Today marked the end of our team's first full week of morning practice, as opposed to our nearly two weeks of afternoon practices that were necessary while school was still in session.
One nice thing about morning practice is the team's ability to use both pools that are owned by the community, rather than just one, to more comfortably accommodate the over 200 swimmers registered this summer. First world problems, right?
Also, I'll argue that at least the younger swimmers (8&under) have less energy in the morning than in the afternoon. Lethargic children can be a blessing.
The team's first 'A-meet' is tomorrow: A scored bout against another community team from the same division. There are over a dozen divisions in the league, each with five teams. It can get pretty competitive, though the 'main objective' is for everyone to have fun. Sometimes people lose perspective.
A-meets are comprised of individual events and relays, pitting the top three swimmers in each event from each team against one another, in all four competitive strokes. The catch is that each swimmer may only race in two individual events and a max of two relays. That's where having over a depth of 200 swimmers comes in handy.
It's pretty simple after that: Swimmers earn points for the team by finishing in the top three of the event; score the most points, win the meet. Depending on a team's win-loss record at the end of the season, they're moved up or down a division. Just to keep things interesting.
Developmental or 'B' meets take place on Monday nights. This is when the majority of the team gets a chance to compete - and better their times for a chance move up our ladder and swim on Saturday. Even though the meets aren't scored, there's still plenty of competitive spirit, especially on an individual basis when the swimmers know they're close to earning an A-meet spot.
I swam and coached with this team several years ago, and have missed it ever since. Working with kids is such an invigorating yet challenging way to spend your time - they're always coming up with new ways to prove they're more intelligent than you give them credit for, and inadvertently remind you you're older than they give you credit for.
After a while, coaching here didn't mesh well with full-time job pursuits, being a part-time commitment out in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. But this summer, having just moved back from living abroad, I found myself in the not uncommon position of being between full-time jobs. I seized an opportunity to see if the work is as good as I remember it.
And so far, it is. There have been a few cobwebs and some rust to work out, but I think I'm getting it back. The whole work situation couldn't be much more different than my previous position (sub-editor for an English-language magazine based in Amsterdam), but the gradually resurfacing familiarity (apropos figurative language!) is helping to bridge that gap. My freestyle drills came back to me.
The season is as short as it looks on paper, wrapping up with an all-star meet in the first week of August. It's hard to believe three weeks of practice are already in the books. I'm writing this in an effort to slow down and marinate over the experience, before what ever comes next comes next.
So if the off-kilter observations of a late-twenties temporal suburbanite imploring sometimes reluctant youngsters to get in the pool and swim already is your cup of tea, then stay with me.
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