From Water Walking to United States Masters Swimming

The Head Official blows three blasts on his whistle.  Then one long whistle signals all competitors to step up on the starting blocks.  Three of us approach Jane’s block.  As Jane settles into position and makes sure she has control of any tremors, one of us is on each side to make sure she is steady.  We both have to let go and step aside before the official begins his commands…”Take your mark,” and then the starting gun blasts.  And there Jane is diving in with a beautiful dive.

 

I step back and smile to myself and remember the journey that Jane has taken over the last seven years.

 

She first appeared in my Water Walking class at the Bluffton Pool, a county pool where I first began my aquatic teaching career.  Jane Ludick has Remitting Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.  She has a major challenge with coordination on her entire right side and both legs.  She also has numbness in her feet (peripheral neuropathy).  She really has to listen to her body and train carefully.  Endurance and stamina are always an issue.  Her biggest challenge is controlling her breathing.  The summertime heat in South Carolina is a real enemy.  She is often totally dripping with perspiration.  The only exercise she can safely do is in the water.  She says “Swimming is definitely the exercise I need to stay in shape.”

 

After she felt successful in the Water Walking class, Jane told me she wanted to try Water Aerobics.  I said, “Always listen to your body, and go for it!  If anything hurts, don’t do it.”

 

Our county pool received 25 pairs of swim fins.  Wow!  I thought; let’s start a deep water class.  Jane was the first in line to sign up.  Our Deep Water class had 3 lanes of the pool.  The other 3 lanes were used for Master’s Swim Team practice.

           

Eventually, I invited Jane to come to the pool very early with me and join the Master’s practice.

 

Her first swim meet was in Charleston, South Carolina.  Jane was in her 50’s and joined us as we went to the big state completion for seniors, called “The South Carolina Senior Sports Classic.”  She has qualified and swam in the National Senior Olympics.  She traveled to Pittsburgh in 2005 and Louisville in 2007.  This August she will swim six events in the National Senior Olympics on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California.

           

She has also swum in Masters National meets in Savannah, Georgia and in Eugene, Oregon.  Each of these was a competition in a 50 meter pool.

 

Jane has made a giant leap from water walking to our nation’s most challenging national swim meets.  The road is difficult.  She has fallen and broken her hip.  Each passing year, it is harder to start from the blocks.  Starting blocks are scary.  Each time I am behind the blocks waiting on the starter’s commands I say to myself, “If Jane can do this, so can I.”

           

Jane is a constant source of inspiration to me.  When there is a roadblock ahead, she figures out a way to circumvent it.  She was a third grade teacher in Littleton, Colorado, for twenty three years.  She has a Masters degree in Library – Media and helps out in the local elementary schools.  She is an avid reader and loves to travel.

 

Jane says swimming gives her life a deeper purpose.  Exercising in the water gives her confidence to move her body.  It helps her mentally because she can “fall in the water and only get wet.”  So, you see, every time Jane Ludick swims a race she is a Gold Medal Winner in this game of life just by doing what seems like the impossible to a physically challenged person.