Swim Lessons

Last year I enrolled the kids in one swim lesson over the cold months, just to keep their swim 'skills' in their memory. Since it seemed to work pretty well, I did the same this year. Once a week the kids take lessons, back-to-back, so they each get to watch the other. So far so good.

Maddux loves the water. She can kick pretty good, but struggles to remember that her arms are supposed to come out of the water. And something she's done the last two weeks is stopping halfway down the lane to grab onto the side for a moment. Maybe she's getting tired? The video is pretty cute because it shows her working so hard to keep her eyes in the water, but she alternates that with throwing her head completely back to wipe the water and hair out of her eyes.

Eli is a fish. He loves the water even more than last year, and his progress is obvious even inside of a lesson. This last week the coach advised the boys to turn their heads to the side to breath...not a stroke passed after that without Eli moving his head to the side.

One area Eli has always struggled with is the kicking. He never seems to keep his legs together, moving them like a water polo player instead. This is very easy to see when it comes time to use kick boards. Without his arms helping him, Eli falls to the back of the pack quickly, pretty much swimming in place. One area he may have a knack for is diving. You can only see part of one 'dive' on the video, but over half of the time that he's asked to jump into the water, Eli leads with his hands in a stretched out dive/flop. No formal instruction has been given on that yet, he just sees it and mimics.

2011 01 Swim Lessons from Nicole Eliason on Vimeo.