Westbrook Academy for Metahumans: Forums

Coach Kerry glanced at her clipboard while the swimmers began to trickle out of the locker room. Sign-ups had gone well and it looked like Westbrook might be able to field a competing team for the first time. The football team wouldn't be the only successful sport this fall!

Once most of the stragglers had deposited their towels, Coach Kerry whistled loudly to grab their attention.

"Welcome to the swim team, kids. Glad to see you all," she proclaimed with a grin. "I have a few announcements before we get the ball rolling. If you haven't officially signed up, let me know. Practice will be twice a week. Talk to me if you have to skip or if there's a conflict. If you don't have a suit from last year that's usable, I'm going to need your sizes. I have a bunch of extra suits in my office from last year but I might need to order more. I'll need to know that by the end of the month, people."

"With that out of the way, let's get down to business. Today's practice isn't going to be the norm. I want to see where everyone is before we start drills. Spread out and show me what you have."

Faige walked out of the changing room, chatting with Lark as she tied her hair up in a ponytail. "And then he said "this isn't caviar it's cod roe" and everyone was really embarrassed..."

Faige quieted after they were whistled over, listening to the coach with arms folded over her chest. She nodded as they were told to spread out along the pool. Faige picked somewhere in the middle, not closest to either end.

After shaking her legs out and rolling her head (there was no real stretching or warmup to be seen), she crouched down into a box-less start position and paused, then launched herself into the water with technique that wouldn't be described as "professional" but she at least somewhat appeared to know what she was doing. Faige opened with her favorite stroke, the butterfly, all the way down to the end of the pool. She didn't seem to know how to kick turn either and just stopped at the end, then turned and swam freestyle back to where she had started. Her butterfly form was better than her freestyle, that being rather sloppy at best but getting the job done.

She repeated this pattern a couple of times, butterfly down, freestyle back before holding herself against the edge of the pool to catch a breather and watch the other kids.

Espy walked out of the changing room, feeling slightly uncomfortable in his swimsuit.

"Man, this suit is tight."

He looked around, seeing who else was here trying out. He wasn't as vocal or a leader in any sense of the word when it came to swimming, but, it was his mother's old passion, and he thought it would make it happy if he picked it up again. Besides, it was a great workout compliment to football, it didn't interfere, and most of all, it was competitive and fun at the same time.

Lark giggled quietly as she walked out with Faige, finishing winding up her hair into a braided bun at the story. "I heard someone try to play that as not having a refined enough palate to taste the difference in whimsy."

She quieted at the whistle, starting to stretch out her neck - rolling it from side to side, then her shoulders, arms, knees and ankles. She stretched while Coach Kelly talked and took her good time heading into position. Instead of hurrying into line, Lark took her time - finishing her little impromptu warm up. She got into start position and dove into the water beautifully; barely making a splash when she finished sailing over the water.

The swimming wasn't nearly so beautiful.

Lark began with the freestyle, having an odd bobbling form that managed to be serviceable if awkward as if she were swimming on an unsteady, swimming cradle. Her kick turn was executed well, though, and she came back up into a fly that at least looked like a fly… until she clearly became exhausted only part way through. Lark recovered on her breaststroke, mostly spending the time moving through water and catching her breath and stopping at the end. She stood back facing the pool, breathing hard and ragged as she went into a backwards dive for her backstroke.

It was clearly Lark's strongest and the awkward rocking cradle form of her front crawl from her arched back seemed to have a purpose here as she kept herself from sinking in the water. Perhaps it was too focused on being graceful than fast, but, at least the form was there. She twisted and turned coming up... admittedly five feet short of where she wanted to be but that was good enough.

She stopped there to catch her breath, meandering out of the pool to go stand by Faige.

David skip-- No, no skipping. David gallop-- David walked in a very sedate, firm, manly way out of the changing room. Not at all like a spaz. Spazzing out was for meets. And bummer practices. And breaking the ice. So maybe a little spazzing out would be ok. Just no more than usual. If possible.

"Shorts," David said to Ehhhh... the big guy.

Wait. That doesn't explain much, does it? "Uhhm, like gym shorts. Guys, I mean, us us we usually wear shorts over the suit. When we're not, you know, swimming?" David looked down midway through his attempt at not spazzing more than usual to note that he wasn't wearing shorts either. "Usually."

But hey! Swimming! "I like lane two. Not too center, not to edge, and not an odd number. Tee-em-eye, David! So you're welcome over there!"

David retreated (hopefully) before entering creepy territory and dove in loosely, which is another word for sloppily, and started an IM round--Fly, Back, Breast, Free, one lap each. All of them legal enough but... loose.

Espy chuckled a bit at Davids...aloofness, heading over to take the lane next to him, he looked around, observing the swim styles that everyone had decided to take, before jumping into the water, starting with his backstroke. His powers in the Westbrook pool allowed him to make minimal mistakes, but he couldn't help but over think things in his technique. As he switched styles, one lap each as well, he found out that backstroke was definitely the one he felt most comfortable with. He couldn't help but think that was weird.

Either way, his extremely long limbs managed to find someway to make up for his large mass, and he did solidly throughout the practice. He was clearly an athlete...but it would take some time before he was a competetive swimmer, especially once powers were nullified.

Brodi hadn't bothered with changing into any of the suits provided by the school. He figured that would come later but for now, he was just in blue trunks that looked a tag too tight and scaley to be 'mainstream'. And by the looks around him, he wasn't the only one that brought their own gear for today. He spotted a few brave souls trying on the older, used suits, and just shook his head, suppressing a grin.

Brodi padded over to his lane, took his position, and when the imaginary whistle in his head blew, he dove in. His forms was built for endurance and thus, he didn't push it. He just did a 'crawl-stroke'. He smoothly went through the motions like clockwork. Stroke, stroke, breath. Stroke, Stroke, breath.

He reached the end of the lane, kicked off the wall, and began doing a backstroke. Like before, the boy had clearly been in the water before. Solid technique but he didn't stand out more than any other. A relaxed swim for a relaxed boy who had a relaxed state-of-mind.

"With your ridiculous, comical muscles.." Lark began after she climbed out of the pool and headed over towards Espinosa, "Once you get your form down you're going to be a natural at the fly. You've got strong shoulders, you know, so that's half of the battle." She brushed her hair from her face, flicking the excess water on the ground as she went back to watching the pool. "Do realize, though, that I'm doing all in my power not to make some joke about how good you are on your back. Except for that one, right there." Her shoulders dropped while she was at the pool. She smiled more; or even at all, chuckling at the end of her comment and giving a little playful eye roll and a shrug.

"But, good swim, Nosa. Good swim." she clapped a hand on his back and headed past over to where she could get back to chit-chatting with Faige.

Kimber had approached Coach Kerry on his own about the swim team, figuring that the season hadn't started yet so he could get in on the ground floor as it were before they went into competition. It also fit the whole "non contact sports" direction he was aiming for. Why not? Just another way to make friends. Kerry had invited him to one of their practices, setting Kim up in the last lane of the pool and somewhat separate to the other kids so he could show the Coach what he was made of.

He didn't much care for the uniform, but then again he'd heard from some of the others that they didn't much care for it either. It made one walk oddly. Eugh, perma-wedgie. This would take some getting used to. Kim shot a wave down the pool at the other kids as they limbered up at the edge then headed over to the lane he'd been assigned to down the other end.

He shook out his legs and arms and rolled his shoulders. He wasn't too used to pool swimming, preferring instead to swim in the open ocean during the warmer months. Still in he dove and held his own for the most part. He took off with a loose freestyle and stopped at the other end of the pool, no turn kicks or anything fancy like that. Turning around, he went back to the other side in the same manner than did two more laps of backstroke. He was proficient enough and plenty quick even though he did lack the form and finesse of a competitive swimmer.

Juan dives into the pool, and immediately begins a butterfly. His arms and kicks are perfectly synched in rhythm, but the technique is loose, with a lot of wasted motion. The turn at the wall is also sloppy. Once he’s finished the lap, he grabs the wall and launches into a back stroke.

He extends his arms back well, kicking consistently, and overall does better than he had at the butterfly. At the wall he even coasts into a flip-turn, his body rotating onto his front for a split-second before flipping frontwards 180°and extending his legs to the wall for the requisite touch and push-off. It is marred by his feet hitting the wall wrong and he bobs up short rather than gliding towards the opposite side of the pool. He manages to pick up speed as that lap is finished, though, and transitions into a strong breast stroke.

Once again he gets his rhythm down, but this time everything seems to click into place. His pulls and kicks are spot on, and he cuts through the water bob by bob like a hot knife through butter. The turn and push-off at the wall are quick and brisk, and he easily glides underwater past the flags before continuing with the stroke and slicing through the lap. Finally, the touch at the wall sends him into a crawl for the freestyle portion of the individual medley.

Fairly workmanlike, he is clearly comfortable with the stroke, though the performance is less than what he had managed with the breast stroke. He hesitates at the wall, thinking about attempting another flip-turn, before simply coming into the wall. Pushing off, he manages a strong finish, slightly winded. His eyes roving to see who was watching, and particularly any teammates of the female variety, he grins and intones "Yo, coach, do I got it or what?"