Swimming Lessons

Sophia has been participating in Swim America's swim program. It's a neat program that is 1/2 hour sessions, every day, for 10 (work) days. The concept is to accelerate learning in a natural way, with a personalized approach. They have a high number of coaches to a lower number of students to give them a bit more attention than in other group sessions. My expectations were quite high going into the program, and I believe that Sophia's were as well.

Sophia has always been fearless when it comes to water. She absolutely loves it, and I say she gets that from me. I love to swim and be in the water; swimming has just always come naturally to me. The problem comes in where Sophia needs to listen and actually learn to swim. We've been going every day, and every day she "fails" the float portion of "level 2". Some of the problem is fear of holding her breath for as long as, or longer than 5 seconds, but mostly it's her fear that she'll sink like a stone to the bottom of the pool. She's said so herself. "I'm scared I'll sink to the bottom and drown" were her exact words.

Each day I watch from the stands and see her improving. It's so neat to see her cheerful, exuberant, excitement to get into the pool and start swimming. It's been difficult to watch her disappointment as the days go by and she stays at "level 2". I struggled with feeling disappointed that she couldn't get a "simple float" as the swim coach had said, but honestly, I've learned a great deal from watching her learn and gain confidence. So, maybe she hasn't mastered front and back float, and maybe she's a little leery to put her face under the water, but I see an eager girl, who will not be swayed. She wants so badly to learn, she faces her frustrations day after day with a huge smile on her face, and a throat full of giggles. She said to me "Mama, I just have to believe in myself more" and I believe that she understands what that means. Once she connects her body with her confidence, and finds a way to trust that the water will hold her, there won't be any stopping her.

If only I could bottle that sheer determination, there would be no limits to what we could do!!!