Week #36: Getting N Sync!!

This week was synchronized swimming time. What else would a 39 year old Dad be doing on a Monday?? I know that my "Man Card" could be revoked after his week, but trust me when I say, I will earn it back. Truth be told, this was never on my "to-do" list this year. My sister-in-law's sister brought up the idea a few weeks ago and I wavered back and forth before saying "Why not?" Sync on! I made an uncomfortable random phone call to Andrea, who I asked to be my synchronized swimming teacher. She graduated from college last year and is headed out to NYC this Friday to look for work. My window was short. It was not the easiest phone call to make. It kind of went like this ... "Ahhh excuse me, my name is ####, I am a friend of Mary Lou's ... would you mind teaching me to synchronize swim sometime this week?" I may want to become the next Bill May (just kidding/inside sync. swimmer joke). She was really nice though! "No problem!!" For her to take time out of her last week in Milwaukee to teach this old dude some new moves was really appreciated!






Our rehearsal took about an hour. The weather was in the low 60's and the pool water was in the mid 70's. Not ideal, but for two professionals like us, it was nothing!



I always assumed that sync swimming was difficult ... but are you kidding me? Apparently, I don't have a good "core". Doing all the moves without touching the bottom of the pool was pretty much impossible for me. I tried nose plugs to keep some water out of my nose, but my ears kept popping when I swallowed air or water. Had to ditch the nose plug. Speaking of swallowing pool water, when all was said and done ... I may have ended up swallowing 1/3 of the entire pools water while trying not to drown.

I would like to thank Mary Lou and Katie for setting this up for me. I owe the biggest thanks to Andrea for teaching me my moves. I was already in the pool today teaching my daughter "The Oyster". Maybe I won't be the only synchronized swimmer in our family! I look forward to watching the next Summer Olympics with a great deal of respect for the ladies in the pool.

Pictures above are the pre-swim, pre-swim with nose plug on and the victorious post-swim "thumbs up".

Our sync moves include ... Left Arm, Right Arm, Tub Turn Kick, Oyster, Boost, Ballet Leg, Pose. (I couldn't master the inverted spin move, so we had to leave it out)

The routine is much more difficult than it looks, I had a great teacher.

Thank you Andrea and best of luck to you in New York. Your future employer will be lucky to have you!