My Experience Of Swimming

The first swim team I joined was a local private pool team, five minutes from my house. After the first week of practice, I was hooked. My first season I made many friends and learned I was not an awful swimmer. The next year I grew bigger and stronger, and became better at the sport. In summer swimming, there are three championship meets, Divisionals, All-stars, and Mid-Caps. As a five year old, in my second year of swimming, I made it to Mid-Caps, in a relay. I did not medal that year, but it taught me that I had to keep working vigorously to achieve my goal. My goal was achieved when I was eight, when I achieved first place in the twenty-five backstroke. As I progressed to higher levels of swimming, including high school, I experienced the true meaning about swimming.

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.

Perfectionism can be defined as an individual’s determination of extremely high standards of performance and behaviour. Hagen (2016) suggests that perfectionism stems from a genetic predisposition combined with environmental factors and an individual’s life experiences.

Athletics had not always been a flauntable aspect of my life as they are now. In grades 1-4, I was uncoordinated and far too lanky to produce and store any muscle. I often ponder about what changed in the fifth grade, for I became very agile and have exercised almost every day since the beginning of that year. I did not pick up the sport of swimming until the seventh grade and I cannot imagine myself not swimming, not only as a source of exercise but as a source of pure pleasure.

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

“Get up now,” My mom yelled down the hallway. “Hurry or you’ll be late!” My brother and I dreaded waking up early to swim, but we had chosen to commit. Even though I’ve competed every year since first grade, I still struggled. That summer swimming taught me to have stamina, the ability to not quit even though it was hard.

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

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

Perfectionism has had a history of being linked to issues such as self-criticism, chronic depression, procrastination, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and much more. Although not

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” I have heard this saying countless times, but I have rarely ever been the “book” that it speaks of. This saying seems so simple, but it has much deeper meanings. I only realized this when I was put in the place of that “book.” People have always labeled me as a “perfectionist,” and although this label is often true, it sometimes causes others to misjudge me. Being labeled as a perfectionist once caused me to give myself the expectation of being perfect. This label and the expectations that came with it caused me to try for perfection, which I learned was impossible in a very important moment in my life.

The piercing blare of the buzzer penetrated deep within their ears, and with a flash of light, the swimmers dove off their blocks. “The first thing that goes through my head when I dive into the water is to keep pushing myself to the best of my ability,” explained senior D.J. Beebe. “Even if I don't come in first place, I’ll know that I tried my hardest,” added Beebe. The swimmers combined their love for the sport, with each of their talents to create a dominating team. These boys not only used tremendous amounts of physical strength, but mental strength as well. “I keep myself mentally focused by counting each length I swim,” described junior Jarod Morse. “Counting the lengths helps me stay calm, and focused on winning.” It is clear this

As it was my first time learning to swim, I was terrified every time I was instructed to perform a stroke. As I attempted to swim across the pool, I would desperately cling onto the lane lines and swim near the pool wall. My early swim career was plagued with failure; I was unable to perform the exit skills required to exit the intermediate level, which I would repeat three times before being able to pass (cmp/cpl). The following summer I was placed into the advanced level, yet again would repeat this level four times until I was unable to proceed levels. Disheartened, I would stopped taking lessons until I decided to swim again during the summer following freshmen year of high school. This time I was placed into pre-team, the highest level for swim lessons. Despite struggling during the first few sessions, I learned with fervor and tremendously improved my swimming, abilities, inspired by my placement into pre-team. Because of this improvement, I was eventually eligible for the club’s swim team. Ever since I have completed pre-team, I continuously swim on my own during my free time.

I felt as if my stomach was jabbed by punches, every time a new swim event went through the list in the meet. My legs were shaking as if an earthquake was arising. I was prepared to be destroyed and laughed at by the opposing team, and given a disgraceful look by my coaches. I always pictured myself as an outsider that didn’t belong on my high school swim team. After all, I was nowhere as good as the majority of the swimmers on my team, as I have only recently picked up the proper swimming techniques.

A weakness I observe in myself is my perfectionist mindset. Although I pride myself on outstanding performance in my endeavors, I can become a bit extreme at times.

Imagine that every day you heavily analyze something insignificant. You spend hours analyzing this thing, but because this thing is insignificant, your efforts are pointless. But, even with this knowledge, you continue your stream of pointless analyzation every single day for as long as you can remember. This is my life and that analyzation stems from my obsession with perfection. Perfection isn’t easily attainable; to make something flawless at every angle requires a lot of time and effort which is why one cannot be perfect at everything. This idea may seem intuitive to most people, but not for me. My mind has completely expelled this principle and, instead, has fostered this ill-minded belief that everything in my life should be perfect, even if it’s something insignificant.