First week of practice done. Whew. This is a whole new level for sure, with lots of equipment and instructions i don't even understand and I've been poolside for many years now. Who knew there were a bajillion parts to each stroke and someone had taken the time to name them all? The coach is all miked up even though there are only 30 girls swimming at the moment (the rest are at orchestra camp)
20 hours of practice a week, the swim taxi drove over 300 miles and the pool is only 10 miles away. Swimmer Girl coaches between practices (and from next week will do an hour of synchro too). here I was thinking I'd get loads of cleaning and sorting done between pool runs and be ready for a yard sale today. Wrong.
The coach has tweaked her breaststroke kick and changed her freestyle completely and says that she is very coachable. She says she feels faster but she has yet to really test them at a meet She did get put in the Varsity practice group. First meet is next Thursday, we're hearing coach makes all the freshmen swim the 500. She has never raced a 500 -the 200 is like pulling teeth.
She just got together with her summer team buddies who are going to the other schools and they are practising nearly twice as much as the other teams. It's their first year with seniors and first year in Division 1, so I guess they have something to prove. The coach's husband is there coaching most days. He's a former U of M swim coach. I think they mean business
The coach is definitely a one for having favorites, I wouldn't like to get on her bad side, but right now it looks like Swimmer Girl is going to be a favorite, so it's good for now. And I think the early sport involvement is helping ease her into the new school. She's still apprehensive about getting lost etc, but she knows kids in every grade and at least knows her way around the pool and gyms.