Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
June 9, 2000, Washington Post

The pools are open and that means the summer swimming season has begun. I never joined a swim team. I'd probably be a lot better swimmer today if I had. My crawl stroke looks like I'm fighting sea monsters and they're winning.

Swim teams are big time around here. The Northern Virginia Swimming League may be the biggest summer swimming league in the country. This summer, 12,000 kids from more than 100 pools will swim in NVSL competitions.

Not that swim teams are all a day at the beach.

"The water is so cold," Frank Kettler, a third-grader at St. Francis Episcopal Day School in Potomac, complained to me.

"Yeah, and you have to wear a Speedo," classmate Matt Sparks said, shaking his head at the thought of his small racing suit.

Okay, so swimming isn't perfect. But here are five good reasons to take the plunge and join a swim team:

1. Swimming gets you in great shape. Check out the swimmers in the Olympics this summer--they are lean, mean, swimming machines. After swim team, you will be in top form to master other sports during the school year.

2. Swimming is for everybody. Stars can't dominate a team. An 8-year-old girl's performance is as important as an 18-year-old boy's. And everyone cheers as loud for her as they cheer for him.

3. It's a team sport but you are always racing against yourself, trying to do your personal best. Sometimes you can lose the race but still feel like a winner because you beat your best time.

4. The cookouts! The team at my pool has so many cookouts during the season they must buy charcoal by the truckload. The kids rule the pool.

5. The flip turn is cool. I always wished I could execute that short, swift underwater twist when the swimmer changes directions, springs off the wall, and torpedoes forward. I always ended up with my foot on the deck or gasping for air.

I definitely should have joined the swim team.