor he had from school. He'd hit it off with Miss Emily and so with summer rolling around I thought it would be a great idea to keep his skills up, after all, it was Colby's idea that he'd wanted to join swim team this year. So for the last 3 weeks, he's had 2 half hour lessons with 3 kids in the group and he's really done well. (6 sessions in total, but he'll have ended up only going to 5 since we miss this last one) The other kids are just a smidge better skill level but older as well so it's given him something to look up to. Plus, the little girl in the group of 3 is totally adorable and he's even asked to have a play date with her. So cute! Love this stage where age knows no boundaries.
And last week, during his lesson, Miss Emily realized that he could swim a lot better and longer than he'd made it seem. And sure enough.... she knew how to keep him going with lots of encouragement and well, for the first time Colby swam the entire length of the 25 meter pool. He's has swam a long way before but not ever the whole way on his own! Awesome job little man. Here's the video. Sorry I missed the dive to start but you'll get a glimpse of his dive coming up next. And sure enough mom couldn't contain herself and so there's a little voice at the end not wanting to scream to encourage him in the midst of the entire pool deck!! The finish got the best of me and I was so proud I just had to yell yippie!! Way to go Colby!!
Later in the class they went to the blocks to practice diving. And Our little Swim Champ, who started diving at like age 2, is still at it!! Remember that? He was too cute back then and still totally adorable now!
So anyways, they went up to dive off the swim blocks and sure enough... well, watch the 3 kids and see who was the diver of the bunch.
So yeah that was off the blocks about 2 feet up off the pool deck and even further up off the water.
Now... flash forward to this week. Regular summer swim team started on Monday. First Practice!
My gosh, for not yet 5 years old this kid can hang with the nearly 7 year olds. He's swimming in the 6 and under lane, but of course that takes into account age adjustment because of the kids birthdays and school year and yadda yadda, you know all that jargon. So yeah, he's definitely the youngest on the team, but that didn't stop him. The coach said swim a 25, he swam to the end. Coach said swim a 50 (2 laps), down and back he went pushing and giving his all. Pool guy even had extra drag because silly mommy was hoping his swim team suit was in by now but alas it was not. So for Monday and Tuesday's practice, a full hour I might add, the little guy was wearing regular swim trunks and a swim shirt! So we finally got out today to get an actual real swim team bathing suit.
Doesn't he look totally adorable in his "real" swim suit... to now be known as his 'skinny suit'!! :) Funny enough we've conditioned him somewhat to wearing a swim shirt to keep him from burning in the sun with that whitey skin of his and the only thing he said about his new suit was... mom, everyone is going to see my belly!! So cute. Little Michael Phelps in the making for sure. Definitely the stature that he has is similar - ever read the article, here, about what made Michael so good? Yeah, well, Colby's got the monkey arms and duck feet, long torso and short legs to go along with it. Perhaps? Maybe Olympics 2024? haha. But really, anyone that knows anything about swimming knows that this next picture is definitely that of a swimmer!!! Check out this shake out the shoulders posture as he gets into the water! Can we say, 1st one into the water for backstroke in a relay?! :) So funny. He's a little swimmer dude, struttin his stuff already.
And when the coach said today to all 15-20 (yes, there are that many!!) or so 6 and unders in lane 1, 1 lap kick. Off he went. Streamline position and kicking his way to the end! I love that he is passionate about nearly everything he does.
And sure enough about half way through practice, Coach Hannah (in the visor there) had everyone line up to do a dive. Maybe 2 others could actually DIVE, like real, hands, head, hips, feet into the water in that order. On day 3 of practice they are still getting a handle on what everyone's strengths are. Sure enough, I'm pretty sure Colby is now known as the Little Diver or something along those lines. Why? First time through the line, whoop, up and into the water, like a beautiful, slow motion version of what would have been considered an awesome swimmer dive. I was so bummer because I didn't get it on video. It was definitely the best that he'd ever done. So smooth. She knew Scott and I were sitting on the pool deck behind where she was standing and she turned to us and was like... OH MY... that was amazing! After that... she lined every one of the 6 and unders along the side of the pool, made them sit down and put Colby at the end to show them what a DIVE, a real, swimmer dive looked like. Little guy was put on the hot spot and didn't even know it. There he is standing at the end of the pool with every other kid on the team in his age group watching!
Whoop, up and into the water he went. Kicked to the surface in streamline and swam to the ladder. He didn't know that he was on "stage" just that he was told to go ahead and dive in. Totally adorable he is. He just loves the water and you can see it in his face when he's wet!
So they did 1 more round of diving and this time I got a video. Sure enough, wasn't as beautiful as his sleek slo-mo dive the original time in line, but certainly not too shabby for not even 5 years old!!
And there he goes, like it's no big shakes... whooop, up and in. You can hear the coach at the end go - he's so good. She's very sweet and I think he may have stolen her heart not only with his dive, but that he went up to her when he had his new skinny suit on and was showing it off! hehe. I just want to pinch that adorable tiny heighny, I wish I had a butt that good again! haha. So now its just working on getting quicker into it because if he can do that, he'll surely have an edge up in a race!
So we shall see what happens with Colby and the pool. This little boy is one smarty, spunky athlete... and cute as a button that's for sure. At this point, he's got it all!! :) I just love that he's happy, cause that's all that matters.
