How The Sport Of Athletics Changed My Life

When I was five years old, I joined the Carroll Aquatic Swim Team. I stuck with it because I loved being underwater, feeling the refreshing water all over and the sensation of touching the wall, finishing first hearing the people holler. When I got older I just didn’t have much care for it. So, I decided that I wanted to give up. Then, my mom told me that I should finish the season than I could determine, nevertheless, I did as I was told. At my last meet, my mom signed me up to swim the IM which is when you swim all four strokes. I was convinced that I couldn’t do it because I had never done it before. I told my mom that I couldn’t and I would fail, but my friend convinced me that I should do it. She told me that I would only disappoint people if I gave up; consequently, I swam and received first place. In conclusion, I ended up feeling the same exciting feeling as when I was five.

Sports have been a huge part of my life ever since I was about five years old. It has impacted my life so much. The biggest challenge that I faced was with my injuries during basketball and soccer season. I recently had to quit soccer and basketball, which was difficult for me.

Lush, green grass began to massage my bare feet. Sunshine beamed off the clean, white goal posts. With my cleats in my hands, ball in my bag, and my freshly washed shirt, only one thing came to mind: soccer. The sport I love and have devoted the past three years was evolving. Many of my friends were shifting from recreational to club soccer. After three years of recreational soccer, I decided to take my game to the next level and tryout for club soccer. Eager to showcase my skills, I stood on the field bearing confidence. Before tryouts began, my thoughts solely consisted of playing club soccer with my friends. I thought little about tryout preparation, because I didn’t know what to expect. No one gave me information about how to perform well

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.

During the spring of 2015, I missed all of the time cuts to make Speedo Sectionals, forcing me to compete in a much slower meet at the end of the season. There are few things I have experienced that are more crushing than trying my hardest and falling short of my goal. Despite the heavy disappointment, I used the opportunity to harden my resolve and use my strengths to my greatest advantage. Along with my coach’s help, I used my ability to think strategically and hone my technique through focus on the smallest details from how I would approach a swim mentally to how I would warm up. My coach had many important and useful suggestions and lessons from his past experience that required me to be an active learner that could apply his information.

I would say one way that athletics has affected me is learning the importance of hard work and determination. It's taught me that no matter what situation you're in that if you work hard enough you can achieve your goals both on and off the field. Before when something was hard I would either try to find the easy way out or simply give up. Even though that might work temporarily, I've learned through many years of playing sports that powering through and getting the job done, no matter how difficult it may be, is always more rewarding and better than giving up.

Standing behind the starting block, I began to turn my head in both directions, eying out my competition. Standing behind lane four, I began to see who was seeded ahead of me. Seeing Her I began to shake girl standing behind lane three was Maya, my friend and the fastest swimmer on our team. Every chance I got to race her, I always messed up, one way or another.

The journey of competitive swimming started at the age of eight for my local `neighborhood team. I exhibited great potential for the future, for I won nearly all my races. This seemed like the sport

The year was 2010. I was on my way to my first swim meet. I had no idea what to expect. I was both anxious and nervous. These feelings tripled as my team arrived and began to warm up. Looking around at the other teams I could not help but get the sense that I did not belong. All the other swimmers had well-defined muscles and little body fat while I had well-defined body fat and little muscle definition. None of the other competitors took me seriously as I took my mark for the race. I did not take myself seriously. However, once the event was over, I had finished 2nd out of 23 competitors in my event. This experience is an example of how judgment based on body alone can be misleading. From the moment we are born we are judged by others, and

Central Idea: Swimming has a long and rich history that dates back way before our generations and is not always as beneficial as we may think.

I never liked playing with dolls, painting nails, pretending I was a teacher or even acting like I was baking with fake food. All that girly stuff sounded boring to me, so the one thing that kept me busy everyday was going outside and playing whatever sport was on for that day with all my neighborhood friends. We played everything from kickball to football in the streets. Ever since I was a little child, playing sports was my passion. In my free time I played every sport you can think of, but sports that I actually was on a team for was baseball, hockey, soccer, and I ran track. Being an athlete is how people knew me, I guess you could say I was and still am a tomboy. Being involved in a sport ever since I was four years old, has really taught me a lot about not just playing the sports itself, but at life as a whole. Being apart of a team, can teach someone many skills, and life lessons. Because there are uncountable reasons why one should be involved in a sport, the main skills, and lessons include learning how to work together, and developing communication, and organizing skills. Additionally, one could develop a good work ethic, and learn how to control body language/temper.

When my parents first took me to the pool, I played in the water like any other kid would with my floaties and pool noodles. I knew my parents were big on sports, but was always unsure on which they would settle me in. For awhile, I was set on golf since my dad started taking me out to golf courses and arranging golf lessons with one of his colleagues; golf was what interested him. Little did I know, my parents had different plans for me. They changed their minds and I was introduced to a swim coach after school one afternoon. I was able to start that same day, so I did, and that shortly became the one thing in my life that stayed constant ever since. Along with being a swimmer, I was also a ballerina and a pianist. I became a dancer first, then quickly switched over to play the piano since I was more interested in learning to play an instrument. I tried out

I started swimming when I was about three years old at the local park district. At one of my lessons, I argued with the instructor and refused to go underwater. My instructor became so frustrated and impatient with me that she forcibly dunked me underwater, unexpectedly. I can still remember the fear associated with being dunked; that same fear has influenced my choices in so many ways that people cannot understand. I refused to go in a pool for three years after that day and my argumentative nature left as well. Then, in fourth grade, my fear subsided at one of my friend’s practices. I remember watching the water glisten and knew that I was meant to swim, so I did. I promptly went home, shocked my parents by joining the swim team, and I have been swimming ever since, but it has not been easy. I swim in spite of fear…until an inexplicable feeling of panic that rushes over me and I become three again. Anxiety has prevented me from racing, even this year, and my

“What is the definition of failure?” I always thought the failure was my destiny, but I never tried to define it from another standpoint. With a deep consideration, I utilized the failure from the first competition to motivate myself to continue my swimming career. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, so I devoted to swimming every day ever since. I strived to reach beyond my limit with strict practices, such as 100 yards freestyle sprint, 200 yards freestyle, 500 yards freestyle. The pain of my exhausted body after the practices didn’t stop me, and it rather encouraged me to continue to break my limit and overcome the fear I still had. Moving forward, my feeling of fear disappeared as I became more skillful and confident. Through swimming,

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