My Bella’s First Competitive Swim Meet!!!

My daughter may very well be one of the luckiest kids in competitive swimming.  She has a dad who writes a decent fitness blog, loves to swim and knows how to enjoy competition – and spends every waking moment interpreting his thoughts so he can master them, harness the good ones and then write about it so others can benefit.  On top of that, she’s got a dad who is incredibly proud of his little girl and grateful that she’s found a sport she loves.

My wife’s awesome mom and step-dad (I did win the In-Law lottery) came down yesterday so they could go with us to the meet and we’ll be packing up shortly to head down to the suberbs of Detroit.

My key task today will be to help my little lady understand that it’s the first race, with real racers – this is her chance to give it her best shot but to remember that she has no idea what pacing is yet, even though she’s a great swimmer, she’s got a lot of learning yet to do.  This is just the beginning of a long career so just participating, for now, is enough no matter what place she comes in.  That’s my task but remembering my first competitive go at anything, it’ll be a miracle if I can get her to relax, let alone buy into the enjoying the moment part.  That’s how I roll though because it’s much more fun this way (so I’m hoping I can rub some off on her): place isn’t important on the first few races, getting the pacing down, learning how much to give at the beginning so you can punch it that last 50…  That’s what’s important over the next few races.

I’ll update this post as I can

UPDATE: An impressive 4th of 8 in her first heat – she beat all of the girls in the next heat, 50 yd. backstroke 51.27

Breast stroke next… This is her weakest event so we’ll be working on this one: 50 yd. 1:12

Now that’s what I’m talking about! 100 Freestyle 2nd place 1:40.26! She was AWESOME, made up two places in the last 25!