When it was obvious that our kids’ swim coaches couldn’t address their buoyancy issue, my husband bought the book, Total Immersion.

My kids never read it, but I did. It was a page turner, and I couldn’t wait to try it out in the pool. Here’s a video of someone using the Total Immersion swim technique. It’s smooth like butter. What do you think?

Today was another water safety day at my daughter’s job. She explained the rules of the pool: don’t dive in the shallow end, don’t distract the lifeguard, and the kids got to ride in a canoe. The first time my daughter had to push the canoe, she couldn’t keep it going straight. She’s better at that now.

In other news, she got her lifeguard certification card today! It’s good for 3 years. We’re so proud of our lifesaver!

The forum on diversity in aquatics continues. Here are some great quotes:

“If the Africans knew how to swim when they came to the Americas, slavery would have ended before it got started.” –

“Man, we don’t need to swim we play basketball, football and even golf and tennis now!” and my reply is always the same, ‘Ah yes that’s true. But – to the best of my knowledge – I’ve never heard of anyone dyng because they couldn’t dunk, catch a sideline route pass, shoot three under par, or volley at the net.’

I just didn’t see swimming as that deep until Naji, open water swimmer, put it like that.

Another forum gave a creepy face to the drowning rate. Statistics are one thing; pictures of victims are a whole different thing. AK relates images that probably still haunt her—images of drowning victims in various pools she’s used.

The victims’ stories are eerily the same. The pool was closed or off limits. The kids snuck in to have some fun. They couldn’t swim, and neither could their friends. They drowned and couldn’t be revived.

Suddenly, swimming morphs from an athletic option to a life or death scenario. Naji says it should start there. That swimming is first and foremost a lifesaving proposal. After you get to the point where you can save your life, then you can talk about swimming as sport.

My husband found the piece that connects the puzzle: swim teams train you to be proficient enough to be safe in the water. If you want your child to know how to be safe enough to save themselves in the water, I suggest you sign them up for a swim team. You don’t have to already know how to swim—that’s a myth. The coaches can teach the swimming.

You supply the heart.

Here’s good incentive to attend the Black History Invitational Swim Meet: You get to meet swim stars. The highly successful Make a Splash program will be hosting several clinics. Since 2007, Make a Splash has given swim lessons to more than 37,000 children.

These swim stars will be honored at the Black History Invitational Swim Meet, and will conduct the clinics:

Maritza Correia, NCAA champ, World Champ, and Olympic medalist, Decorated college swimmer Sabir Muhammed, Byron Davis, former American record holder in 50M butterfly, and David Goggins, former Navy Seal turned Iron Man.

These clinics look good. Here’s what to expect:

Clinic Session #1
Date: February 12, 2010
Time: 10:00am-11:15am
Honoree: Byron Davis & 1 Active Duty Navy Seal
Location: Ferebee Hope Aquatic Facility 3999 8th Street, SE Washington DC
Report Time: 9:00am

Clinic Session #2
Date: February 12, 2010
Time: 10:00am-11:15am
Honoree: Maritza Correia, David Goggins & 1 Active Duty Navy Seal
Location: Wilson Aquatic Center 4551 Fort Drive, NW Washington, DC
Report Time: 9:00am

Clinic Session #3
Date: February 12, 2010
Time: 10:00am-11:15am
Honoree: Sabir Muhammad & 1 Active Duty Navy Seal
Location: Turkey Thicket Aquatic Facility 1100 Michigan Avenue, NE
Report Time: 9:00am

Clinic Session #4
Date: February 12, 2010
Time: 1:00pm-2:15pm
Honoree: Byron Davis & 1 Active Duty Navy Seal
Location: Ferebee Hope Aquatic Facility 3999 8th Street, SE Washington DC
Report Time: 9:00am

Clinic Session #5
Date: February 12, 2010
Time: 1:00pm-2:15pm
Honoree: Maritza Correia, David Goggins & 1 Active Duty Navy Seal
Location: Wilson Aquatic Center 4551 Fort Drive, NW Washington, DC
Report Time: 9:00am

Clinic Session #6
Date: February 12, 2010
Time: 1:00pm-2:15pm
Honoree: Sabir Muhammad & 1 Active Duty Navy Seal
Location: Turkey Thicket Aquatic Facility 1100 Michigan Avenue, NE
Report Time: 9:00am

If you are in the DC area on February 12th, this is a can’t miss event!

I feel weird having a swim blog and never going swimming. So I go from time to time to keep myself honest.

Actually, today is the first time I got back to the pool since that whole miscarriage business resolved itself. You ever get that feeling like, “I can’t believe I’m actually swimming?” That’s how I felt for most of my set.

Things have changed since the last time I’d been swimming. For one, it wasn’t as hard to breathe. I noticed that right away. My muscles were sore from working out yesterday, but I didn’t have the overall fatigue that I usually have when I start back swimming after a long break.

I found myself analyzing this the whole swim. What was it? The cardio workouts I’ve been doing? The strength conditioning? The taper? All of the above? Whatever it was, I was so relieved.

I dreaded timing myself on the 100 IM. I mean, the last time I went swimming, it was September. Surely my time would be embarrassing. But I decided I’d rather have a baseline to build upon than cop out and not time myself. My time was actually 5 seconds faster than the last time I swam! I came in at 2:50.35, and that includes that split second I hesitated before starting my fly.

I still wimped out on all but the final flip turn, and was pretty spent by the 800th yard. But I figured I could eke out 900, so I did.

The workout was a great start to my day; I was able to get the kids done with school earlier than I have in weeks! I was able to get other things done today, including returning to the Y to work out with a friend.

It’s all good when you can get to the pool.

I remember seeing the movie Jaws when I was a child. I was scared of the water, all water, even baths, for YEARS. I know that learning how to swim was a miracle for me.

I must have just gotten over my water fear the summer or so before I learned how to swim.

I mention that to say that I understand what it is to be afraid of the water. Black people have historical fear of the water. This crippling fear leads to thinking about not knowing how to swim all the time. Or thinking about dying all the time, huh?

This kind of fear takes faith to overcome. I will never forget when I made the decision to go in the deep water for the first time. Deep water was the last barrier to my really learning to swim. I remember thinking, “what’s the worse that could happen? I could drown. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. .. ” That was faith. And I’ve looked at swimming as a gift from God ever since.

If you can’t swim, and all you ever think about when you’re near water is dying, you can overcome that fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear. If you ask Him, He can free you from that fear. Then you can go on, free from that fear, free to live your life. Just ask Him.