Making A Splash!

Sitting in swim lesson and watching my son do endless lengths of back stroke and front crawls, brought me back to a funny memory of him in Level 2 swim lessons.   

He’s always loved the water and loved to swim, so signing him up for swimming lessons was a no brainer for us.   When we got to level 2 (Pierce was 7 years old), we thought we were ready. Head underwater.  Check.  Front float.  Check.  Back float.  Check.  His starfish game was strong! And then we hit the front crawl.  

Image Credit: Lavi Perchik

At first, I don’t think my brain processed what was happening.  The first few attempts were adorable.  He excitedly moved EVERY part of his body… and went absolutely nowhere! No forward movement, sideways movement, NOTHING. In my mind, I had to laugh and still believed it was a success because, “At least he wasn’t drowning.”

If splashing and thrashing served as any indicator, it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.  For all of his efforts he just couldn’t quite coordinate his body with his arms or his legs. This of course, was because he was dyspraxic (unknown to us at the time).   

Watching Pierce, he always seemed to add an extra dimension of movement to his front crawl technique.  His head bobbled, his arms flailed, his legs kicked...and his butt wiggled from side to side (like a fish), with his legs bent underneath him.  He was literally trying to crawl through the water and it was the cutest thing at the time. Eventually, with extra practice and a little coaching to simplify his movements, and still his torso and head, he learned to swim….forward.

I wish I could have captured it all so he could now laugh and reflect on his awkwardly adorable start to his swimming success. Unfortunately, strict poolside policies prevented it.

These days, Pierce outswims me - no contest - and now outpaces most of his classmates in backstroke...with an even faster front crawl. A happy example of a dyspraxic win :)