The kids had only been out of the water for about a month when we switched over to the elite club. Yet they got put in the low-end, beginner part of the program at first. They found themselves swimming very long sets for warm up, let alone the actual swim practice. It was a good solid 2 hours of swim practice, even when we got there late, which was most of the time.

Slowly, my daughter worked her way up to the intermediate group, swimming with her good friend. My son’s friends never really stuck with the transition to the new team. His progress was slower than his sister’s.

I asked the coach what the children needed to do to improve. He told me they needed to swim a minimum of 5 days a week. I was lucky if I could get them there three times a week–four if I was really pushing. The serious kids were in the pool twice a day on week days, but I knew better than to try to get the kids in the pool before 7 AM.

They didn’t get times to qualify for the state and national meets. And this club didn’t belong to the age group league. But an influx of more inexperienced swimmers meant there were lots of kids in competitive swimming that couldn’t go to meets. A shaky alliance was made with our old club, and our kids were able to compete in the age group meets.

Here’s where their hard work began to pay off. . .
(to be continued)