This year, Erik, out of the blue, surprised me by telling me he was going to sign up for the swim team. I asked why. He said his friend Jacob wanted him to. It's amazing how a friend could convince him that easily! He and Jacob have known each other since kindergarten. They weren't as close for a few years, but it's nice to see them hanging out more again. And to see that they're close enough that Erik would even join the swim team for him!
It's trickier for Erik than for Austin since Erik is on the club soccer team, which we pay good money for, and is his passion. He actually only goes to half the swim practices, so he doesn't miss soccer practice. He does go to all the meets, though, and missed one soccer practice for the meet. It's a very short season, and there are only 5 swim meets total. I admit that I was a little worried that he would become discouraged with only having half the practices under his belt, and this being the first year he's been on a swim team. I learned from when Austin was on the team that the swim team has kids who have been on club swim teams for years, kids who have had some lessons and then just joined in 7th or 8th grade, and kids who have had hardly any swimming experience ever, and you wonder if they're going to make it across the pool. With Erik starting in 8th grade, he didn't have 7th grade to give him that extra year of experience. I thought he would be last in every race, which is not a problem, but I wondered how he would like it, or if he would just quit, because let's face it, swimming is a hard sport!
It seems that our team is really small this year. Erik assures me it's not, but it seems smaller than when Austin was on it. Either way, I have been surprised that in the 3 meets he's participated in so far, he's been in the first, fastest heats. He was a great competitor in the 50 and 100 free, finishing in the middle of the group. His form looks pretty good (thanks to his swim coach of a long time ago, Emily, and of course, some lessons from Grandpa Dave, the GOAT swim coach). He actually came in first when he swam backstroke in a race. We've learned he's not very fast at breaststroke, and the 200 free is way too long for his lungs, which are not yet fully developed for that capacity in swimming. I don't think he'll ever do butterfly, as that takes a lot of skill and practice. But, I have to say that I'm impressed with his drive and that he was willing to try this new sport, even with all the soccer practice he's involved with. I'm actually impressed with all the kids who try the swim team. Swimming is hard. We can't breathe water, so it takes great discipline to train and execute the breathing techniques on top of the physical exertion.
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| First to finish in backstroke! |
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| Erik and Spencer cheering on Nick, mid flip turn! |
While this has been exciting, the news on Austin has not been so good. About 10 days ago he injured himself running down a hill in Ann Arbor for one of their training runs at the end of spring break. He finally got to see a PT a couple of days ago. His right hip is injured, and the pain spreads to his lower back on that side. The PT gave him some exercises to strengthen his glutes because they believe that will help alleviate the pain, and then they want to watch him run on the treadmill to see how his gait may have been a long time in leading up to this now very severe muscle injury. They believe it will be at least 2 weeks until he is pain-free. I'm not sure when he will be ready for a meet after that. The first meet of the season was last week. It's discouraging, but we've been discussing the other Juniors we know who were out of their sports during such an important time, due to serious injuries. It's also going to be expensive with all the visits to the PT. I remember from when Kade went for his knee... Here's hoping for a little miracle in his healing process!
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