Blog 2, Swim Teams and Hydro-Therapy

Hello again! I've returned to rant on about swim teams! Swim teams are great. I have never been on a swim team, but I have taken swimming lessons against my will, if that counts. I think we all know what I'm talking about: the parent says swim, so, us little seven year olds swim.

Swimming is great for recovery from injuries and therapy. It's also a practical way to exercise. And not just people use pools to exercise and recover. Those who know me well will have seen this coming: Horses! Believe it or not, horses swim. (They're pretty good at it too...) And I would know. Trainers use special horse-sized pools to strengthen the horse's leg and abdomianl muscles. Many trainers who train race horses like using this as an easy workout for a tired or injured race horse. What's amazing about this is, once a horse breaks or sprains something in the racing buisiness, without this option of treatment they don't get another chance. But even a horse can allow it's leg to heal faster and stronger when it swims regularily. People can too. The water supports your weight, allowing you to move your injury without putting pressure on it. It strenthens muscles that can deteriorate while just sitting around waiting to heal up.

And I've found, for those of us who play wind intruments or sing, that swimming and diving helps develop lung capacity. Holding your breath while swimming and diving will eventually let you sustain a note longer, and not go out of tune. I wouldn't suggest sitting in a pool and repeatedly holding your breath for as long as you can for hours at a time, but I have found that swimming underwater has improved my clarinet playing.

Now, back to talking about the book Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. I think the swim team gained T.J. friends. Real friends. In the beginning of the book, T.J. didn't talk about having any friends other than his girl friend really, and he didn't mention her until about the middle of the book. If you ask me, being a loner like that without any friends what-so-ever would be TORTURE!!! I may not seem like it when I'm alone (and I enjoy time alone every-once-in-a-while, mind you) but when I get together with my friends, I am a social butterfly! I love talking with friends, and aquaitances, especially when we have the same interests. And most of my friend's don't mind going down to the beach for a while, or going to the Community Center for a game of beach volleyball or a swim. One of my friends wants to be a marine biologist, so she loves the water. So do I. I love waterfalls and rivers, lakes, and streams, and especially the ocean. Since 97% of Earth is covered in water, think of how many unidentified species there are left to find! And my marine biologist friend and I are going to help find them! I want to be a biologist, but wouldn't mind going on a few excursions with her to help her with her marine based work. But I'm getting off task again, aren't I? I seem to do that a lot...

T.J. gains real friends who would do anything for him, and he'd in turn do anything for them. Swimming can bring people together, oddly enough, as any team activity can. T.J. found good friends, and in turn, so did everyone else. Every one on that swim team was an outsider at Cutter High, the school that ran on athletics. No one but T.J. could really swim at all in the beginning, but he helped teach his friends, and helped them earn their letter-jackets. And that's another thing, he sacrificed his own letter-jacket so his friends could get them.