s基礎練習　水泳の思い出　♯3326 (Pixiv Fanbox)

現場猫オジちゃん☺️Old man cat on the scene: ☺️

過去に触れた事もあるかもだけど、私の地元には有名なスイミング教室があって

小学校１～５までの5年間通ってました☺️

生徒は400人以上在籍、学校外の子と仲良くなったり本当に楽しかった。

クラスは３～１２まであって、4級を合格した子は選手育成コースに上がる権利と

月～土の間いつでも教室に参加しても良い権利が与えられ(通常は週１～２)

カッコイイ特別な水着が支給される、

3級だけ待遇がまるで違うので、生徒たちからも羨望の眼差しを向けられる。

ただし３級の合格条件は一ヶ月に一度の試験で

飛込みからの100m個人メドレーのタイムを2分切る事、

9割以上の子が4級を突破する前に辞めてしまう厳しいものだった。

筋力的な問題で3年生以下が合格する事自体無理だった。

私も4級から3級に上がるまで7ヶ月ほどかかった🥹

4年生頃に3級にあがり、選手コースに上がるか迷った結果

選手コースには行かず一般コースの３級に残留して週５で通うことに。

(この選択をする子も多かったが、殆どは週２で週５で来てるのは私くらいだった)

選手コースではなくてもウォーミングアップで1000mとか泳がされるし

ついていけない子は4級のレーンに戻されるくらいにはハード。

親に送迎できないと言われたので家から数キロあるスクールまで自転車で通ってた。

選手コースの人はほとんど中高生で、体系からしてアスリート皆シックスパック。

大人にしか見えなかったし、そこに混じるのが怖かった…。

何より週５で毎日3時間の練習について行ける気がしなかった。

私が水泳をやっていた理由は単純に楽しかっただけで

選手になりたい気持ちはなかったんですね。

でも週5で真面目に通ってるもんだからどんどん上達してタイムも上がり

3級残留組では試験タイムでもほとんど1番を取るようになり。

先生達からも「選手コースにおいでよ～」と

頻繁にスカウトされるようになって

「何でそんなに気にかけてくれるんだろう？」と常々疑問に思ってた

今思えば鬼コーチと恐れられてた先生も私に対してはすごく優しくて

たぶん一度も怒られた事無かった。

私が勝手にクイックターンを習得して使ってたら

「もっと後で皆に教えようと思ってたクイックターンをできる子がもういます！皆にも見せてあげて！」

と、私以外全員プールサイドに上がらされ、手本をやりました。

それからよく手本役に抜擢されました🦁✨

当時有名なサッカー少年団にも入ってたけど、嫌々行ってたから落ちこぼれ。

同じチームに一人で点を取りまくるM君がいて私はその子をすごく尊敬してたけど、格が違いすぎて声もかけられなかった。

その子がある時水泳の4級に入ってきて私の泳ぎをキラキラした目で見てるじゃないか…！私は嬉しくなっていっそう練習に励み、その子とも少し仲良くなった。

(しばらくして来なくなっちゃったけど)

5年生になり、相変わらず水泳に精を出してたものの、自分より早い子がおらず目標を失い、真面目に泳がない上に暗黙ルール(自分より泳ぎが早い子には順番を譲る)を守らない子も増えてきて、周回遅れの子にすぐ追いつくから泳ぐスピードもセーブしないといけなくて、毎日1７～１９時まで練習だったから友達と遊ぶ事もできず、学校でポケモンのアニメを見てないのも私だけで話についていけず。友達も全員水泳を辞めてしまって。

辞めるつっていきなり辞めました。

先生から「何でやめちゃうの？あんなに頑張ってたのにもったいないよ！！」

って電話で説得されたけど「やめたいのー！」って辞めました。

そういえば子供の頃すごく水泳頑張ってたな～って思い出して調べると

私の当時のタイムは県大会決勝でも十分通じるタイムだった😂

確か４年生で50m自由形３６秒とかだった。

だけど選手コースではないから大会に出る機会はなく

自分の実力がどの程度なのかも知る事も無かった。

実は極稀に練習時間の合わない選手コースの生徒が一般コースに来る事があって

たまたま記録試験の日に選手コースの二人と50m自由形で競うことになり

「負けてたまるかー！！」って全力出して良い勝負ができた気でいたけど

その二人は俺がタッチする頃には余裕でゴールしてて談笑してる…！

貼り出されたタイム見に行ったら二人は28秒と29秒…

自己ベストは更新したけど、3級残留組の平均タイムは49秒だから格の違いを思い知って選手コースが一層怖くなった。

今思い返すとやけに先生達が私に対して優しかった理由がわかった😂

もし選手コースに通っていたらまた違う人生だったのかもしれない

私がDDRが上手だったのは水泳で鍛えた体力があったからだと思う。

辞めたおかげで友達沢山できたから後悔することはなかったけどね。

その後5年で体重が3倍に増えることはまだ知る由も無かった

あれから２５年…一度もまともに泳いでいないからもう泳げないかも🥹

I may have mentioned this in the past, but there's a famous swimming school in my hometown.

I went there for five years from primary 1 to 5. ☺️

There were over 400 students enrolled and I really enjoyed it, making friends with kids from outside the school.

There were classes from 3 to 12, and children who passed level 4 were entitled to move up to the athlete development course and

The right to attend classes at any time from Monday to Saturday (usually 1-2 times a week).

They are provided with a cool special swimming costume,

Only the third level is treated very differently and is the envy of the students.

However, the only requirement for passing level 3 is an exam once a month.

The only requirement for passing Level 3 is a 100 m individual medley time of less than two minutes from the diving,

More than 90% of the children quit before passing level 4.

It was impossible for anyone below Grade 3 to pass due to muscular problems.

It took me about seven months to go from grade 4 to grade 3🥹.

I went up to Grade 3 around Grade 4 and I was not sure whether to go up to the athletes' course or not.

I decided not to go on the athletes' course, but to stay on the general course at level 3 and attend 5 times a week.

(Many children made this choice, but most of them came twice a week and I was the only one who came five times a week.)

Even if you're not on the athletes' course, you're made to swim 1000m or so as a warm-up.

It's so hard that kids who can't keep up are put back in the 4th level lane.

I had to cycle to the school, which was a few kilometres from my house, because my parents said they couldn't take me there.

Most of the people on the athletes' course were middle and high school students, and all the athletes had six-packs because of their body structure.

I looked like an adult and I was scared to mix with them...

Above all, I didn't feel like I could keep up with the three hours of practice every day, five times a week.

The only reason I was swimming was simply because it was fun.

I didn't want to be an athlete.

But because I was going seriously five times a week, I got better and better and my times improved.

In the Level 3 residency group, I almost always came in first in my exam times.

I was frequently scouted by the teachers, who said, "Come and join the athletes' course!

I was frequently scouted by the teachers and asked to join the athletes' course.

'Why do they care so much about me?' I always wondered.

Now I think about it, the teacher who was feared as a devil coach was very kind to me.

He probably never once got angry with me.

If I had learned and used the quick turn on my own, he would have said.

She said, "There's already a kid who can do the quick turn that I was going to teach everyone later! Show everyone!"

And they all went up to the poolside, except me, and I set the example.

Since then, I was often chosen to be the role model 🦁✨.

I was also in a famous youth football team at the time, but I didn't want to go, so I was a dropout.

On the same team, there was a boy called M who scored a lot of goals by himself and I looked up to him a lot, but I couldn't talk to him because he was too different from me.

One day he came into the fourth level of swimming and looked at me with sparkling eyes... I was so happy and encouraged him to swim more! I was so happy that I practised harder and got to know her a little better.

(She stopped coming after a while.)

In the fifth grade, I was still swimming as hard as ever, but I lost my goal because there was no one faster than me, and there were more and more kids who didn't swim seriously and didn't follow the unspoken rule (to give up their turn to a kid who swims faster than you), so I had to save my swimming speed because I had to catch up with the lapsed kids so quickly, and I had to practice every day from 5pm to 1am. I couldn't play with my friends because we practised from 5pm to 9am every day, and I was the only one who didn't watch Pokémon anime at school, so I couldn't keep up with the conversation. All my friends quit swimming.

I said I was quitting and quit suddenly.

The teacher asked me, "Why are you quitting? You worked so hard, it's a waste!

But I said, "I want to quit!" I said, "I want to quit!

I remembered how hard I swam when I was a child, and when I looked it up...

My time back then was good enough to make it to the finals of the prefectural championships 😂.

I was in the fourth grade and my 50m freestyle time was 36 seconds.

But I wasn't an athlete, so I didn't have a chance to compete.

I didn't even know how good I was.

In fact, on rare occasions, students from the athletes' course who didn't have the time to practice would come to the general course.

On the day of the record test, I happened to compete in the 50 m freestyle with two students from the athletes' course, and I said to them

I said to myself, "I'm not going to lose!" I gave it my all and thought I had a good competition.

But by the time I touched them, they had finished with time to spare and were chatting with each other..!

I went to look at the times on the board and they were 28 and 29 seconds...

I beat my personal best, but the average time for the remaining third class group was 49 seconds, so I was even more scared of the racers' course when I realised how different it was.

Looking back, I now understand why the teachers were so kind to me 😂.

If I had attended the athletes' course, maybe my life would have been different.

I think I was good at DDR because of my physical fitness from swimming.

I made a lot of friends thanks to quitting, though, so I never regretted it.

I still had no way of knowing that over the next five years my weight would triple.

It's been 25 years since then... I haven't swum properly once, I might never swim again 🥹.

I