The $64 Swim Meet

Yes, we are still the swim team parents that scream at their kid to kick their feet during a race and to go faster. Aren't those obvious goals of a race? Yes, but we still do it. And, yes we also do something that swim coaches loathe and they really recommend against - bribing! Yes, we do it and we aren't ashamed.

Jackson is NOT a naturally competitive person. In fact, it really runs contrary to his nature. He looks out for others way before himself and is concerned more about others performance than his own. Swimming has been so good for him. It is good exercise and it is keeping his health issues well under control. But, we, his swim parents, want him to achieve, to advance, to find some success in the pool. (And, we want to make ourselves feel better about spending our weekends and our $$$$ hanging out by swimming pools in towns other than our own.) But, how to motivate him.

First, we tried telling him we would buy him a Wii or DS game when he reached a B time, the lowest qualifying time. He was far enough away from a B time, the offer didn't really hold much water in terms of immediate payoff for smaller goals. So, we switched to $1 per second he took of his established best times. So far, that has cost us $10 or $20 a meet.

This weekend, we owe the little bugger $64! He had an awesome meet and we are now off to find second jobs.

We spent the weekend in Fayetteville, AR, swimming at the AquaHawg Long Course Meet at the University of Arkansas. Nice pool (unless you are a photographer - then it is a crappily lit pool). He swam eight events, total, four each day and took time off every single event he had a time established in. There were three races he had not done on the Long Course season, so he didn't have established times and our checkbook was given a reprieve.

His races and times:
100 Freestyle, Previous time of 2:10.78; new time of 2:01 ($9)
50 Backstroke, Previous time of 1:16; new time of 1:03 ($13) only 7 more seconds and he will have that B time
200 IM: new time of 5:30
100 Breaststroke: new time of 3:30
100 Backstroke: previous time of 2:38.11; new time of 2:18 ($20)
50 Freestyle: previous time of 56.20; new time of 52.00 ($4) only 8 seconds away from his B time
50 Breast: new time of 1:34
200 Freestyle: previous time of 4:46; new time of 4:28 ($18)

He is still swimming at the bottom of the pack, but he made some major strides this weekend and his coach feels like Jackson is just on the verge of putting speed and technique together. Once he makes that connection and picks up his pace on his different strokes, he will dropping time even faster. You could tell he was working really hard in the pool and pushing himself.

Jackson really wants to be on the Silver Team (he is currently one of the older and more experienced swimmers on the Bronze Team). He gets a little frustrated at Bronze Team practices because of the younger kids, less focused, more time spent on teaching stroke rather than perfecting technique and building strength, endurance and speed. We talked to him this weekend about setting an appointment with the coach, sitting down together and finding out what it is going to take to get on Silver Team. Then, setting goals (with the coach) on how to reach his ultimate goal of being on Silver Team. He is also going to ask the coach about working out with the Silver Team at least one day a week. Their practices are longer and would definitely challenge him.

The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying a really nice room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites, swimming at the hotel pool (Reid's reward for behaving so well at the meet on Saturday), and trying to decide where to eat. Fayetteville is a college town, so the number of unique restaurant options was quite high (highly recommend the Flying Burrito!). The challenge in eating was Saturday night was prom for Springdale or Fayetteville high schools. We ate at Outback Steakhouse and Reid was very mesmerized by all of the "princesses" in the restaurant.

Good weekend. Expensive, but good!