State Swim Analysis

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

This moment was what we had worked for our entire swimming careers. It was exhilarating. It felt like we were on top of the world. I felt as though everything below me was moving in slow motion but, I didn't mind because I wanted this feeling to last forever. I had the medal around my neck and I was smiling with pure joy.

Swimming has been a part of my life since I was six years old, and it has only become a bigger part of my life as I got older. Interestingly enough, I hated swimming during the first couple years and if it wasn’t for my parents forcing me to stick with it, I would have quit. But, I started to grow an appreciation for the sport as I made some of my best friends through my team and having a lot of fun competing in meets. Today, I have made my best friends through swimming and have had some of my greatest memories through competitions such as the state meet my senior year when my team won the state meet. My team got a National record and numerous state records and it was one of the greatest moment of my life and is a big reason why I decided to continue my swim career in college. During my recruiting trip to Miami, I knew almost instantly that it was the place for me. The swim team was very close-knit and I knew it was an environment where I could continue to make some of my closest friends. The coaches and facilities proved to me that this was a team that was

I was trying to get to sectionals and that was a big goal. After setting my goals, I had to prepare to practice to get to sectionals. Everyday Carolina Aquatic Team has practice, so I had to go every day if I wanted to achieve my goal. Carolina Aquatic Team is the team I swim for it is in Durham, N.C. Some days I got tired of it and did not want to go. I thought about what I had done for this, and realized I should keep pushing. During the months prior to the swim meet, I kept working hard even with keeping up my grades in school. . There were eight meets during the season and I came closer to the Sectional cuts every meet. While some meets would go better than others, I knew I would get the time I was trying for if I kept trying. After a while I finally got the times I was hoping for, and I qualified for nine events. By March, I was ready for Sectionals and all the fast swimmers

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

Swimming has always been a great part of my life it takes hard work and determinations to get the results one hopes for. Many athletes don’t see swimming as work hard sport but I beg to differ. It takes so much energy, time, sweat and tears to get that first place spot. When there is a meet coming up I always talk to my coach beforehand and find out which events and strokes I should start preparing for. I never get nervous about meets until this one particularly, Alief Elsik High School vs. Cy Fair where I was up to swim butterfly on the 200-medley relay. Butterfly is one of my strongest strokes, but I always felt completely drained after one lap; I was determined to build my endurance.

On Thursday I would swim the 100-meter freestyle but the days leading up to then I would be swimming other races. When the day finally came for 100 I was ready, I was so sure I would get the record this time. I stand behind my lane once again. I put my goggles on as the referee blows the whistle and I step up on the block. "Take your mark" I go down and block out everything but the pool in front of me and wait for the buzzer. The buzzer goes off and I dive in, not too deep this time, I kick up to the surface and spin my arms as fast as I could. 50-meter mark I flip and push off the wall as hard as I can. 15 meters left I put my head down and use the last bit of energy I have and reach for the wall. I take my goggles off and look up at the scoreboard, and to my disappointment, I missed the record again, in fact, I didn't even go my personal best and that made me even more

The new coach was so great and I had confidence that I would meet my goals for the year. When February finally rolled around and it was time for regionals I was carefully optimistic about what would come from it. The competition was tougher than the year before, but then again, so was I, so I went out and gave it my all to try and accomplish my goals. After the meet the results were quicker this time. My family had taken me out to eat dinner after the meet and while we were at dinner my brother was at home waiting for the results. About halfway through dinner we got a call and it was my brother with the results of regionals. He called with the best news he could’ve possibly told me, I was going to state! At state that year the rest of my goals were met as well. I dropped under a minute in my 100 freestyle and my relay team broke a school record. This challenge caused me to learn that if you want something you should just go out and make it happen because it’s not going to happen if you just sit around and wait for it and that you can push yourself past what you think your personal limits are because they are much higher than what you think they

When I was a freshman in high school, one of my good friends asked me if I would like to join the high school swim team. At the time, I was naive and did not do my research to see if I was physically or mentally capable of being on a semi-professional swim team. On the first day of practice, the coach barked at us to get in the water. I was unknowingly launched into 60 degrees and told to swim a “500”. Of course I did not know how to swim a “500”, nor did I know what a “500” was. I barely knew how to swim recreationally without doggy-paddling. I tried to follow the juniors and seniors in front of me. They appeared to be doing the “crawl” or as my coach called it “freestyle”. The hardest part about the way I was swimming was that water got

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.

“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,

I was entered in four varsity races:200 medley relay, 200 IM, 100 butterfly, and the 400 medley relay. I hadn’t been doing my best so when it came time for my butterfly, I was extremely nervous. My teammates had been giving me advice and telling me to “Just do your best”. By the time I got up on the block I thought I was going to pee myself. When

I was trying to get to sectionals and that was a big goal. After setting my goals I had to prepare to practice to get to sectionals. Everyday my team Carolina Aquatic Team has practice, so I had to go every day if I wanted to achieve my goal. Somedays I got tired of it and did not want to go. But then I thought about what I had done this for and kept pushing. During the months leading up to this swim meet I kept trying even with school and keeping good grades. There were 8 meets during the season and I came closer to the Sectional cuts every meet. While some meets would go better than others I knew I would get the times if I kept trying. After some time I finally got my Sectional cuts, and I got nine of them. By March, I was ready for Sectionals and all the fast swimmers to come.

Growing up, my dad always used to brag that my sister and I started learning how to swim the moment we were out of our diapers. Being a former swimming champion, he considered swimming to be just as important as breathing. Since our house was just an hour away from the beach, he would take us there every Saturday and personally teach us the different strokes. In grade school, I joined the swim team and participated in several meets. Midway through high school, I had to give it up because I was having trouble balancing training, academics and my other extra-curricular activities. But I still set goals for myself and went to the school pool every morning to swim laps for at least thirty minutes—a practice that

I was ten when I first entered into a major Swimming competition, a stepping-stone towards achieving my dreams. Hours were poured into training and sacrifices made simply for a perfect race to the podium. I had arrived 3 hours earlier, and to my dismay that the competition had been delayed. My parents hid their apparent annoyance, in hope that the long wait would prove its worth, yet only to find out it actually was not. The long wait took its toil on me and panic overcame me at the starting blocks. In a field of 8 swimmers, the number ‘8’ flashed brightly against my name, glistening tears welled up in my eyes as failure washed over me.