In North America, synchronized swimming has always been a minority sport. Not only can it not be compared with the four big balls in an empty lane, but it is also far less popular than swimming, gymnastics, track and field with deep mass base. Nevertheless, the flower tour clubs scattered around the country still bear the flower tour hearts and Olympic dreams of countless teenage girls.
In 2114, we lived in Toronto, and there were three outstanding young sisters at my friend's house, who were engaged in rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming. However, blossoming didn't show special interest in the first two. She just learned to swim soon, and she enjoyed doing somersaults in the swimming pool. For the sake of safety, Duoma also thinks that the risk of sports injury in flower swimming is the smallest, so Xiaodi, who just turned six, began to take an interest class once a week and gradually embarked on her long-term flower swimming career.
Synchronized swimming, also known as water ballet, combines art and sports, and is a mixture of gymnastics, dancing and swimming. In fact, it takes comprehensive physical fitness, years of professional training and countless times of collective cooperation to complete the seemingly easy flying up and down in the water.
Since Huayou officially entered the Olympic Games in 1984, the United States and Canada have monopolized all the gold and silver medals in the first four Olympic Games. However, from 2111 until today, Russia has always occupied an unshakable hegemonic position. China Flower Tour Team has made great achievements in recent years, including bronze medal in Beijing in 2118, silver medal in London in 2112 and silver medal in Rio in 2116. Although it has not broken the unbeaten myth of Russia, it has become one of the top teams in the world.
With the proud record of the China Flower Tour Team, I believe that everyone is becoming more and more familiar with this sport. Here, through the blossoming experience, I will focus on the dribs and drabs of learning flower tour in North America.
like other sports, flower swimming can be divided into two categories: recreational and competitive. Generally speaking, it starts with the introduction of creative, and takes classes once or twice a week, with the time ranging from one to one and a half hours. Little girls over the age of 5 or 6 can participate as long as they learn to swim. This is the kind of course that Duo Duo started in Toronto at the age of six.
after the creative soy sauce, you can go to the competitive team tryout. Duoduo was selected to join the flower tour team after attending classes for half a year. When you are young, the threshold of competitive teams is actually very low. As long as you are interested and show some progress, you will not be rejected by the club, because it is still in its infancy and there is still a long way to go in the future.
according to their age, competitive teams are generally divided into eight years old or younger (8U), ten years old or younger (11U), 11-12, 13-15, Junior(16-18) and Senior(18+). According to the level, it is divided into novice (primary), intermediate (intermediate) and the age group with the highest level. As soon as I entered 8U, the training time immediately increased to three times a week, two to three hours at a time. After that, with the increase of age and level, the training can reach more than ten or even dozens of hours per week.
In North America, there is plenty of time for extracurricular activities in primary and junior high schools, but the academic pressure in senior high schools is still considerable. Some girls will bid farewell to the competitive road of flower tour before going to high school, others will try to find a balance between flower tour and high school. At the same time, in some high-level clubs in North America, there are still some girls who have the dream of national team and Olympic Games and give up ordinary high schools and choose home school just to have more time to invest in training and competition.
Speaking of this, I believe many girls' parents have been wondering for a long time: What should I do if I encounter a physiological period with such high-intensity and uninterrupted training?
I remember when I was in Toronto, I was at the parent-teacher conference for new students with a teammate's mother. She was a native of Canada and a professional doctor. During the chat, I raised a concern about the children's swimming during the physiological period when they grow up. She quickly looked up from a thick stack of registration forms and stared at me seriously and asked, Is this concerned cultural or physiological? Ask me if my worry is based on culture or physiology. ) that posture seems to be about to launch a literacy and popular science program for me with the doctor's major.
It can be seen that on this issue, we are really far from the crooked nut idea of drinking ice water without wearing long pants or confinement. As a matter of fact, for a cooperative collective project like Flower Tour, there are 8 to 11 girls in a team. If you take two days off every month and she takes two days off, I'm afraid you can't get all the people together. So there is only one answer. Unless you are very unwell, you have no choice but to go into the water during the physiological period.
When Duoma was a child, Duomu had a dream of training her daughter to be a literary and sports star. However, after trying singing, dancing, gymnastics, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, she didn't find any talent. . . Duoma, who is not diligent in four bodies and wrestles on the ground, relies on sit-ups to reach the standard. She knows that there are no sports genes to pass on to her daughter. She does not expect her to be gifted and talented, but only hopes that she will find her true love and stick to it, and fully enjoy the charm and fun of competitive sports.
After training for one year in Toronto's 8U team, the whole family moved to Nanjia. Eight-year-old Duoduo reluctantly bid farewell to his friends who had just established pure friendship and started a new campaign in a new club.
In Nanjia, which has a high proportion of Asian population, Duoduo has changed from being the only foreign aid among a group of white teammates in Toronto to being a major in the team. However, the weather in Nanjia is sunny and sunny, and the outdoor swimming pool for more than ten hours a week has tanned all these girls, whether they were white, yellow or brown, and they look neat.
unexpectedly, as soon as blossoming moved here, it met with no small challenge on the flower tour. Perhaps because the sun is too strong, or because there are too many additives in the outdoor swimming pool, her skin has developed severe eczema, which is red and itchy, which makes people feel distressed. Various experts have tried various drugs, but stubborn eczema is sometimes good and sometimes bad, and seriously consider giving up when it is serious. "Why don't you change to dancing? There is no sun in the room." Mother Duo advised me more than once. However, true love is invincible, no matter what kind of difficulties, I have never heard a resignation from the mouth of blossoming. After several years of gritting my teeth, eczema is now much lighter unconsciously, although it will make trouble from time to time, and it is no longer a problem.
In Xiaodi's life under 11 years old, she has been accompanied by a flower tour for half the years. Training for more than ten hours a week, going out for numerous games, eating and living with teammates, and enjoying success and failure, flower swimming has become an important part of her life.
what does the flower tour bring us?
1 Tough character
It is difficult to find an indoor swimming pool in Nanjia, and all the training is conducted outdoors. Summer training is exposed to the hot sun, and winter is shivering when it comes out of the water. The children soak for hours and never complain. After training every Friday night, I received a cup of hot chocolate from my loving mother, and I felt unspeakable satisfaction. Not to mention all kinds of hardships of leg press's holding his breath while practicing underwater splits in training, the coach's harsh criticism, the great psychological pressure during the competition and the sadness after the failure. Flower girls turn pressure into motivation, how tired they are in training, how bitter they are in failure, and how sweet they laugh when they succeed. Sports spirit is to persist in not giving up, but also to surpass oneself and not be afraid of failure. Even if you don't spend any more time, this spirit will become a valuable asset to accompany you all your life.
On a cold night, the coach on the shore was wrapped in a coat. It was so cold that the steaming heat in the swimming pool was clearly visible. Rain or something, that's nothing. No matter how heavy the rain is, it won't affect the training unless there is lightning. Safety first, training second. The rest are cold, tired and so on.
2 to build a comprehensive physical fitness
Someone once said that synchronized swimming looks very simple, not like exercise, but more like a show with heavy makeup. I think people who say this are just confused by bright clothes and makeup. Behind the lead flower is a sport that requires extremely high physical fitness and requires long-term hard training. It requires strength, endurance and explosiveness, as well as flexibility, coordination, expressiveness and sense of rhythm, and large lung capacity and extraordinary water ability are even more essential. Previous studies have shown that in all sports, the cardiopulmonary endurance of flower swimmers is second only to that of long-distance runners.
3 Higher, faster, stronger and more beautiful
Although mixed doubles have been added in recent years, flower swimming is still a women's exclusive event to a large extent. It is a girl's nature to love beauty. This sport, which combines dance and gymnastics and is known for its beauty and elegance, is a perfect interpretation of strength and beauty. In the pursuit of beauty, every little flower of progress is watered by sweat. For these girls, the bright clothes and makeup are icing on the cake, which is a part of the perfect performance and a relaxing episode in the hard training competition.
4 cultivate the spirit of team cooperation
the official name of Huayou has just been changed to Artistic Swimming, and before that, it has been called Synchronized Swimming. It is the best embodiment of teamwork (team cooperation spirit) to pursue the neat and synchronous movements to the extreme, and everyone trusts each other, supports each other and becomes one.
What the audience likes to watch most and what excites the little players most is the lift. In the lift, the trapeze on the top is undoubtedly the focus of the audience's attention, while the teammates who use their own bodies to set up layers of towers and send trapeze into the air with their arms, shoulders and legs are unknown heroes and the foundation of the team's strength.
day after day, year after year. Even the minority, even if there is not much attention and applause, the members of Huayou are still writing their mood for love with youth, tears and sweat.
for nothing but love.