Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming....

That's what we do...
WE SWIM !!!

From the beginning of the season...

Until we finish up the season with THE meet we strive for the whole six months...
CHAMPIONSHIPS
European Forces Swim League

We swim with the Heidelberg Sea Lions, a swim team for the children of military service member and support staff in the Heidelberg, Germany (and Mannheim, Germany) area. We started swimming on the team after our move here two years ago.
We start the season with dryland training in August. This conditions our bodies to an intense workout before we are ever allowed into the pool. Then we get to transition from shorts and t-shirts to our swim gear and get wet. Our pool is a 50 meter Olympic training pool near the university in Heidelberg, Germany. Unlike last season when mom would drive us to practice and then return two hours later to take us home, this year she and dad paid for us to ride the bus from school.

Our first official swim was our "time trials" where we swim against ourselves to get a "seed time" (our base line of how our time is in each event.) Our first official competition was in Ktown (Ramstein Air Base/ Kaiserslautern). Our team's first meet was scheduled for a Sunday and since we try to avoid Sunday meets (especially those at "home" when we are able to attend our church services instead), we went to a meet that was scheduled close to us that our team wasn't participating in. Karter qualified for CHAMPS (the end of the year championship meet) during this first competition in the backstroke. We like going to Ktown meets because our friends, The Frandsen's are there. Bailey is a Ktown Kingfish swimmer. And Emorie gets to hang out with McKinna.


We continue to practice and have meets over the six months. We work hard. Some days we are really tired. Some days we don't want to go but do anyways.
We travel. Our furthest event from home was in Lignano, Italy. There was a regular meet on Friday in which we both got to compete. Then on Saturday, Karter gets to swim and 800 meter freestyle event - "Long Distance Champs." There aren't many competetors in this age group because you have to qualify to swim. It is a long swim which requires a lot of endurance. Karter finished in just shy of 14 min:39 sec (he set a team record with this swim)



This year we didn't travel too far from home with most of our away meets being in Ktown (which is just and hour away). We also traveled to Stuttgart, Geilenkirchen (Netherlands), and Eindhoven (Netherlands).


Sometimes we don't do well and other times we do exceptionally good. Sometimes we flat out get a "DQ" (Disqualified) because we did a stroke wrong, didn't touch the wall on a turn, or something else that wasn't correct. That is kind of a bummer, but we know it happens to lots of people. One of Karter's best events, the 200 I.M., was one he got DQ's on four times before he got it right. His times were phenomenal, but he did silly little mistakes (like doing a flip turn incorrectly, or not being on his back enough as he touched the wall). There were meets/events when we took time off of our previously recorded swim time and there were meets/events where we added time. One of Rylie's best swims was when she took off 30 seconds from her 100 meter I.M. She was amazing!

Even though individual improvement is all that is asked of us, our ultimate desire is to QUALIFY to swim in the CHAMPS meet at the end of the season. To do this we have to swim an event in a designated amount of time ("qualification time"), established by the EFSL. If we match or beat the time, then we are part of the elite group that get to go swim at this meet. On our team this year, all team members start swimming with a white team swim cap. As we achieve a qualification time, we were rewarded with a red "Champs Qualifier" swim cap. There are 8 events our age group is allowed to qualify in. We may only qualify to swim one event or we may qualify to swim all the events. As long as you have qualified, you are guaranteed a spot to swim and compete. Rylie's favorite and best stroke is the backsroke. She first qualified with this stroke. Mom and Dad LOVE to watch her swim this event because she ALWAYS has a huge smile on her face. She seems so happy to be in the water when she's swimming the backstroke. Karter's best stroke is also the backstroke. I think we had a really good swim lesson instructor in Virginia because they both do the stroke so well. Karter's first qualification time was with this stroke as well. Karter went on in the season to qualify for all eight events. There were only three kids on the entire team that accomplished this (ironically, they are all 9-yr-olds).

CHAMPS ...Coming Soon in another post ....

Here's a couple of slideshows that show shome of the activity that happens throughout the six month swim season.