My daughter had a damsel moment at lifeguard training last night. She got cold from the in and out of the pool, and the guys training for lifeguard were falling over each other to help her out. Two even went so far as to wring out the warm towel she got to use to warm up.

The further along she gets in her training, the more ambivalent I feel about it. I mean, were small girls meant to save huge men? I know she can swim and all, and I know she’s strong, but she is no guy. I just wonder about the wisdom in this thing.

Tonight she took a written test. I’m curious how it went. I’ll keep you posted.

Check this dude out. Naji Ali just started swimming last year, and in October, he swam across the Golden Gate bridge.

I love what he has to say about it: “After 1 hour and 29 minutes, the swim was over. I should clarify that: after 1 year, 1 hour and 29 minutes, the swim was over. You see, the date that I did this swim was also the date – exactly one year ago – that I learned to swim. Like so many other African Americans, I bought into the ludicrous notion that we couldn’t swim. We were meant to play sports like track, basketball and football and I bought into this myth. And if you looked at the stats on drowning, maybe folks were right to say this. Nationally, African Americans and Hispanics drown at a rate nearly three times that of whites.”

“That’s one of the man reasons why I did the swim: to hopefully get more people of color involved in swimming and open water swimming in particular. My 10K from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge was only a prequel to what I plan on doing in the open water. I have dreams of swimming the width of Lake Tahoe, doing a relay in the Catalina Channel, another relay in the English Channel and, hopefully, both of these solo swims in the future. But above all, I have one ultimate goal: to get more kids of color into the water and develop great open water swimmers, maybe even the next Charles Chapman, the first African American to swim the English Channel and around Manhattan Island.”

Go on, then! And I love his reason. I never thought of it that way, but I think when you come to swimming late after overcoming some hang ups–especially overcoming fear–you become a kind of swim evangelist. And I think that’s what we need to turn that drowning rate around. It’s so good to see people actually doing something to address this problem.

I will be on the lookout for more role models and swim heroes. I will continue to chronicle my daughter’s journey towards lifeguard certification. And, God willing, I will go back to the pool as soon as possible and write my own swim story.

I should have known that our favorite swim club had a Make a Splash connection. Does yours?

My daughter taught swim lessons today, and here are some of her poolside notes.

For her first class, she didn’t have her class lists when class started, and she wasn’t sure who was in her class. One of her students, a 12 year old, was wandering around the pool looking for his class. He complained to his mother, who in turn complained to the staff. They were all like, “I don’t know what to tell you; check at the front desk. . . ” Meanwhile, my daughter found her roster and apologized to the mother, and the lesson commenced.

I asked my daughter if she needed to make out lesson plans before each class. She said they had guidelines of what was required of each level. They assess the students at the beginning of the lesson and teach accordingly.

She was pleased with her management of the last class. This was a rowdy class of 8 eager swimmers. They are usually competing for who gets to go first. My daughter tried a new technique with them. She told them that whoever was ready and quietly waiting at the wall first would get to go first. She said that this worked well on all but 1. I guess 7 out of 8 is not bad; it even made the incorrigible student easier to deal with.

I’m trying to get a feel for her classes to see if I can sign my 5 year old son up for one. He is a true beginner, raring to go. My daughter also mentioned her two middle sisters, who would be more advanced. I hadn’t thought of signing them up at the Y. We’ll see. But the 5 year old would be a good case to strengthen her teaching skills, not to mention help him out.

Hopefully we’ll get him in the pool next week.

I’m late to this party, but I wanted to celebrate a beautiful diverse excellent swim team.

This is from the Los Angeles County blog:

Competing against 20 other teams and 800 competitors from all over California, the L.A. County Swim Team garnered 100 gold, silver and bronze medals in 12 events that tested swimmers in every competitive stoke.

“We shocked everyone out there. They were asking who we were and where we were from,” said Fernando Medina, swim coach at Victoria Park Pool. “We made a huge impact as a team.” Competing in the event for the first time, the team from Los Angeles County out swam perennial powerhouse teams from throughout California.

The team is supported by the Aquatic Foundation of Metropolitan Los Angeles, coached by Department of Parks and Recreation employees Medina, Nick Orozco, Christina Melendez and Tony Martinez and trains at Los Angeles County pools operated by the Department of Parks and Recreation.

California State Games is a festival of Olympic-style competition for California’s amateur athletes of all ages and abilities. State Games is a community-based member of the United States Olympic Committee. In addition to Summer State Games, they host the California Winter Games with figure skating, ice hockey, skiing and snowboarding.

“Oh my arms! Wow. . . ” My daughter is feeling that day after lifeguard class.

She is super sore from practicing rescuing a passive drowning victim from the bottom of the pool. They had to go down to the bottom of the 9 foot water at the same time as the ‘victim,’ so no one would run out of breath. She was really missing her swim team training. She could feel her diminished lung capacity and actually suggested going to the pool to practice.

Thank you lifeguard training!

The hard part was having to grab the victim with one arm, and using the other arm to pull on the lifeguard buoy string to pull yourself up. My daughter couldn’t figure out how to do this. She’d go down to the bottom and then couldn’t find the string. So she would end up swimming breast stroke, one arm, two legs, pulling up the victim. That means she was using her own strength, moving too slowly, and risking her victim’s life by taking so long to get them to the surface.

The point of pulling the string would be to get the buoy under the victim and help them get to the surface faster. My daughter’s problem is that she refuses to swim without goggles. This is going to take some practice–she is just learning how to swim without them.

My daughter also struggles with rescuing the big heavy dudes. If she had a choice, she’d only work with other girls. But, as a lifeguard, she’ll have to rescue all types of people. It’s good she’s getting practice now.