Splish, Splash, Is it Summer Yet?

With the weather still so spectacular it is getting harder and harder to focus on school. I know summer is just around the corner. This of course reminds me what I did for the past 10 summers, competitively swim on my township's swim team. For years, I volunteered at practices as a helper and then a coach. In more recent years, I got paid to coach practices but still volunteered at the meets.

My Last Home Meet as a Swimmer

The Cause:
The Lower Makefield Township (LMT) Swim and Dive Team is a competitive and recreational summer team. The point of the team is to create a fun environment for kids to learn the great sport that is swimming and diving. In my case, I focused on swimming. LMT's team not only creates a place to learn and perfect swimming and diving but allows the swimmers to make great friendships, I speak from experience, and to progressively prove and gain their responsibility and independence.

The swim team practices every weekday morning and competes most Tuesdays and Thursdays from June-July. While school is still in session there are afternoon practices. The team is divided by age group for practices and split into two divisions for meets, since there are so many swimmers.

Meet Schedule

What I Did:
When I was younger, I would get stuck at a pool, I couldn't swim in, until my brother finished practice. So, I began to help set up lane lines and help run the dry land for the kids in the younger age groups than me. As time progressed the head coach and other coaches allowed me to help them a bit and see what coaching was really like. As soon as I was old enough to coach I became, Coach Laura.

I absolutely love coaching. While coaching, I teach the swimmers new drills, run practice sets, and give them pointers of what they can change to improve their stroke and speed. I also spend lots of time working with the swimmers on starts and finishes. If I could ever get in the water to help I would. Whenever we had Fun Friday practices, I tended to be the one in charge of the games and activities throughout the younger practices.

At swim meets, I make sure everyone is in the right place. To do this, I check the roster, the kids in line, and their events marked on their hand to make sure they are in the right place, this is extremely important for relays. To make this process go a bit faster, I also help explain the process to the parents in charge of the little kids, the mouse moms, and help them throughout the night. I also watch the meet, cheer on the swimmers, and give them pointers based on their race.

The Roster

What I Learned:
Volunteering on the swim team has taught me so much. I learned how to be a good team member as well as a leader. We've had some really strong leaders to rally behind through the years as well as some weak ones. Figuring out what to do in both situations has allowed me to improve my skills of working in a team setting as a leader and member of the team.

I also learned how to deal with urgent issues, like finding a kid who is about to swim and is no where to be found. This type of stressful situation is easy to handle as long as you know how and stay clear headed throughout.

One of my favorite lessons is realizing how much of a role model bigger kids are to little kids. I saw this both as I saw some kids become attached to me and others attach to other older swimmers. This made me realize that you never know who may be watching you as a role model. You should always live as though someone will follow your actions and you may surprise yourself at what you can do.

As I've said in past posts, it is great to share your passion with others. I absolutely love swim team and to help others share this experience is one of the best ways to spend my time, in my opinion. Sharing a passion in this way keeps you excited and allows the passion to be passed to others.

Finally, the most important lesson I learned from volunteering on the swim team is: Have Fun! Without fun there really is no point. You are there to have a great summer, make friends, and learn a great sport, so go out and do it. This lesson clearly carries over to everyday. I believe in living life to it's potential by having fun, even when doing boring things. My great aunt always says "You have to make your own fun, Kiddo." Swim team has shown me how important this is and how much more fun it can be when you drag others into your fun.

Were you on a swim team or other sport or summer activity? What did you learn? Feel free to comment!