The Smile She Gives You

Chapter 3: Evenings at the Pool

Image credits: @Asia on Pinterest

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My journey that lasts about twenty minutes leads to the Beacon High Pool. As I come walking from Camden Town Station the robust building becomes more and more prominent in my view, snuggled within the campus of Beacon High School in Islington.

I take the stairs to a lower level, reach the locker room and get changed into a wide coach t-shirt and comfortable shorts.
The empty pool indicates that I am too early and the clock at the far end of the pool confirms that another fifteen minutes have yet to pass until the session begins. I set my bag on an elevated podium by the wall and pull out my phone. The training program for today's session is to be found in an online chat for all coaches. Since I have volunteered to help out in my swim team, Anaconda SC, and train the younger swimmers of ages eight to ten on Mondays, I am also in this group chat.

A white board is resting against the wall waiting for me to fill the blank space with today's tasks. I pull out a board marker from my bag and start copying the program onto the board in the neatest and most legible writing possible. 

Just as the board is drawing to the point of being completed, the young swimmers arrive, all of them at once. They usually wait for one another by the changing rooms and then walk in as a collective. After placing their bags on the podium, they form a semicircle around me, kindly and respectfully ending their conversations and waiting for my instructions.

I patiently wait for everyone to turn toward me and then confidently smile at them: "Welcome back, friends! I hope you had adventurous holidays! Anyone want to share some experiences from their summer break?"
Each of them presents a short recount of which sorts of activities they have devoted themselves to over the past couple of weeks. While doing so, we all perform a ten-minute warm-up together that I demonstrate in the focal point of the semicircle. After everyone has been able to tell their tale, I ask the motivated, young children to take a quick rinse before we begin with the swim practice.

All of the children are truly energetic and have high spirits which can be manifested well through their small but tireless bodies vigorously gliding across the surface of the water. They accept my corrections and attempt their best to improve. It is unbelievably heart-warming to see the enthusiastic smiles and hear the encouragements directed at the teammates.
The lesson passes too quickly for my liking. At 6:45 pm, the children leave the pool area and head home to enjoy a well deserved supper. The next squad of swimmers and another coach have already arrived for their session. I greet them shortly before I leave to attend my own training session as a swimmer.

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The Cally Pool is only a few stops away from Beacon High. This is where my squad goes through a 1.5 hour long session each Monday. It is a rather easy-going session for both the competitive and the non-competitive squad in my age group.

I am once again fifteen minutes early and the only swimmer at the pool. Our coach Jane is the only other person in the pool area, sitting at a podium writing down our training plan on yet another white board.

She turns around and greets me: "Hello Tori. Alright? How was practice with the kids?"

"They were all very motivated and I am happy with them. Everyone from the group attended today's lesson and swam the program you sent to me."

A figure approaches from the men's changing room. Greg comes out to join us.

"Hi guys."

We greet him back.