Whether it be soccer, ice hockey, dancing, gymnastics or swimming, participating in sports takes not only perseverance on the part of the athlete, but also dedication from parents and coaches, too.
For 11-year-old Samantha Baron, in grade six at Assumption School, an early morning wakeup call is a regular occurrence. During most of the year she spends seven days a week participating in sports. Her principal sport is swimming, which takes over her life from May through August. For the rest of the year swimming is confined to Sundays. She also plays pre-rep soccer on Saturdays and Sundays, is involved with basketball Tuesdays and Thursdays after school and intramurals during lunch time, then running club Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday and Friday evenings there is soccer practice.
It is a heavy schedule and one that her parents Fiona and Jim Baron are closely involved with. Sam is the middle child, with an older and younger brother. She now has over 100 ribbons and medals and this past summer brought home four trophies.
“I love the rush, I love being able to push myself,” Sam said.
It is the mentality of a true competitor, yet Sam races not necessarily to beat her fellow swimmers or even come first. It is more to beat her own time.
In swimming, time is everything. It determines the lane a swimmer will compete in, with the fastest swimmers being in lanes four and five. “If you are in fourth it is the best lane because you make the waves that come out on all the other swimmers,” Sam explained. “If you are swimming on the ends you get everyone’s waves and that’s the worst.”
To that end, swimming is an individual sport, she said. “Yes, you are in a team, but you are swimming in your own division and it is all about your time. People cheer for you but it is not really a team sport in the race because you are not competing with your teammates.”
With this attitude she can be happy for others who do well. “I tell her to be competitive, you can beat them, it is okay,” said Fiona.
Sam swims with Powell River Aquatic Club and the club competes in the Vancouver Island region in the junior seniors level. There are eight regions in the province. She is coached by Quincey Leachman and Marissa Nadin, and is a power stroker. Her best stroke is butterfly and Nadin has been a great inspiration as that was her competitive stroke too. “Tuck your chin in before your arms come up, make sure both kicks are strong, if you come up for a turn make sure you do three pulls before you breathe,” repeated Sam of Nadin’s instructions.
“These coaches have been swim club kids and have gone through the ranks,” said Fiona. “They are so excited for the kids. This year, Quincey would come up to me and say, ‘Oh gosh, she has done well,’ and it was really nice to see it wasn’t just another job.”
Sam’s first league race was when she was seven and things did not go well. “They blew the whistle, I hopped onto the blocks and jumped in,” she said. However, she didn’t know that was wrong. She did it a second time. On the third attempt, she realized she was missing a step or two. Step one is swimmers on the blocks; step two the whistle blows and swimmers are to be ready; step three a beep sounds and into the water they go.
Already upset, Sam was swimming backstroke and swallowed water. “I just couldn’t breathe and was choking.” She ended up getting pulled out of the pool.
It was enough of an experience to turn many off the sport, but with a bribe of ice cream, Sam reluctantly went back into the water. Sam now had her first taste of how brutal swimming races can be.
“They add more rules and really enforce them as they get older,” said Fiona.
That first year Sam participated in only two swimming meets. “We were just learning,” said her mom. The second year had three meets. In the third year Sam competed at provincials in the relay.
“All of a sudden she was doing really well. People said she should go to regionals, but she did better than we expected and headed to provincials.” Fiona puts it down to Sam being internally driven.
“It was crazy,” said Sam of the experience. “There were so many people who all seemed to know what they were doing, very intimidating.”
The rules were extreme. The Barons watched as a teammate of Sam’s was disqualified just because she could not get to the marshalling area 30 minutes ahead of her race.
Sam attended provincials again this season and participated in 50-metre butterfly and 50- and 100-metre freestyle, as well as the relay, at Spani Pool in Coquitlam.
Sam’s result in butterfly was a little disappointing. “She went in eighth and came out 13th,” said Fiona.
However, she did really well in 50-metre freestyle and came in fifth. Less than one hundredth of a second faster and she could have been third.
For 100-metre freestyle she finished 14th, however, she swam her fastest time of 1:12.06, three seconds faster than her qualifying time.
For the regional relay team she swam butterfly. “We ended up coming sixth,” she said.
Over the years Fiona has accommodated diet changes to help Sam in her swimming. There is just one day per week when junk food is allowed, but even then there is not much sugar consumed.
Before a swim meet, “I’ll eat porridge and meat,” said Sam.
When she started swimming three or four hours per day, Fiona saw Sam was losing weight. She would return home dizzy. “I realized I had to start carb loading her so started giving her pasta.” The pasta was easily burnt off.
Fiona makes energy bites out of peanut butter, nuts, honey and oatmeal. “When she comes out of a race I give her chocolate milk because it is supposed to be really good at replenishing what she needs, and she eats these energy bites and fruit.” Also, swimmers sweat in the pool, so need to drink lots of fresh water.
Sam’s swimming experience is coming full circle. This year, she beat Nadin’s club record in butterfly. And now, as one of the older swimmers, she is starting to mentor the younger swimmers. It is a continuity that helps everyone improve.
As for advice for a youngster who is just starting to swim, “Keep with it,” she said. “Don’t judge yourself right off the bat, it takes a while to get into it. There is no guarantee you will be at the top. Just keep working and see where you will be.”
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