Swim Team Tryouts

Miranda is wearing a bathing suit from Le Top's 2011 Spring/Summer "School of Fun" collection.

This is a FIRST for Miranda—and for ME! After spending a lot of hours AND a lot of money on swim lessons, I figured we should put the swim lessons to the test. So I signed her up to be on the local swim team. I thought if you signed up, then you were automatically in. Well… I was wrong. They required a tryout to see if the child can swim across one lap. The pool where Miranda had lessons was half the length. And as far as I knew, the times we swam at friends’ pools or hotel pools, she could swim across, but I didn’t know if they were the same distance as one lap. Plus, it has been almost a year since Miranda had a swim lesson. Yikes! Talk about NERVE-WRACKING!

The reason for swim tryouts wasn’t to see how fast a child can swim or what strokes he/she can do in the water. The tryout was mainly for safety reasons. Children must be able to swim across the pool by themselves without help. So before Miranda’s turn in the water, I asked her how she felt. She was a little nervous but wasn’t afraid. She didn’t feel intimidated at all. “Are you sure? Was the pool in Hawaii this long? What stroke are you going to do? If you get tired half-way, stop and rest. Don’t feel bad.” Then she just looked at me with exasperation as if she just wanted to say, “Cool it, Mom!”

The coach called her name and, naturally, I was more nervous than her. She got in the water, kicked her skinny, long legs all the way across to the other end of the pool doing the freestyle. Then the guide in the water asked her if she wanted to hang on to the life preserver so she can get a “ride” back. She declined and said, “I’ll do the backstroke.” And she did, with perfect arms!

What a proud moment for me! She made the swim team and was so happy to back in the water after such a long, cold winter. Can’t wait for swim practices and swim meets. An exciting and fun summer awaits.