The new serious coach had actually been trained in the elite swim club across town. So with him, we had the benefit of the good training at a lower price. Our daughter got the immediate benefit. We’d signed her up for the advanced level, which at the time was beyond her. I went up to the coach after her first practice with him with the intention of putting her in a lower level, but he said she’d be fine in the advanced group.

Soon the kids were swimming 3-4 nights a week, working on starts, finishes, flip turns, and anaerobic thresholds. It was rigorous–for our daughter.

Our son was in the intermediate group, with different more laid-back coaches. He’d finish swimming a half hour before his sister, and he’d still have energy to rip and run all over the bleacher area and the hall.

By contrast, our daughter would get muscle cramps in the middle of her set, and would drop down exhausted when practice was over.

I talked to the coach about extending our son’s swim time, which we did for a while. His improvement was slow.

The age group swim meets separated the kids into group A and B based on their times. Our children started out with low B times and worked their way up to high B times under this coach.

Things were progressing well until the coach announced he was moving to Korea. . .

(to be continued)