Two Great Swimmers

My brother and I spent every moment possible at the city pool when we were kids.   Mom would drop us off at noon every day and then pick us up after work at 4:30.  On the days we had swimming lessons, we would get there even earlier.  We took every swimming lesson available, and were both great swimmers.   I suppose I took it for granted that everybody loved the water and could swim.  All three of our older kids loved the water and learned to swim easily.

And then came Justice.  Not only does Justice have ADHD, but he also struggles with anxiety.  He was scared to death of the water even as a baby.  He would panic and scream the second his feet hit the water, and there was absolutely NO WAY he would get in deep enough to even consider swimming lessons.  This continued every single summer until last summer.  Last summer he became comfortable enough in the water to actually walk around in the pool in the areas he could touch without being close to the wall.  Yes, at age 9 he was still so scared of the water that he wouldn't let go of the wall, even in the three foot section of the pool.  It was difficult for me to comprehend that such an athletic kid could be so deathly afraid of the water.  I've always chalked it up to his anxiety, and I never forced him or pushed for fear of causing some sort of permanent psychological damage to the poor kid.  

This summer, all that changed.  Finally.  We have a city pool in our small little town and the boys and I went to the pool for at least three hours a day, four days per week, all summer long.  At the very beginning of the summer, he was able to move around the pool and play with his friends, and a few weeks into the summer he was jumping off the diving board.  He was jumping off sideways towards the ladder rather than jumping straight forward, but he was making progress.   And once I taught him how to actually swim, look out!  Once he got over his fear of the water he picked up swimming very quickly.

Once he got the rhythm down, this kid swam lap after lap after lap.

  

My teaching skills pretty much stop after freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke.  He was really fortunate in that we spent so much time at the pool this summer that the lifeguards got to know him and were happy to help him hone his skills.  By the last few weeks of summer, Justice was doing the butterfly stroke like a pro.  I was impressed that someone with such skinny arms could fly out of the water.   Between the lifeguards at our local pool and the lifeguards at T.O. Fuller State Park in Memphis, this little boy went from being psychotically afraid of the water to swimming all over the pool in just a few months.  I am so thankful for them and what they did for him.  And I'm thankful for Justice putting in so much effort to overcome his fear.  He also earned his Webelos Aquanaut Activity Badge this summer, and I would say that was no small feat after being so scared of the water.  

 Pumping his fist saying "YES!!!" after swimming the butterfly.   Cutest little face, ever.

Swimming wasn't the only thing he learned to do at the pool.  This kid learned to do all sorts of tricks on the diving board.  Backflips, front flips, dives, twists, you name it.  And of course, the occasional back and belly flop.  

This looks far more tragic than it really was.  This is a back flip and he went in the water head first.

He learned to get some pretty good height off the diving board.  

Front flip

Now let's talk about my main man Jack.  Jack is a natural swimmer.  The absolute polar opposite of Justice in the swimming department.

I've never been a believer of swimming aids.  Floaties, water wings, and whatever other things are out there.  Teach them to swim and you won't need them is what I've always said, and I have stuck to my guns with all the other kids.  My theory worked well with the older three, and Justice was always too scared to go in the water anyhow so it was a non-issue.  And then came Jackson.  I started the fifth kid out in the pool just like the rest of them, and it was apparent very early on that Jack was different.  Jack was all over the pool last summer when he had just turned three.  I mean ALL OVER THE POOL.  He was absolutely fearless and would jump off the diving board into 13 feet of water without even giving it another thought.  The problem with that was that even though he loved the water, at the age of three he couldn't swim nearly as well as he thought he could.  SO, I finally broke down last summer and bought him a swimming aid.  I was scared to death he would drown without it.  I always kept a good eye on him at the pool, and the lifeguards always had an eye locked in on him, but it wasn't a chance I was willing to take.

This is what I mean by fearless.  He does flips off the diving board.

This summer he started out with his floatie, but after the first few weeks of summer I knuckled down and made him take it off.  Talk about nerve-wracking.  He was SO happy to have it off and he went nuts in the pool.  I spent the next two weeks in the pool with him teaching him to swim.  He is an amazing swimmer for a kid that just turned four.

He loved the diving board the most.  He jumped and jumped and jumped.  And swam and swam and swam.
 

I takes a lot of energy for a little guy to swim so far, and after about two solid hours in the pool, this is how tired he looked.

After a few hours I would take him out of the pool to rest, but that was completely pointless because this was his favorite thing to do while he was "resting".

While Jack was great from getting from point A to point B in the pool, he didn't learn to tread water until pool season was nearly over.  And I didn't even teach him, I just noticed he was doing it.

He looks like he's drowning in this picture, but he's really hollering at his brother to throw him his goggles.  He did nearly drown after he got the goggles and tried to put them on.  His treading water skills weren't quite that good.

I had a great summer at the pool with the boys.  I am thankful that we have a pool so close to the house and that we were able to spend so much time there.  I'm especially thankful that Justice finally got over his fear of water and learned to swim this summer.  Better late than never!