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News For
SWIM PARENTS
Published by The American Club Swimming
Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309
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That’s Not It
Last week, we had a Mom come to us
and "inform us" that her 13-year-old daughter would be gone for two
weeks vacation in late June, maybe another week after
that.
Her daughter was not much of an
age group swimmer, but she has some endurance capacity and comes
regularly to workout at 5:30 am and again at 5:30 pm daily. She
works hard, demonstrates little talent, but lots of
determination.
Her mother is not athletic and
clearly does not value athletics. We expressed our dismay that
she’d be missing for 2-3 weeks in the middle of the most
important training of the summer. Her mother’s
response?
"Who cares, she’ll never be
an Olympic swimmer, so what does it matter really?"
This is a dagger in the heart to
any swimming coach, and it is to me.
If we only cared about and worked
hard with, those 52 people who will eventually, once every four
years, go off to the Olympic Games, it would be a small, empty and
meaningless sport.
My response was "That’s
really not it."
What is it?
It is the fact that young people
need to learn to dedicate themselves to something that is
difficult, something that requires perseverance, guts and the daily
determination to get your butt out of bed and go out and push your
body till it can’t go anymore.
Why do they need to learn
this?
Because their lives are too easy,
too soft, too catered-for. Too many people carry them, make excuses
for them, never allowing them to try to be "heroic." Is it "heroic"
to get your butt out of bed and go swim at 5 am? It is if you
haven’t done it before. Is it heroic to "make" 10x200 fly on
4:00? It is if you haven’t ever done it before. Is it heroic
to finish your swim and turn around and cheer for the teammate who
is even further behind than you are, and is struggling to make the
set? Need I say it? It is if you’ve never done it
before.
And that is what "It" is about.
About doing what you haven’t done before. And learning that
sometimes you succeed. Sometimes you fail. If you fail, you go
again until you learn to succeed.
It’s not about being an
Olympian.
It’s about being Olympian.
Learning to be a hero.
And what it takes to learn
that.
Or, you can Be Comfortable and
teach your child that its more important to be
Comfortable.
So, if that’s your choice, I
only have one question?
What will happen to your child on
the day when they are made "uncomfortable" by life?
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Reply from George Block, Alamo
Area Aquatics Assoc., Level 5 Senior
Your article really struck home as
it reminded me of Robert Reyes – arguably the worst swimmer
to ever go through our program – rescuing four of his buddies
from choppy, night seas… a hero. Robert Reyes swam on our
high school team and he was always the slowest guy in the race, but
he would swim ANY race and go all out, all the way.
He was the same way in water polo.
We have seven high schools sharing the same pool, so we don’t
have any weekday games. Every Saturday they play 3 or 4 games, 3 or
4 hours of wrestling up and down the pool. Robert Reyes was always
the slowest guy, but he would never quit. Even then, the real
reason he was swimming was to help him when he went in to the Navy.
He had his goal way back then and was preparing back "in Taft High
School" for when his moment came. I told our kids that the famous
Olympians actually have it easy. They know exactly when their
moment is going to come. They can prepare precisely for that moment
and they have a lot of help getting them there. For the rest of us
it’s a lot different.
Your phrase to the mother, "being
Olympian" hit it perfectly. All of us will have our "Olympics,"
when the very best we can bring is called from us. We don’t
get to know when that moment is going to be. We have to constantly
prepare. We may have no one to help us. No one may ever
know.
It may come like it did for
Robert, as a physical test on a dark night, in choppy seas, with
the flaming wreckage of a helicopter still floating in the water.
It more often than not won’t be a physical test, but a moral
one -- that integrity thing. I tried to explain to my team that the
reason they have to prepare every day is because they have to be
prepared every day. "Being Olympian." That is it.
Man Rescues Navy
Pals
By Amy Dorsett - Express-News
Staff Writer
A San Antonio sailor saves four
crewmembers after a helicopter crashes into the Mediterranean
Sea.
A San Antonio Navy man came to the
aid of four comrades in the choppy waters of the Mediterranean Sea
last month, rescuing them after their helicopter crashed into the
sea. Petty Officer 2nd class Robert Reyes, assigned to a helicopter
combat support squadron aboard the USS Kearsarge, made the rescue
June 22 when a helicopter flying a routine search-and-rescue
mission crashed into the water. Reyes, 21, whose boyhood love of
helicopters propelled him to enlist in the Navy three years ago,
quickly suited up for what was to be his first rescue mission.
Already feeling the rush of adrenaline, Reyes’ emotions were
running even higher because the crewmembers were like family. "Just
the day before we flew together," Reyes said. "While I was dressing
out, I was trying to calm myself down."
Within minutes, Reyes’
helicopter was hovering in the nighttime sky above the downed
chopper. Reyes, a trained rescue swimmer, jumped from his
helicopter. "I started swimming up to them, seeing if they were
alert," Reyes said. One by one, Reyes helped each crewmember swim
to the pickup point, where they were hoisted into the waiting
helicopter. Navy officials say the four who were rescued are quick
to call Reyes a hero, a title he brushes off. "When they say that,
I just think I’m happy they’re there," Reyes said,
adding some of his water skills were acquired while on Taft High
School swimming team.
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