South African Swim Clinic

I keep looking at my watch and think “I should be sleeping now!” as we are totally into the next day when my body wants to be curled up in bed.  Maybe finally setting my watch to local time would help remedy my mindset, but that would be too easy.

I think that something pretty amazing would have to happen to top our day yesterday.  I’m sure this will be one of the highlights of the trip.  As a part of 11global’s commitment to the city of Cape Town, Ryan (the race organizer) has scheduled several community projects this week.  Alun Woodward, the British pro, was responsible for putting on a swim clinic for some kids who live outside of town in a more disadvantaged area. 

I went along to help out, as comical as that may be if you are aware of my limitations with regards to providing swim instruction.   Ryan assured me that I would still be useful, so I was on board. 

We arrived at this community center/sports complex which has a great facility for the kids to practice a variety of sports.  I was blown away by the gorgeous 50m pool! They gave us about 15-20min to swim a bit on our own while they rounded up the kiddos.  A lot of them were watching us, and at one point I realized that one of the local kids dove in just as I did a flip turn, and decided to swim right next to me.  I know what you’re thinking… How cute, right?  Except this kid was kicking my butt! I picked it up to stay with him, and I kept thinking, Is he gonna get tired soon?! I stopped after a few laps to meet this 14yr old stud (and to catch my breath), and he was just adorable.  Swimming without goggles and totally unphased by it.  He was awesome.   I loved that all of his friends were cheering him on, too.

The local officials were there to provide a really nice introduction for Ryan and his 11global operation as well as the “visitors,” us athletes.  Two of South Africa’s top pros were also there, including Henrik de Villiers, who finished 4th at the World Champs last year. He is like a national hero. 

Then we broke the kids up into two groups based on ability. I don’t have to tell you which one I took.  I had a little debriefing with these future superstars and then we got down to business doing some drills. 

Most of the kids were swimming in shorts or their underwear, and only a couple had goggles.  I wish we had brought goggles with us.  More on this later, but we’d like to send a package to this group when we get home.  Everyone has some extra goggles lying around, right?  I’ll collect ‘em and send the box, and they would get great use out of them.  I couldn’t believe how hard these kids were working without them. I would be doing more whining than swimming if I had to swim without goggles.

We finished off the day with an aquathlon. The head coach asked me to demonstrate for the kids, so I had to run about 200m, swim 100m, then run about 200m back.  Diving into the pool (from the deck, mind you), was probably hilarious to them, since I don’t dive.  I looked like a 4yr old just learning to dive!  When it was their turns, they gave absolutely everything they had, and they all cheered for each other, too, which was cool to see.  I was proud of my swim partner from earlier, who took the overall crown! 

Even the kids outside the facility were enjoying the festivities, as these guys peered over from a tree. 

Like I said, this will be a hard day to top.