Swimming

Ever since he was seven, Thomas has been part of the Valley YMCA Sprinters Swim Team. I will never forget his first day at clinic. His core muscles were still very weak from his dyspraxia, and he could barely hold himself upright in the water. But as soon as he pushed off from the wall to begin swimming his first lap of freestyle, he turned to me and said, "This is fun, Mom." That statement of his has kept my husband and I going for the past five years now. It's fun for him and as long as it continues to be fun, he'll continue.
The first few years of swimming were not easy. In the beginning, my husband and I jokingly referred to Thomas as "Bob" because he did more "bobbing" in the water than actually swimming forward.
Because none of us knew that Tom was dyspraxic until connecting with Warren Fried of Dyspraxia USA last year, Tom ended up spending three years in the beginner's lane. He'd no sooner get the hang of learning a stroke one day and actually being good at it, only to have him forget it the next day. On some days he swam very well and on others it looked as though he'd never seen a pool in his life. Sometimes we thought that Tom was deliberately not paying attention. While this was true sometimes, many times it was not. Over time, however, Tom got better at his strokes and increased the distance he could swim competitively from 25 yards, to 50 and more recently 100. Although he has swum the 100 yard Freestyle distance for two year, this year he has made particularly good progress, shaving some 30 seconds off his best time. His dad took a video of him swimming the 100, which I will post so that those who haven't yet seen it will get a chance to. He still has a ways to go with his form, but I believe that he is finally on his way.  Go Tom!