Swimmer Girl

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I would talk about Charity and her natural ability to swim. As a parent, I wanted my child to have some form of physical activity that she enjoyed and possibly excelled at. I was not really into sports in school, unfortunatly work came first. I found my extracurricular passion in choir and the winter musical. I was a drama queen at heart. I was never good enough to get any parts, but I so enjoyed hanging out at the theater.

Anyway, this blog entry is not about me, but about my daughter. We tried several sports as a child during the summer. The first one we tried was soccer. She has never really had the aggressive personality to take the ball and be in someone's face. She would kick the ball if it came to her, but don's ask her to chase someone down and take it from them. This was just not her style. So, I learned that any sport that would require contact was not going to be for her - besides, she hated to run. We then tried dance. I signed her up for a couple of dance clinics. She loved to memorize the movements and hear the music. Even though this was not a contact sport it was physical activity. Truthfully, I dropped the ball on this. Her body shape is too much like her mothers - let's just say it is not a dancers body. Besides -she also hated to sweat.

Then a couple of summer's ago, she was taking level 6 swim class and her instructor suggested the summer swim clinic. This was swimming from 7-9am, 3 times a week. Charity went for it. It was really hard at first. Then she decided to try out for the high school swim team. They did not make any cuts and the girls on the team were so welcoming. It really made her transition from elementary school to junior high much more bearable. In the spring our school offers Synchronized swimming - which is basically dancing in water. I knew that this would be a great fit for her - she loved music so much!! She went for it.

We are now official parents of a swimmer. I have jumped in to help with scoring and meeting the parents - sort of scary for me. She always does her best and is able to compete without having to push,shove or steal something from someone. She is competing against her own time. Just to brag on her a little bit. She swims the 200 Individual Medley. This is where you swim 50 yards of each stroke - butterfly (her best but not necessarily her favorite), backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. She ended the season last year with a time of 3:00 minutes. She has shaved off six seconds this year to a 2:54. This is amazing. It is not Varsity times quite yet, but very good for an 8th grader. She is hoping to qualify for sections next year.

I am just so proud of her, mostly because her parents just aren't swimmers. I can - but it is not pretty and Roger would rather have the boat come to him. So, if my entries have been few, I can just say it is because I am sitting on a hard bleacher in 100 degree heat cheering on my amazing daughter.

God Bless