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

All the time and hard work spent had to pay off for something. I was also determined to beat my biggest rival on the team. She wouldn't hesitate to smear my face in it if she got a faster time than me. We stepped up to the 200 meter starting line and I tried to push the nervous thoughts out of my head. It felt like butterflies were bouncing off the walls of my stomach. We got into the start position and our coach began counting down from 5. It was only 5 seconds but it felt like an eternity. The four of us took off in unison and I could tell I was going to have to give this race everything I had. There was no way I was going to let the others defeat me. I heard the pounding of my feet against the track as I ran the curve. That's when I realized I was already in front of the rest and I began sprinting with every ounce of energy I had left. There were nearly 100 meters to the finish line and my legs were moving so fast it felt as if I was flying. I kept thinking about how much I had been working towards this and how I would not let myself down. Bolting through the finish line I could tell that was one of the best races I've ever run. My lungs felt heavy, legs aching from exhaustion and my eyes were watering from the frigid wind. As my coach was recording my time on his clipboard he revealed how many seconds faster I had been. Not only had I beaten my own personal best, but I had gotten the fastest sub varsity time.

I have been swimming since I was six years old. I have gone to practice after practice after practice for the past eleven years. At first, I was on the club team. Then, in 7th grade I could try out for the Oxford High School team and I made it. I loved high school season the most. I loved swimming with the older kids and I loved the feeling of being on a team. Then, with what seemed like a blink of the eye, I was the older kid. I was entering my second to last season and my junior year of high school. I was the captain and the younger kids looked up to me.

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

In 2015 at the OSSAA swimming regionals meet, I went into it not thinking I had any chance at making it to the state level of competition. Once I had swam and placed very well I thought that there was actually a chance in me making it to the next level, which was something I had never seriously considered happening before then. I went all weekend without knowing if I had made it and then Sunday afternoon I found out that I had barely missed making it. This sparked something in me that motivated me to do everything I could to make it the next year, like it was a challenge to myself to make it that very next year. Throughout that next year lots of things changed in my daily life. I started giving all of my effort at every practice. Over the summer

For the majority of those seconds, I have reflected upon my choices. However, there is one choice that has greatly influenced my life- the choice to swim. At the age of three, my instructor dunked me underwater after I refused to swim. The suffocating experience of not having control over my own body traumatized me. I became so afraid of the water that I refused to swim for a year. Seven years later, I decided to overcome my fear by joining the swim team and I have been swimming ever since. Every time I get on the block to race, my anxiety comes back and I am paralyzed with fear. I have to rely on the strength of my teammates get in the water and swim, not just for the team, but for myself. Words cannot even describe how accomplished I feel when I touch the wall at the end of a race. This determination to face my fears has carried through to other aspects of my life; swimming has brought me great friends, a lifeguarding job, and valuable reflection

It was the day I had been waiting for all season; the ultimate test of my swimming career thus far. Sections day one had finally rolled around. I had just finished my brief warm up, and I got ready to rest before my crucial race. I threw on my blue, nylon warm up and wrapped my bulky parka around my body. I nestled on the bench next to my friend Liberty, and we began playing music to pump us up before the race ahead. I sat lingering patiently in the yellowy-lit University of Minnesota-Morris pool area as the musty smell of chlorine filled the air. I leaned back and shut my eyes to visualize my upcoming race and let the music pacify me. I was frigid as I sat anticipating the race.

It shattered the image I had of myself as a winner who preserves through the toughest of the tough. I wanted to rejoin; however, shame stopped me cold in my tracks. Swimming freshmen year was over and I knew it. Sophomore year came and went, I chose again not to swim. Junior year was no different. Finally Senior year was upon me and I had to choose. Would I let quitting swim define me as a person for the rest of my life? Or take the last opportunity I have to redeem myself as the person I knew I was. I chose self redemption. Finally accomplishing what I began three years ago, I had a successful and exhilarating final season. Seeing my potential of being a great swimmer, my coach told me one of the hardest things I had to hear; “Imagine what you could have accomplished if you didn’t quit freshmen year”. I was amazed my coach thought so highly of my ability to swim, yet I couldn’t help pondering the swimmer I could have been if I stayed committed to swim. Acting rashly without any thought of the future crippled my potential. With every decisions I face now, I reminisce back to swim for this single experience has taught me to always consider the consequences of my actions and stay true to who I

Im standing in line waiting my turn to race. I am at the university of tennessee about to race the 200M freestyle against 50 of the top kids in the entire southeast. I'm nervous but excited I am prepared but worried and I am thinking of everything that could go wrong but I keep my focus. I have to it's too late to go back now. Finally it's my turn I step up on the block and I get ready, the siren sounds I jump of the block into the water I try to remember everything my coach taught me in practice everything that got me to this point. I make the first turn I am in the middle of the pack making sure to pace myself turn 2 into turn 3 I am now headed down the home stretch putting everything I have into this last stretch and it pays off 3rd place and 20th place out of 50.

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

“For these first few practices, we’re just going to work on your swimming” the coach told us. I braced myself; swimming was not what I wanted to sign up for. Still, I had come this far, I had to at least give it a try; I jumped in the water with the rest of the team. We started doing sets. It soon became clear that I was, by far, the slowest person there; on each set the rest of the team had to wait for me to finish. What they saw as an easy 50 meters, I found extremely challenging. Not just physically, but mentally. I kept thinking to myself why am I here, I’m not good enough, I’m just humiliating myself. With all these thoughts running through my head, I began to quietly cry as I swam.

After the meet started I was shaking so hard thinking about my races, I stood behind the blocks ready to race many races before my own, when it was finally my turn to swim my first race I couldn’t even feel the water

In September 2012 I was registered for my first swim meet. I was apprehensive and felt totally unprepared. I had learnt all the strokes, but had not gained proficiency in any of them. The meet was a complete disaster, and I ended up coming in last. The second swim meet was no better. I thought that over time my improvement would speak for itself, but I was wrong. After a few meets, I was still ranked below division C, and no where close to making it into A division. Although I trained harder and improved in each meet, it was not enough to reach my goal. After another failed meet, my father had a chat with me. In this conversation my father explained to me “Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later

Since the team consisted of only a few people that actually showed up at the original practice area, self-motivation played a huge role in the individual’s progress. On the first day of practice, I found myself lapsing in the waves, unable to propel my body forward. As time flew by, I saw the constant pattern of the swimmers who swam with clubs were more competitive and faster than those who swam with the JP2 team. Humiliated I strived to reach sectionals. I wanted to stop feeling juxtaposed as a lower class. By watching YouTube videos on technique and swim physics, I began enforcing what I learned into practice. I could not believe how smoothly I could make it to the other side of the pool. The day I had a swim meet, my repeated mantra was, “I can do all things with God who strengthens me”. Accordingly, God does help those that help themselves because that day, I achieved not only one sectional time but

“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,