‘Great to have you on board, Bec,’ said Hung. He rubbed his hands together, keen to get to work.

Bec smiled and hugged her net bag to her chest. The air felt damp and warm. Her heart was thudding with excitement. Inside her bag was everything she needed for junior squad. She had two new pairs of goggles, flippers, a water bottle. She was already wearing her cap and old bathers.

A blurry announcement echoed over the PA as Hung introduced Bec to the other kids standing by the pool.

It was hard to see their faces because they all had their caps and goggles on already. But Bec could tell the other kids were serious about swimming. Their bodies looked sleek and strong.

‘Here’s Ruby,’ said Hung, ‘and last of all, Holly,’ he finished, pointing to a girl in matching red cap and bathers at the end of the line.

Holly was tall, and had strong, square shoulders. As she waved, Bec thought she saw something sparkle on her fingers.

Is Holly wearing nail polish? Bec wondered. She shot Holly a smile.

‘OK, class. Warm-up first. Then laps,’ called Hung.

Bec copied as Hung swung his arms and showed them how to stretch out their shoulder muscles.

Then – splash, pish, plop – the rest of the class jumped into the water.

Bec was about to follow when Hung asked her to wait. He stood next to her, his hands on his hips. ‘Let’s go over your freestyle stroke.’

‘Um …’ Bec felt a bit silly. The others were all in the water, and she wasn’t even wet yet! But then she nodded. Junior squad was about serious swimming. Bec was determined to do exactly what Hung asked. Even swimming through air!

She reached forward and moved her arms in a freestyle stroke.

‘Right,’ said Hung, frowning. ‘You need to think about technique.’

He held Bec’s arm and moved it through the air. ‘Lead with your elbow, not your hand, OK?’ Hung lifted Bec’s arm with the elbow high. ‘And imagine you’re trailing your fingers across the top of the water.’

Bec moved her arms, keeping her elbows high, fingers trailing. The stroke felt strange and new.

Hung stood back and nodded as Bec kept practising. ‘Good. Now you can do it in the water.’

At last! Bec did a happy jump into the pool. Already she felt like a better swimmer. And she wasn’t even swimming yet!

As Bec swam her first laps at squad, she tried harder than ever. Lead with my elbow, fingers trailing, reach forward hard …

There was so much to think about. Normally Bec just swam, loving the feel of moving through the water.

But now her head was full of hand positions and stroke technique. Her brain had to work as hard as her body!

When she made it to the shallow end, Bec stopped for a rest. Her cheeks burned hot. Her chest rose with each breath.

In the next lane, Holly was swimming towards the end. Bec watched her steady rhythm, impressed.

I’ll say hi when she stops, thought Bec.

As Holly swam closer to the wall, she tucked her head down and spun forwards in an easy turn. Then she pushed off the wall and kept swimming.

Wow! thought Bec. So much for saying hi.

She watched the small moving splash as Holly kicked away.

Then Bec pushed forward to start another lap, trying to copy Holly’s rhythm. Stroke, stroke, stroke … breathe. Stroke, stroke, stroke … breathe.

At the other end, Holly turned again and kept swimming back past Bec. She was so fast! Bec could tell that she had no chance of keeping up.

But for once Bec didn’t mind not being the fastest. She knew that she had a million things to learn at squad. And Bec couldn’t wait to learn every single one.