Annika's Perserverance

More than once, Annika has mentioned feeling nervous as we approached the local pool for her diving class. I knew the inward dive was in her head, so we talked about it a bit and I encouraged her to find other dives that she could work on until her confidence rebounded.

The reason for her apprehension was rooted in another diver (her age) banging her face on the diving board while performing an inward dive. No one could possibly blame her for being skittish around the inward dive! (Personally, I hate watching her do them because it looks like she'll whack her head every time ... 'tis the nature of the dive, I guess.)

I didn't realize until yesterday that it wasn't only the inward dive that was in her head. It was flips, too. I think when that other little girl got hurt, it made Annika realize that diving includes some element of personal risk. She could get hurt, especially if the other girl (who is a very talented and driven diver) could get hurt.

Yesterday, Annika did her forward dives beautifully and without hesitation. When her coach instructed her to try the forward flip, she walked down the diving board and balked a number of times, and even lost her balance and plopped into the pool. On her next attempt, I could see her talking to herself as she walked down the board ... a self pep talk, was my guess. Eventually, she decided it was a good opportunity to give the flip another try and did it! The smile on her face after that initial flip was priceless and I couldn't help but clap for her, as did her coach.

From then on, she flipped without reservation or hesitation. So proud of her!!

Sunday at the Pool

With Annika's new found love of diving, we are now spending an hour and 45 minutes at the local pool each Sunday. She's taking the diving class, drop-in diving instruction, and her regular swimming lesson ... all back to back. I'm tired just thinking about it!

Yesterday, the kids and I headed to the pool in time for Annika's dive class, which meant Conor had an hour and fifteen minutes to sit around and wait for his class. He was an absolute trooper!! He watched his tablet for a bit, but was more interested in watching the kids dive and even took videos of Annika when it was her turn to dive. Talk about a supportive little brother!!

Annika did a great job during her dive classes. She listened attentively and eagerly applied what she was taught to her next dive. She did pencil dives (feet in first), forward dives, and backward dives. Each time, she popped her head out of the water with a huge smile on her face. It was really fun to watch.

Forward dive

Another forward dive

Backward dive

After over an hour of patience, Conor was anxious for his chance to have some fun in the pool and when he had the green light to get in the pool, he eagerly hopped in and got to work on his crawl stroke, "blast offs", and back stroke. His skills are really taking shape and his crawl stroke is really impressive!

 Unfortunately, his penned up energy from watching Annika for so long seemed to get the better of him... he had a marvelous time splashing water when he wasn't supposed to and got pulled out of the pool. (Whoops) My thinking is maybe he and whichever parent is on pool patrol can do a little recreational swimming while Annika is in her dive class... it'll help him work off some energy before his class begins. Plus, it's fun to go swimming!! :)

Conor listening to his teacher

Conor getting his blast off arms right

Conor practicing his blast offs

Annika's First Diving Class

As I've mentioned before, our kids are basically fish. They absolutely LOVE the water, as do their parents. The kids have been taking swimming lessons practically since birth and continue to grow as swimmers. One of Annika's favorite things to do is jump off of the diving board, which is a treat usually reserved for the last day of a swim lesson session ... basically every 5-6 weeks. Not nearly enough for our girl!

A couple of weeks ago, we discovered that the swimming pool where Annika and Conor take their swim lessons also has a weekly drop-in dive class. Once Annika heard that, she was raring to go! We had a scheduling conflict last weekend, so she couldn't go until yesterday and it is safe to say, that the girl is sold on diving!

The class is taught by a volunteer diving coach and he gives each participant one-on-one instruction. He tells them what to do when they're at the end of the diving board ready to jump in and then gives additional instruction after they've completed their task.

For Annika's first turn, the instructor had her simply jump in feet first, nothing fancy. No problem!

Feet first .... or is she surrendering??

The instructor then had Annika start going in head first and taught her how to bend at the waist, keep her arms straight, and have her hands together above her head.  He also taught her how to move her arms to gain as much momentum as possible before diving into the pool. Again, she was all in!

When the kids had their third go, the instructor stood on the diving board with them and gave more detailed instruction on how to position themselves before and as they enter the water.

Being coached on the diving board

In she goes!

He then went back to the side of the pool to watch how the students were implementing his instruction and then gave further feedback after each child entered the water. What really impressed me is how much Annika paid attention and hung on his every word. She was hungry to eat up all wisdom and suggestions he shared with her.

Ready....

Diving....

Splash!!

For her last dive of the day (it was time for her regular swim class to begin), the coach had Annika try a backward dive. Again, she had no qualms about giving it a try and happily backed her way into the pool. When she got out, the instructor was gushing about how great she did and said the only thing she didn't do that he told her to do was jump before diving... instead, she sort of fell backward from the diving board. Annika told him next time, she'll remember to jump!

First backward dive
(She's actually diving from the diving board, not the starting blocks)

Success!

The coach gave Annika a fist bump and lots of praise for her efforts during the class. She deserved them... she listened, tried hard, and willingly attempted new feats. We are so proud of our girl and look forward to her next diving class! As for Annika, she is practically counting the minutes until next week's class. If things keep going this well, we might register her for the registration-only diving class that takes place just before the drop-in class once the next session of classes begins. Our little fish is a happy girl ... and Conor can hardly wait to be big enough to join his sister in the diving classes!