My heart pounds in my chest as my sweaty hands tighten my goggles. The swimmer in the water, a muscular freestyler, just finished her race. That’s when I realize it’s time. Hang on, rewind to about 6 months ago. The beginning of my winter season was a mess. My team's head coach, an Olympic trial qualifier, retired at the end of the summer season. He left us with a feeble replacement. Our old coach, Steve, had high expectations for all of his swimmers. He helped us swim faster by teaching us self-motivation and how to push ourselves. When his replacement, Joel, showed up on deck, we were terrified. Not that we were scared of him, but we started to fear the future of our swimming careers. I was seconds away from the national qualifying time, …show more content…
Not to train hard and become better than everybody else. Not to push yourself to the limit. Not to worry about who is going to beat you by how many seconds. Not to meet everyone else’s expectations. Not to win. The point of swimming is to have fun and race. Several times that season I had been so stressed I forgot to race. I tried to pace myself and compare myself to the other swimmers and how they were doing. How all the girls from other teams were improving so much more than me. So I whispered to myself right then and there “I got this. I’ve swum this race hundreds of times. I’ve practiced for this everyday for the past 6 months, there’s no reason to be stressed. I am going to swim and I am going to race. But above all, I am going to have fun.” I stood behind the block, my heart pounding in my chest, waiting. The straps of my suit pressed down on my shoulders with the weight of a mountain. What seemed like eternities later, the starter called my event. The first 150 was a supersonic blur. On the last 50 yards, fatigue started to set in. I flipped into my last turn and held my streamline tight while doing my dolphin kicks. I came up, took my final breath, and used everything I had left in the tank. My hand slammed into the wall as I looked up. 1:55.82 was written across the board in bright red. I crawled out of the pool as my teammates sprinted over to me. Tears started running down my red cheeks as I realized what I had just accomplished. I made
The morning has came it’s race day your heart is pumping you are ready for the announcer to say 10 seconds!!!!!You are talking to your friends before the race and the
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
The first practice was at 5 a.m. and the night before I couldn't sleep. My mind would keep wondering what would happen, was I supposed to be wearing my bathing suit, what were my teammates going to be like. When it came time to go to practice I was shaking the whole way. Soon after I learned that my fears should have not been focused on such silly things now. If anything swim really helped me face them head on. With so much change going with swim I got used to this fear. My family and friends were also a great succor. Even though they probably didn't know that it was helping me. I'm very grateful to my father supporting anything I wanted to
The pain of small icicles slicing my exposed chin at such high speeds goes easily unnoticed due to the mass production of adrenaline in my body. I recall the first time I felt the satisfaction of pushing my abilities to the limit. It began on an extremely cold and cloudy Saturday afternoon. I experienced a rush of joy as a result of racing through the thick trees, dodging branches and vaulting rocks, relying on just two skinny pieces of wood. Nothing gives more of a thrill than this. Poet Rudolf Caracciola cleverly explains the need for speed in this short
Regarding to my pompous ambition, I have to admit that physical condition was really something I was short of. The lifeguard team requires candidates to swim four-hundred meters under seven minutes, but I needed ten. Sitting in the classroom and solving math problems equips me with a sharp brain, but not a physical body. However, I decided to give a try, so I wrote down “swimming training” on the top of every page in my diary.
The next day, our coaches handed out our medals from last night’s meet and i was nervous to see how many medals I got. “Ashlyn, you got 2nd in the 4x100 m relay, 2nd in the 400m dash and 1st in the 4x400 m relay”, cheered my coaches. Excitement, accomplishment, achievement came roaring through my body like a river with rapids. Everyone was clapping and cheering, which made me feel delighted and buoyant in myself.
Stepping into February 2010, I was eight-years-old, standing behind lane one of a dimly lit, five lane pool. This race, the 100-yard butterfly, was my final chance to qualify for the Maryland State Championships. For an eight-year-old swimmer, this was a massive achievement. Breathing in the stench of chlorine, I heard the whistle and hopped on the blocks. I wore the biggest, craziest pink goggles and tightened them as I gazed at fourteen-year-olds in lanes beside me. Even though they were feet taller than me, I wasn't intimidated. I knew I would swim well.
I dip my toes in—feels cold. My nerves rise up and spread like fire throughout my body while I watch—while I wait. Stomach hurts. All those butterflies clash and crowd. They come every time that I race—it never fails. There is so much noise—the splash of water, talking, yelling, whistling, cheering.
One’s level of self efficacy plays a major role in how one approaches challenges, obstacles, and difficulties. This cognitive self evaluation affects all aspects of human experience, whether it’s the goals for which one strives for, or the level of energy expended in trying to achieve that goal. When I was younger I used to be a part of a swim team. Towards the beginning of my swim career, I would always race my friends and fall behind. I wanted to be faster, but I just wasn’t seeing results. I lost total confidence in myself and it showed in my swimming ability. My coach one day after practice pulled me aside and we spoke about my inability to get faster. He said that he saw lots of potential in me and that I had to be patient with myself in order to get better at the sport. He told me that the only thing holding me back from achieving my goals in swimming is me. I took his words and turned them into motivation. I dedicated myself to working harder at practice and doing everything possible to be physically at my best. Sure enough after a couple months, and a minor growth spurt, I began seeing huge results. His words have always stuck with me throughout my entire swim and school career. They’re a reminder that I am capable of achieving anything I put my mind to and that the only thing that can hinder my ability to succeed in life, is
Tiptoeing on the grimy, yellow-tiled pool deck with my caps goggles in hand, I felt a little uneasy with the new swimmers who just tried out and made the team. Standing in the corner with her arms crossed, there was this one new girl, Ann, who had the meanest look on her face. For nearly two years, I made sure to jump into a different lane than her every practice. Every swim meet she would walk around with the older girls and I did not dare to make eye contact with her. Our swim coach basically forced us into the same lane when we began to train for the same race. She was the only other girl in that lane so I had no other choice but to talk to her. One day she asked me if I had seen this funny video on Youtube and to my surprise, our conversation
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.
I was performing my dives with great ease and precision, earning high scores in the process. And when the time came for my new dive, I froze. You’re going to mess this up somehow, I said to myself. I shakily climbed up the steps to the diving board, listening to the announcer proclaim for all to hear my name and dive. The natatorium fell silent, and I felt all eyes on me as a began to move the fulcrum on the board and take my starting stance.
As my tense muscles spring into action, the race starts with hordes of people crowded around cheering. But you don’t notice all the people as you start a race, when you start a race all you can think is……. “This is gonna suck”. And why wouldn’t it? Most people when they start a race, that’s what goes through their head along with how much they wish they weren't doing this.
The day of the training started with a slight chill in the air as most spring mornings. The weather made me even more eager to start, but unfortunately it also made the water a little too cold for comfort. I decided to skip breakfast and have a protein drink instead, believing this would keep me from getting stomach cramps and also supply me with some energy. Leaving my house that morning I could think of nothing but becoming a lifeguard.
To start off, I didn’t always have a fear of swimming, it wasn’t until I was 5 years old when it started. My family and I were at the neighborhood community pool, people with their friends or family in the pool with the water glistening due to the reflection of the sun. We were standing by the pool, when my older brother decided that it would be humorous to steal my bright