High School Swimming Personal Statement

The school day ends, and while most students go home, swimmers still have one final practice to complete before heading home. In the time before practice starts, those who are participating in conference take a look at the psych sheet with all their times and competitors’ times with mixed emotions.

I woke up nauseous, too sick to eat. The whole drive there I was praying it would be cancelled. The fear consumed me; I couldn’t move. I just wanted to be home in my warm, comfy bed, instead I was diving into an ice cold pool. After warm-up my coach gave me a pep talk, but I was too nervous to listen. Sometimes I got so nervous I’d throw up, right before my event. To this day I still don’t understand why I got so anxious at swim meets. For the past several years, I have had a love hate relationship with swimming. I always struggled with swimming, and many times I wanted to quit. The time commitment and the physical requirements have always been a little too much for my mind to handle and it all comes to a crescendo when it is time to compete. I often wondered why I continued to put

Being tall, lanky, and uncoordinated (and therefore not particularly good at traditional sports), I was signed up for the Wallingford YMCA Dolphin swim team when I was 10 years old. I certainly wasn’t a Michael Phelps, but I definitely found more success in swimming than baseball, soccer, or basketball, so I stuck with it. During the next few years, I continued to improve my technique in all four strokes, and other intricate parts of swimming including starts (dives), turns, and finishes. I eventually became a pretty good swimmer, but retired from my swimming career after 8th grade because it was not offered at our high school. In all honesty, I did not completely miss it because I ran cross country in the fall, and track in the winter and

A large number of swimmers don’t like it, whether that be because of the sheer difficulty, or because swimming makes them anxious, or because they’ve simply been swimming for so long that they are no longer entertained. The last option is the one that seems to hold true for most club swimmers who no longer find joy in the sport, the ones who have been doing it for five, eight, even eleven years. Those are the people who are simply tired of it. I, on the other hand, love swimming and the feeling of gliding though the water. People will tell you that no one, in any sport, really enjoys practices, but I can honestly tell you that I do. For at least the last five months I have looked forward to swim practice everyday. If nothing else, I know that I have an outlet for my anger, frustration, or any other emotion that I may have. At best, I know that I have a group of friends who are all working to achieve the same goal as I am and that I can always lean on them for support and they can always lean on me, if need be. The feeling of swimming a good race is one of the best feelings in the world. When you can tell that you're just flying through the water and you have everyone’s attention and you know that you're better than you were the last time you raced, better than you were yesterday. I guess maybe that’s the thing I like about practice, that everyday I’m

Stop, right now, think of the last time you went swimming, think of how many times you've gone swimming, how high is that number? It's engraved into our lives, not only is it a fun way to relax, but swimming is a survival skill needed for many species to use in their lives. Swimming is part of nature, almost every living species has a natural instinct of how to swim right from birth, but humans don't, why do you think that is? Over the years, swimming from a competition stand-point has advanced and changed along with technology. My goal is to learn about: the regulations of competition swimming (rules and strokes), the technological advances that are pushing athletes to go beyond old records, and what is happening with swimming in your neighborhood.

During my collegiate years of school, I want to make them my personal growth period. My academic plan includes an architecture major that will allow me to become a suitable urban planner/architect. In the pool, I will be a dynamic swimmer, as well as a positive and encouraging teammate. As I constantly grow physically and mentally through my college swimming career, I will become well diverse in freestyle events from the 50 to the 1650. Being a college athlete, I know the responsibility and commitment in which is expected of me. I will pursue to honor myself, teammates, coaches, and the school I attend, both on and off the

As the sting of chlorine filled my nostrils, the weeks of training, exercise, and scheduled pasta dinners flashed before me. Emerging from the pool, the red numbers revealed on the scoreboard cast a burning disappointment onto me more than the hot sun did that summer day. I retraced my actions just before my 100-yard race, asking myself where I went wrong. I realized only after the meet, that I lost focus of the thrill of being part of a team. Instead of motivating and connecting with my teammates, I was only concerned with my own goals. Being a part of this team has helped me to grow as an individual both athletically and academically. Athletically, I assumed swimming was largely an individual sport, but now, especially as varsity swim team captain, I make an effort to cheer for and console teammates who are preparing or nervous for their races.

My life was changed this summer after my winter swim team received unexpected news. We were told that we would no longer be able to practice at the same pool as before, leaving all of the swimmers without a place to practice. Unfortunately, this meant that my team, the Tiger Sharks, would no longer exist. I was devastated and now forced to bring myself upon a new team with unfamiliar faces. On my new team the head coach, Coach Bill, was able to assist me in making this transition easier and he was also exceptionally inviting to me and the other new swimmers. His unique training allowed me to immensely improve my swimming.

During the swim season of my sophomore year I was at the peak of my swimming career. I was swimming great times and had a very successful season. Prior to the regional swim meet I was qualified and all I had to do was swim my qualifying times to advance to the 1A/2A state swim meet. Exactly one week before the regional meet I broke my foot in two places. I was heartbroken because for a swimmer this is what you train for all year long. I felt like all my hard work and hours in the pool were for nothing. I immediately began physical therapy and told my parents I wanted to try and swim the following Saturday at regionals. My foot was not in a cast, but in a boot. My physical therapist even told me there was no way I would be able to swim at regionals.

My parents tell me that I took to swimming like... a fish takes to water. It is a safe place where I can float free of worries. Driven by passion and dedication, I decided to begin swimming competitively. Competitive swimming requires an intense level of determination and discipline. Forcing myself to get out of my warm bed at 5:30 in the morning to put on a still-slightly-damp swimsuit and stand in 40-degree weather waiting for practice to start. Putting up with limited lane space and irritating swimmers who think they are faster. Making a conscious effort to work on my stroke form, turns, touches, and techniques. The water becomes a whirlpool of injuries, losses, wins, friendships, enemies, and sickness. The water becomes home.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Hearing the whistle, I immediately dove into the water. It was just a typical afternoon swim practice and the regional swim meet was almost here. We’ve been training and practicing all season for this event. Every afternoon after school we would go to the YMCA pool to practice. I’ve been working on long distance swimming, such as the freestyle 200 and 500. The night before the regional swim meet arrived, and I happened to get sick. I felt weak, stiff, and exhausted. There was no way I could do well in any event that was going to occur the next day. I took some medicine and had some tea to try and feel better. Nothing really helped. All there was to do was hope. The next day arrived… feeling sick

By this time I had started to go through puberty and became taller which enabled me to swim faster. The morning group was full of dedicated swimmers who were crazy enough to get up every morning to go jump into a pool and practice. Of course I was no different, but during April of that season I had started to lose my motivation. I began to skip practices and gave my parents excuses, which then they told me to take it easy. After two months of periodic practices, I realized that swimming was an activity that I wanted to do and that I loved, and I decided that I would not allow myself to quit, no matter how hard it became. When the new season started, I started to push myself, trying to keep up to the faster swimmers. I became close with my team mates as people who go through pain together get closer. We started to have more fun together from going out, to having funny conversations in the locker rooms. I also began to do travel meets where we would spend a few days together, eating, sleeping, and swimming. I spent more time out of the pool with my friends and even became romantically involved with one. Now, swimming has become one of the most important things to me, it has been the activity that has the most influence on my life. From my work ethic, sleeping habits, to my choice of friends, all of them are tied to

I have been swimming since I was very little. But, I didn’t start competitive swim until I was 10 years old. When I first started swimming, I was one of the worst swimmers on the team. Many of the swimmers that were younger than me were much better than I. But I kept trying hard and now I have become much better. It was hard and challenging, but the results are very rewarding.

For me, self-motivation is empowering. Finding something that I enjoy and love to do and setting the final goal of achieving it. My main goal that I have set right now is to work towards finishing my degree. My motivation behind this is to be able to get a better job and

When I was sitting in the car on my way from swim practice I told my mom “ It would be great to go to the Olympic Trials in three years, it's a goal to go there.” My mom tried correcting me and said “ you mean it's a dream. “ I told her “No, I mean it’s a goal.” My goals that are set now were originally dreams to me.