Tell us about your Mom and swimming. Does she (or did she) swim? Did she teach you how to swim? Did you teach HER how to swim? How many times did she drive you to and from the pool? Does she compete as a Masters swimmer? Here's your chance to honor your MOM!
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Hmm....My mom refused to get in the pool unless the water was at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit. She would then dog paddle for not more than ten minutes before exiting the pool and completing a crossword puzzle poolside. |
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My Mum, 87y old, never has learned to swim and hates getting into water unless it's a nice warm bath....but she did have the foresight many years ago to get all 4 of her children to learn to swim during their school holidays. I still remember the tiles on the bottom of the pool, the interminable 25m pool, and the diminutive swim instructor Mr Breward, who had encouraging things to say like "you're getting gooder"! I would love to teach my Mum how to swim - and she's such an adventurous person she probably would take me up on it if I could find a really big bath and lived on the same continent as her!! |
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Like most young boys, we all looked up to our Dad for our athletic advice. He was a "scrappy" basketball player, and very aggressive in all competitions (in a very subdued way). Many years later, Dad had taken Mom to the pool and begun working on her swimming. We all met up at a summer camp I was working, and between the kids sessions, Mom got in the pool and started going back and forth. So smooth... so graceful, and actually... so powerful. I turned to my Dad as the two of us watched what they had worked on together... and I said... "You know how I always thought we got our athletic ability from you?" He said, "Yeah." I said... "I've got some bad news for you." We both smiled, knowing that my Mom was the pool of athletic physiology and my Dad was the enthusiastic spark to use it. Without that team, I'd be a pretty bad baseball pitcher instead. Thanks Mom. I love you. Happy Mothers Day Sunday, and if the flowers don't come on time, they musta got lost in the mail. ;) |
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My mom is swimming for me. She was my first coach and is still coaching her summer league team today at 77 years old. She was there every meet, ruthless in her pursuit of my perfection. Caused me nervous ticks that she thinks are funny today. My siblings knew by my post race meal how I swam (good: McDonalds, bad: boiled hot dogs). It never bothered me, her "tough love" as they call it now shaped my personality. She swam as a kid and has tried to get back into it, but turning her head to breathe gives her a pain in the neck (besides me). She said that she wanted to swim masters because there can't be that many old birds like her willing to dive off the blocks. Great lady and the Grand Dame of Central Ohio swim community. |
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My Mom had an aversion to getting her face wet and never learned to swim, but she was committed to the sport. She spent endless hours driving me to and from practice (40 to 60 miles each way, depending on the season) and countless hours sitting in balconies and on bleachers or bulkheads watching me train. And then there were the meets -- with prelims AND finals to sit through every weekend. I remember one meet. I was hanging out between prelims and finals with a bunch of my teammates, and we got into one of those WHAT-IF discussions. What if you could choose any of our moms as your mom -- which one would you choose? Well, they all chose my Mom. Every one of them. "Because she's patient and never gets upset," they said. How lucky can you be...to have had the perfect Swim Parent! My Mom always supported my career as an book editor, but I think she was really pleased when I came back around to swimming for my second career as a swim editor and coach. Little did she know that she was the role model for the whole thing -- that when I try to help people delve deeply enough into the sport to make it life changing, I'm simply trying to do for others what she did for me. Thanks, Mom. I know you’re still in the bleachers watching. |
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Does she (or did she) swim? No
However, I would never be where I am now without her support. |
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I have to answer all the questions with no. My mom is not sporty at all. However she does her best to support me in everything I do and she's doing great. Thanks mom, I love you!!!! |
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She used to compete in HS, she swims to stay in shape now.
There is no way I would be on this earth, in this sport if it wasn't for her. If it wasn't for her introducting me into this sport, I also would have never gotten through my parents' divorce as well as I did. The sport saved my sanity. |
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I am forever in her debt. |
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My mom could swim, but what she really could do was dive. We have a picture of her from the mid 30's in a perfect pike position upside down about 6 feet above the board. I don't really remember if it was her or my dad (water polo player) that taught me to swim, as by the time I remember I already could. As far as driving to the pool to practice, what pool. We didn't get many pools in Seattle until I was almost out of high school. However we did go to the lake almost every day from the end of May through September. My friends and I got to swim longer and more often than any other kids we knew because she took us, and was better water protection than almost any lifeguard I have met. |
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I think of my Mom as the model age group parent. She always got me where I needed to be when I needed to be there, and usually with what I needed (most times if I were missing something it was my own fault). She let the coaching staff do their job, never trying to give technique or training advice but always giving support and love. It wasn't until years latter in life that I found out she thought my coach was a twit, a talented twit to be sure, but a twit just the same. Her differences with my coach never even entered my peripheral consciousness. She put countless hours in setting up the meets back in the days of the first MS-DOS version of Hy-Tek when everything had to be manually entered (I think of this every time I have issues with TM, no matter how annoying it is sometimes its still better and faster). Most of all she let me have ownership of my swimming career. In 8th grade when I was struggling - my great technique was no longer enough to over come my size disadvantage - and wanted to quit she said "No problem, what are you going to do instead?". Instead of forcing me to continue she allowed me to make my own choice, which made it much easier to go back to swimming 9 months later. In short she followed all of the advice in the USA Swimming Parent's Guide a decade before it was published, what more could you ask for? |
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wow... great question... gave me a lot of stuff to think about.... my mom always points out that she has been swimming 1km once a week when she was pregnant and thinks that's why I am such a water rat:-) ... so I guess this was like the beginning of all...I learned swimming while I was in Kindergarten aged 3...for the next 5 years I tried all other kinds of sports until my brother attended swimming classes in the local swimming club.
During the course of years I think my mom actually played an important role, but not by always driving me to practice or being very enthustiastic about swimming.... of course she gave me a ride to practice in 2 out of 6 practices a week, but she always liked having control over me this way ( as soon as I misbehaved, she threatened me with not going to practice)... when I became faster and got to swim states and nationals she always accompanied me, since my coach refused to... therefore I am really thankful... On the other hand, I know that deep inside my mom hates my sport...and I can even understand her a bit... swimming made me very independent and mature... with changing my team two years ago I moved out aged 16( not completely, but I didn't spend a single weekend or vacation at home)... during the weeks I was in school or at practice... she missed having a "normal" girl who lives at home, spends most of her time at home, goes partying in her home town... well it must have been really hard for her sometimes. However exactly this resentment against swimming and her still wish that I'd quit made me keep on swimming until now... of course I LOVE swimming and don't do it only in order to provoke or challenge my mum... but I don't know if I could stand having a mom who always makes you go swimming.. well, in order to come to an end.... I think my mum and swimming is a love-hate relationsship...she herself likes water as well( as long as it is not too cold^^) and is proud of my achievements, my ambition and what swimming made me...but she is also hating me being a swimmer...
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Hi, this is my first post... and maybe a little misplaced... I would really like to know what to say about a "dolphin UPKICK" ? A swimmer was taught the upkick and it appears to SLOW down his stroke dramatically. Please, please, I am looking for a second opinion and a scientifically sound explanation of its benefits and/or draw backs. thanks! |
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Sorry, i meant to put this in the Misty's kick drill of the week. After siging up.... this window popped up here. |
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Rob Horton
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