A Team Sport, but not a Team Sport

Swimming.  We live and breathe chlorine from the local YMCA pool.  It is a sport that Michael excels at.  He is a born fish.   I'm so grateful that we have the swim team.  It is a great source of exercise and Michael can be a part of the team.  He can be a part of a group, yet swim alone in his own little world.  It is the perfect sport for an autistic child.

Both of the twins have been in swim team for almost a year now.  When they were four years old I made sure they had swim lessons.  Chris brought them to the pool that summer and they could barely doggie paddle across half of the length of the pool.  They have both come SO far.

Michael with a cap on.  AMAZINGLY.

  I don't think 

he has worn one since.

I was raised in a swimming family.  We had a community pool in back of our house and I would live at the pool in the summer time.  Swim team every morning, doing 100 laps a day.  Swim meets on the weekends.  Just goofing off with friends in the pool when I wasn't in practice.  Christopher too had a strong background in swimming.  He could tread water for hours, and did a pretty decent freestyle.  Yes, our children were going to learn to swim!  Mostly for safety reasons, but with my competitive nature, I really wanted to see if they could compete.

Michael is a natural backstroker.  He has the body that just looks like a back stroking kind of kid.  His freestyle is coming along very nicely as well.  He has the strongest kick I've ever seen.  Now breast stroke and butterfly are a bit too much for him to coordinate, so he leaves those strokes to his sister.  Michael did so well in our swim meet, he made it to districts.  Then he did very well in districts, and almost made it to regionals.

This is really a good sport for Michael.  We had tried karate in the gym at our school.  The acoustics there are a bit much for him and the karate teacher yells at him constantly for not paying attention.  The doctor at the Dartmouth Hitchcock CHAD center in Lebanon, NH said that he is externally and internally distracted.  He still attends karate, but it is nothing like the success he is having with swimming.

With swimming he feels successful.  His language difficulties and auditory processing doesn't get in the way.  He can let his perfectionism shine through.  He can be underwater and not listen to the noise of the outside world.  But beware if you forget his favorite yellow goggles!  Melt down!  Also beware if he doesn't pay attention to Coach Julie or Coach Ruben and doesn't get a sticker for the day.  His wailing really echos through the halls of the YMCA.