Day Five: Reviews... and the funnest the of all!

Today was the review day. It was also the IM turns, and starts, and cap contest day. We reviewed a whole bunch of drills, and started our IM turns. During the recent days of my turns, Beth said my turns were perfect! And so they were for the IM’s too. I was having difficulty with the back to breast, but after I watched someone and tried how they did it, mine turned out good! Next were the starts. My favorite one is the relay track start. You would get into track position, and the when the relay person in front is at the “T” in the pool, you swing your arms back and around and back up front (my favorite part, basically just swinging your arms back) and that momentum drags you forward and you spring right while you push with your legs, and whee! you go far!! My second favorite is the track start. But I do like the other start, where both feet are on the edge. Oh, they all work for me.

The cap contest was up next. Well, I didn’t do much. I just decorated my cap with the Peanuts, Snoopy, Charlie Brown and all of them. I drew them well, as I always did. That is all I did. And I did not regret it, watching all of the others, like when one person turned it into an octopus, a lady, or a duck. The duck was quite cute, actually. There was only one other person who decorated it, which was sad because I was lonely. When they were handing out the prizes, there were going to be sixteen winners. Eight lanes, eight coaches, eight first places, eight second places, that was it. So when I saw one of the coaches holding my cap- with my Snoopy, my Charlie Brown- I was completely stunned and astonished, and I got a second place! I couldn’t have asked for a first place, no, that would be too much. Even a second place for me would be too much (by the way, I drew them, not trace)! But of course I wanted to keep the ribbon and my cap. A happy end of the day!

Well, the end was the relays. I did my perfect relay start and swam fast, but with technique (swimming with technique does make me faster). And my lane won! The second win! Hooray! This was a good swim camp, especially since I got to go home every day! Home sweet home!

Day Four: Butterfly

Surprisingly, I have to say my butterfly is the best. It is almost as fast as my freestyle, which is weird because barely anyone likes butterfly! But today, I loved it. We did a worm drill, which would rotate our body up and down. I was good at it, and it was fun. My favorite part of the morning was the underwater dolphin contest. This time, I just didn’t have enough air!!! I was only a yard or two away! That wasn’t fair! But I was in a good mood, so I wasn’t too bothered. And when I swam, the coach said I was good! Like, really good! I only had to work on swinging my arms out- I needed to keep the momentum. I was happy, and worked hard the rest of the morning!

Lunch was alright, but it really happened when we went back. Boy, I was tired! Four days, and the last day had to be butterfly? They tired us out. We didn’t video tape, we worked on turns. Push offs after our turn, actually. But we all were relieved when we got to go home. The problem was, we had a cap contest tomorrow…

Day Three: Breaststroke

Today, I was excited! Today I could swim my favorite, and hopefully improve so I could swim it more during meets! But, I want to talk about my favorite drill first. It was called the Ducky Drill. I had to sit on a kickboard and use my arms only. Using breaststroke pulls only. It actually was fun, even though my arms got tired. My legs got to relax, and I could sit in a swimming pool! Our lane liked it so much; our coach let us have a Ducky Drill Relay!! The first person wasn’t too fast. We lost some precious time, and I was second so they of course all counted on me to catch up (with the other lane we were racing against). I was fast. A pretty fast ducky drill person was what they needed, and it was what I was. I not only caught up, but I gave my lane a not bad head start. I was proud! We did win, but it was a tight finish, we touched and then they touched. Still, we did a great job! But when we were videotaping, I found out that my breaststroke could use a couple tips to go faster. Like to not lift but push my head up for air. And I could glide longer.

A nutritionist talked to us during snack time. She said Gatorade would be good after a couple events. She told us what foods to eat before, during, and after a meet, which was useful. But then I started to look at my snack and think that I hadn’t packed the healthiest thing. But I did have fruit, which was good too. It wasn’t very fun but it still taught us.

After snack, we went in the pool. More and more drills, I wanted to do relays! It happened that when I was diving, my goggles fell, and I was having a tough time seeing. So I don’t think I did that good. Oh well, I guess I could still look forward tomorrow, even though I would be so sore after a whole day of butterfly. But I would love it!

Day Two: Backstroke

Backstroke is my least favorite and weakest stroke. Not that I didn’t improve at camp. One of the most useful drills for me was the cup drill. It was when I had to balance a cup on my forehead so it would make me try to keep my head straight and still. It was actually quite difficult. Not really when I was just kicking on my back, but for some people their head was too far back or too far forward which stopped them from gliding. But when we started rotating which we did for backstroke, it was more difficult. My head would tilt with my body, which would slow me. So using the cup helped me keep my head still and in the right position. I also got a lot of help from the coach when I got videotaped and reviewed on how my backstroke was. I turned out better!

Lunch was luckily in the shade. I picked a shady spot to sit under a tree. Sadly, we didn’t play Drip, Drip, Drop. We still got to sit in the shade though. It was nice to jump back in the freezing water, even though it felt way too freezing and I thought I was going to get hypothermia. For snack time, we had a gym teacher come in and give a little pep talk. What we did though was not fun. We exercised. He said that the Manchester United team was in his workout room working out. So we did push-ups, sit ups, and other exercises. Two of the only things I got out of it were, exercise all parts of your body, and…Manchester United was here in the US!!!!!!!! All right, that was a bit exciting, I have to admit.

It was nice to jump back in the freezing water, even though it felt way too freezing and I thought I was going to get hypothermia. We did an underwater dolphin contest, to see who could streamline the farthest. So the first person to go was Kuba. We were waiting for him to set an example to how far we should go. He thought he would go the farthest, so he had wanted to go first. So when he pushed off, we all waited. We waited for a while actually. Actually, no, a long long long while. We started getting scared. Finally he surfaced. But where? It took us a minute to find him, he was so far away. He was at the other end of the pool! Well, no one could beat that! I’m not sure if I could even hold my breath that long! So Olivia promised to beat him for us, so we left her last. When I went, we all ended up two thirds of the way. Not bad actually, that was where the average was. And when Olivia went, we were all screaming for her to go! And guess what? She ended up right next to Kuba! I was proud that Kuba couldn’t brag (he liked to brag)! It was fun, and when we videotaped, I waved to the camera! When I got reviewed, the problem was that underwater my arm wasn't bent enough, so I wasn't exactly catching water to push myself forward. Beth said that after that, I would be much faster.

Backstroke turned out fine, actually. But breaststroke was my favorite!

Backstroke was alright, I guess, but tomorrow was breaststroke, my favorite!

First day: Freestyle

Today I got up early to go to swim camp. Again, just like last year. But this year, it was different. Last year, it was an overnight camp. This year it would be a day camp, which was better because I got to go home, but not so much better on the drive to Harvard every day there and back. So, I got up early in the morning and we were off. My dad had to carpool, so we went to a supermarket parking lot and picked up the other kids. Their names were Allison, Bonita, and Elise. The way to Harvard was not bad. But there still was traffic even though not much. When we got there, I was surprised. Probably because I never thought of it so I was surprised.

We swam at Blodgett Pool. The Harvard University pool was being borrowed by us. And boy, it is huge! You can’t even ask how many lanes there were! I’ll try to explain it. So when you first walk into the door, you see eight lanes going horizontally. Then there was a deep end about the size of half a regular pool, and another eight lanes. Incredible, isn’t it?!

 The water was fine. My coach or counselor was Beth. She was nice, and directed us on the drills. The water was fine. But then came the nervousness came. We were going to get videotaped, then “criticized” on by the coach. So I swam meanwhile thinking of doing the right body positions. When it came to watching me, the coach told me to work on rotating more on my right side, and I would be fine. So when I got back into the water, I worked on it. And in my next video during the afternoon, it did improve! Now, about lunchtime…

We ate our lunch outside in the burning hot sun. I wore flip flops, which wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t join in the Frisbee game they were playing, not that I wanted to. So I went with the other flip floppers and went to play Drip, Drip, and Drop. It does sound a bit like Duck, Duck, Goose, doesn’t it? Well it’s just like it. So someone has a bucket of water. They go to the first person; they can drip it on them. They keep on going around dripping it, until, hmm; this person looks like they should get wet… SPLASH!! They are wet! Ha-ha- wait, you have to run! They are chasing you! Phew! You are safe when you sit down. So it is just like Duck, Duck, Goose. I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t get dropped on- getting dripped on was enough cold water. Besides, the drips were quite big. So, I was getting dripped on. But then, someone decides to dump water on me! I am furious, I chase them, but water squeaks in my flip flops as I attempt to catch them. It doesn’t work. I dump on someone, and then we have to go. There is water dripping everywhere I walk. It feels nice to get in the pool, instead of being half wet, I am completely wet which is more comfortable. This time, when I got videotaped, I look much better!

At the end, we have relays. They are fun, just too many people. I swam as fast as possible, but the lane next to us seemed to have better technique, so they won. But we still had the rest of the week to try again. I was a bit tired, and definitely ready to head home, feeling satisfied about what I learned. Oh no! Tomorrow’s backstroke, my least favorite!