Swimming has been an integral part of my life since I was nine years old. I have swum on four different teams and have had several different coaches. My high school swimming experience has been particularly significant to me and can be accurately described by a quote in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The quote, “It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone,” (Achebe) can be used to describe my high school swimming career. Freshman and Sophomore year I experienced personal progress, but team failure. This was a bitter time for me. My junior and senior year, I have not experienced personal success, and yet, I feel more fulfilled because my team has accomplished more. Mona Shores joined another co-op team my junior …show more content…
There were only about 25 girls who made up the entirety of the swim team. I got to know three other girls well, and we become close friends during swim season. Since I did not have many tight relationships with fellow swimmers, it made the season less enjoyable. Also, due to the massive size of our school, we were put in the OK White conference. For anyone who does not know, this is widely known as the most competitive swim conference. We swam against many fierce teams who had around 50 swimmers. This was frightening. As a team, we found little gratification and won only a couple of meets. Personally, I had an impressive season. I dropped a significant amount of time as the season went on and was able to improve immensely. My improvement was due to my hard work and dedication. However, my personal gains did not lead to successful feelings for me because I was part of a team that was largely unproductive. I learned quickly that team failure is much harder to deal with than personal failure. As Achebe noted, “It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.” My freshman year I felt isolated and alone; as a team, we were not thriving, and it was upsetting. Even though I was experiencing personal progress, it was not easy to enjoy my triumph when everyone around me was not as fortuitous. Defeat is not easy to get over, but it is even harder when you do not have supportive …show more content…
Personally, I have not reached my swimming goals yet. Despite all of the hard work and dedication, I have not been swimming at my normal performance level. I have been fighting a leg injury and was recently diagnosed with dystonia. This has proven to be challenging but has been made easier with the help of others. Although personally I have been experiencing hard times in swimming, my team is still performing well. The personal defeat is much easier to deal with than the team defeat I experienced freshman and sophomore year. Surprisingly, I feel more fruitful now, despite the fact that I am facing more challenges on a personal level. I feel victorious, being part of a team with a winning attitude and a winning record. Although I might be experiencing some degree of disappointment, I do not feel as saddened. I have the team success to raise my spirits. If what Achebe says is true, “It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone, ” then surely the opposite is also true; it is less difficult to fail when surrounded by
I have been swimming year-round on a club team since the age of six and when I was younger improving came relatively easily. However, around age 13, I hit a training plateau despite having the same work ethic and focus that I had previously had. I grew to despise swimming and at points I wanted to quit. However, unlike Junior, I had role models and mentors who were positive influences on me and who helped me to overcome this challenge. Primarily, I had several of my best friends on the team who convinced me to keep persevering and to not simply quit the sport that I loved so much just because I was no longer dropping time. For example, every day I watch my close friends Lizanne and Cate come to practice and give it their all, regardless of the numerous injuries and medical issues that plagued their swimming career; their positive outlook and dedication motivated me to try even harder than I had before. Moreover, I had by parents, something that Junior did not have; my parents were always there to support me after yet another disappointing meet reminding me that “you get five minutes for a win and five minutes for a lost”. My parents where my voice of reason as I tried to work through my issues; they were always there to encourage me, but also were very honest with me
On top of that, I learned a valuable lesson from the failure and the loss as well. From that day forth, the past experiences transformed me to be a hard-working and responsible person. Furthermore, I acknowledged that when something bad happens, it can prepare us for the future obstacles, so let always be optimistic and never give up on trying.
Success and failure seem to be pretty distinct opposites, but many times the differences between success and failure aren’t as obvious as we may think them to be. Sometimes a failure can be turned into a success if you are willing to look back at them, and are open to learning from them. Many times, one’s attitude toward a failure can determine whether or not anything is learned from it. Those who remain upbeat and positive after a failure may be able to get something out of it, but those who just don’t think about it and ignore it won’t get anything from it.
The second year of the competition, I was only one of two returning students. I took an active role in recruiting new students, and our membership doubled. It was a complete role reversal for me because all of a sudden I was the experienced team member. We finished fifth out of forty teams at the regional competition, and at the national tournament, we placed in the top third.
Firstly, a swim team is practically a built in family, because everyone grows closer throughout the season. Everyone is very supportive of each other at meets, practices, and even just around the pool. Many of my best friends were made over the summer, and we have kept in touch throughout the entire year. One of the reasons why so many
Being on this team transformed me from a shy freshman to someone strong, both physically and on the inside. I learned that failure is how we learn to get back up after literally being pushed to the ground. That while making mistakes is inevitable, the challenge comes with learning from them.
Lungs burning, muscles screaming out in pain, the symphony of cheers reduced to a mere whisper, the rush of water like a typhoon in your ears. The body in the lane next to you, the moment they become your sister or brother, the moment they become your worst enemy. The hundredths of a second ticking by as if they are trying to race you; they will seal your fate. An entire world reduced to nothing but a black line, the path to success, the road to the all important goal: getting a P.R. “I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time,” Michael Phelps, an Olympic gold medalist, once stated. This is the life of a swimmer. We train hard to swim hard, and we swim hard for ourselves and ourselves alone. We push past our own limits to reach out to our dreams, and then we push harder to grasp them.
When I was in high school, I achieved the Most Valuable Swimmer award two different years. The two years I received this award was my first year on the swim team and my last year on the swim team. This achievement is important to me because it was the only thing I have done besides academics that showed me that if I worked hard and was dedicated there would be something to show for it. I have always been so focused on school, but swim allowed me to go outside of my comfort zone and talk to people. What pushed me the most was that swim is both an individual and team sport and I loved both aspects of it. I am able to work well alone and in a group and that is really what helped me to achieve this award. The first year I got this award it gave
But I had more confidence as an upperclassman and felt more like I was part of the team and enjoyed the school spirit and my hockey team’s traditions. I was better prepared for the style of play and daily practices and when it was my time to finally be in the net I made the best of it and we finished the season with a strong push and looked forward to a great senior state
In any sport, whether it’s football or softball or tennis, failure is bound to happen. Every athlete, at some point in his or her career, will deal with defeat. Although no one, especially competitors, enjoy failure, it is an essential to reaching success. I recently faced defeat on the softball field that still haunts me to this day, but the lessons I learned and the development in my character made the experience worth it.
I view these as opportunities to guide others around me into becoming better at whatever they pursue. Whether they are struggling with their lacrosse skills, schoolwork, or anything else at all, I do anything in my power to assist them. This became a major part of my character that developed through this experience, which includes being able to work as a team. Looking forward to starting college, I know I will be able to use the skills I developed throughout this process to face hardships like schoolwork or interacting socially to make new
I had never really been a part of a team that had a chance to win something, but the potential was always there. I finally got my chance to be a part of such a team my sophomore year of track. Mr. Jones, the head track coach, had decided to experiment with some different races to gain more team points. Since the girls' team lacked a medley relay, he placed Cindy, Kim, Susan and I in those spots. Cindy would run the 400, Kim would run the 200, and Susan and I would start the race off by each running the 100. We all had worked viciously to earn those spots by running off against our teammates.
Swimming has been my whole life, since I jumped into the pool for the very first time. I loved every aspect of swimming from the adrenaline running through my body during my races and getting to spend even more time with my friends and my sister, and the stress of big meets coming up in the schedule. Except everything didn't go according to plan after the first day of school when I got home and I saw my parents sitting by my sister on the coach and my sister was crying.
Finish, Finish, Go, and Go you just set the new world record. Every four years lots of people gather around a pool cheering for Olympians. It is a very noisy place. A lot of Olympians that are part of the summer Olympics are very athletic, they swim all year around. The swimming Olympic history and background is very interesting. They have done so many new things over that past couple of years. They come out with new rules every year to make things more fair and challenging. There are a lot of events and tons of records that have been broke. A lot of Olympians have set future goals to stride for. I was swimming the 200 meter fly I was at a really good time when I had 50 meter sprint left at the end all I could think about was I’m going to set the new world record. Olympic swimming is a very fun sport it is very athletic. Every year in the summer time every one always sits around a TV watching this it is very famous in America. Swimmers from all around the world come and here and compete. There is a lot of competition there I have found out a lot about the history of swimming. There are a lot of events and tons of records that have been broke. A lot of Olympians have set future goals to stride for.
Joining the team was one of the best decisions I ever made. They are my second family. I went from being a small girl that was unable to do one proper push-up to becoming the leading female paddler. I was appointed Captain of the women's boat in Nationals, despite being from a different school.