As these events take many (many) hours, we had to rush back to make my weekly 3:30 practice for the Wellesley Stars Special Olympics Swim team. I made it just in time. How ironic that I just left some of the states' finest young athletes to work with this group of Special Olympians.
It turns out I was in for quite a practice. I usually coach my lane with another coach or high school volunteer, but today I was by myself. Not a big deal but it also happened that all my swimmers showed up, so I had 7 people by myself. Also not a big deal, but with a meet coming up, each one has a specfic stroke (or strokes) they need to work on for their event. Put it all together, and it was a wild hour and fifteen minutes. Fortunately, for some unknown reason, the head coach assigned some of the most capable swimmers to my lane. For the most part, these kids work as hard as any I have ever worked with. The challenge has been for me to understand how to get the best response out of each athlete. Today, I made a breakthough with one kid, who seems to try, but I never got the normal clues that he was paying attention. Most of my instruction is directed to the group, and he just did not seem to "get it". It turns out that after giving instructions to the group, if I say his name, and repeat the instructions, he joins in with great effort.
In the end, it was one of my most satisfying practices. I just hope that the people I am coaching are getting nearly as much out of the experience as I am. http://www.specialolympics.org/
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