The Smelker Seven

First Meets of the Season

Warrick and Hayley both have meets or practices on Saturdays (logistical nightmare sometimes). Two weekends ago Hayley participated in a meet with 37 other kids her age, and she took 2nd overall - way to go Hayley! We are especially happy as this is her first year of competitive swimming and she is swimming, in some cases, against kids who have been competing for several years (the scary thing is she is only 8!) Here is Hayley at the pool at one of her practices.



Warrick had his first meet this weekend, and it is always interesting because he gets to size up the competition for the rest of the season - he will wrestle pretty much the same kids for the next 4 months. Normally he walks out of these meets with a first place medal, but Saturday he took 3rd. I told him not to be disappointed because now he knows who to beat and his coaches know what he needs to work on. In his defense, he was pinned by one kid, who he was initially beating technically. Then one of the coaches (not one who works with Warrick at practice) told Warrick to try something different. Even as the coach said it Warrick thought, "That won't work, this kid is stronger than me, and if I try that move he will pin me." But he was obedient to the coach and 30 seconds later he was pinned. He told me later that he should have gone with his gut instinct, ignored the coach and carried on doing what he was doing, because he would have beaten the kid on technical points. However, he has 4 months to work on beating the two kids who beat him, and knowing Warrick and how driven he is, I don't doubt for one moment there will come a time when he will stand on the first place podium.

Labels: Hayley, Warrick

posted by The Smelker Seven @ 8:55 AM