A Difficult Day...
The beach conditions weren't too bad. The wind was up and it was a bit overcast, but the ocean was flat and not too cold.
B and I had decided before-hand that we wanted the nippers to do a long swim. Justin W, a lifeguard, kindly put a buoy (a real orange one, not our human one) about 70m off-shore for us. The nippers looked at the buoy and looked at us. Looked back at the buoy and then back at us. Then the questions started... "Are we swimming there?"; "Why?"; "do we have to?" these were closely followed by mumbling and complaints... "i cant do it"; "its too far.; "its too cold" etc.
Bryan and I explained to them that they had to doit in order to get ready for their exams and for competitions. The nippers felt better when they saw that B and Justin W would be in the water with them. B and Justin went into the water while the nippers started their run.
They all did very well... everybody tried their best and went as far as they could. Dianne was first around the buoy and back, closely followed by Dean and Aaron. Lucci made it the whole way and did really well. Jordan, who is usually more cautious, swam all the way to the buoy and back! We were so proud of him!!!
The current was pushing the nippers quited hard and some of them came out of the water looking very tired!
We did the swim a second time, with Dianne again comming out first. Many of the nippers were very cold and did not want to put their faces in the water to swim ;-) This resulted in some very tired nippers back on the beach.
We had a short rest and then it was out for a run. After our run, we discovered that the club did indeed have flags. We lined the nippers up for some flags. Its started to get quite ruthless, with nippers grabbing each other, jumping on each other, holding each other down and so forth... we had to put a stop to it before somebody lost a tooth or broke something. Flags was quite closly contested between Shaun, Dianne, Dean and Aaron. Shaun successfully beat Dean both times. Dean was so focued on trying to grab Aaron's flag that he lost sight of the other nippers and Shaun took his brother out.
Aaron has learned a thing or three from watching one the Senior Lifeguards (guess who.... Brent). He has become quite clever and very good at flags! He took top honors both times. We had a glitch when some of our nippers tried, on the second round of flags, to eliminate themselves by not doing their best. This was stopped short by a lecture on disappointment and bad sportsmanship.
We split the nippers into 3 teams and did some baton relays. This went down very well, wth lots of heated competition between the teams. The nippers have this down quite well and know exactly what to do.
We went back into the water for some wading sprints. The nippers seemed to be deaf to the sound of B's voice and so were hauled out of the water to be told what to do by Drill Sargeant, me. With the wading sprints completed, we did some more short swims. These went down well, but the nippers seem really seemed to have forgotten their ears in their bags and did not listen to instructions or obey signals given.
This resulted in a very short shower for all.
It was not all bad! the nippers did try their best, it was just a pity about their ears being left behind. This made it a difficult day but we are hoping to see an improvement next week...
B and I had decided before-hand that we wanted the nippers to do a long swim. Justin W, a lifeguard, kindly put a buoy (a real orange one, not our human one) about 70m off-shore for us. The nippers looked at the buoy and looked at us. Looked back at the buoy and then back at us. Then the questions started... "Are we swimming there?"; "Why?"; "do we have to?" these were closely followed by mumbling and complaints... "i cant do it"; "its too far.; "its too cold" etc.
Bryan and I explained to them that they had to doit in order to get ready for their exams and for competitions. The nippers felt better when they saw that B and Justin W would be in the water with them. B and Justin went into the water while the nippers started their run.
They all did very well... everybody tried their best and went as far as they could. Dianne was first around the buoy and back, closely followed by Dean and Aaron. Lucci made it the whole way and did really well. Jordan, who is usually more cautious, swam all the way to the buoy and back! We were so proud of him!!!
The current was pushing the nippers quited hard and some of them came out of the water looking very tired!
We did the swim a second time, with Dianne again comming out first. Many of the nippers were very cold and did not want to put their faces in the water to swim ;-) This resulted in some very tired nippers back on the beach.
We had a short rest and then it was out for a run. After our run, we discovered that the club did indeed have flags. We lined the nippers up for some flags. Its started to get quite ruthless, with nippers grabbing each other, jumping on each other, holding each other down and so forth... we had to put a stop to it before somebody lost a tooth or broke something. Flags was quite closly contested between Shaun, Dianne, Dean and Aaron. Shaun successfully beat Dean both times. Dean was so focued on trying to grab Aaron's flag that he lost sight of the other nippers and Shaun took his brother out.
Aaron has learned a thing or three from watching one the Senior Lifeguards (guess who.... Brent). He has become quite clever and very good at flags! He took top honors both times. We had a glitch when some of our nippers tried, on the second round of flags, to eliminate themselves by not doing their best. This was stopped short by a lecture on disappointment and bad sportsmanship.
We split the nippers into 3 teams and did some baton relays. This went down very well, wth lots of heated competition between the teams. The nippers have this down quite well and know exactly what to do.
We went back into the water for some wading sprints. The nippers seemed to be deaf to the sound of B's voice and so were hauled out of the water to be told what to do by Drill Sargeant, me. With the wading sprints completed, we did some more short swims. These went down well, but the nippers seem really seemed to have forgotten their ears in their bags and did not listen to instructions or obey signals given.
This resulted in a very short shower for all.
It was not all bad! the nippers did try their best, it was just a pity about their ears being left behind. This made it a difficult day but we are hoping to see an improvement next week...
hello L & B
Enjoy reading your blog - you guys are doing a great job - even with all the kids moaning and groaning and loss of "ears" from time to time I know they enjoy your training otherwise they wouldn't be back for "more".... Diane continues to amaze me - I am really proud of her.
Posted by
Anonymous |
1:21 PM
Hi all,
Just been reading your blog! Gr8! I know how hard it is as I was once a Milnerton Nipper (a 1000 years ago) when Michael Swart (Justin & Diane's dad) was one of the main Lifesavers!!! And it was hard swimming ALL that way to the bouy and back!!!! I am amazed at how well Justin & Diane are doing! Must be in the genes!!!!!!
Posted by
Anonymous |
1:45 PM
It was cool to see the kids again! They are doing well!
Well done to all the nippers from last year. You had better check for gills and a tail!
Posted by
Unknown |
12:53 PM
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