The Curiosity Of Learning New Skills

Knowing and learning things can not only cause people to be more visual and mechanical, but it can cause emotional effects as well. Learning can cause people to feel very good about themselves. Ever feel that positive sense of acing a test or exam? That is the exact same feeling that people have when they know they have learned something new. In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie says, “That makes me feel better. I coud probly do that amazed faster than a reglar mouse.” Charlie is mentally unstable to learn properly, so when he finds out that he does have a chance of learning, he is very excited.

Over the 12-year span of my swimming career, I faithfully trusted my coaches when they told me competitive swimming would take me places. At six-years-old, I dreamed of competing in the Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal, and seeing my face on the cover of a Wheaties box. However, at six-years-old, I never envisioned the mental and physical roller coaster that would define my future in the sport. I would experience numerous mental blocks and physical plateaus; I would sometimes go months and even years without achieving a best time; and I would win very few races, especially for the amount of effort I put into my nine practices each week. In high school, I grew frustrated, I doubted both my coaches and myself, and I contemplated quitting more times than I can count. But I kept swimming, hoping that each stroke and each lap would lead to the success that I sought to achieve. Then in 2014, undoubtedly the most frustrating year of my swimming career, I realized that swimming was so much more than just an extracurricular activity for me. It had become a lifestyle that streamlined me into the person I am today: dedicated, driven, and loyally interdependent.

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.

My story begins on the boy's varsity swim team for Hilton High School. Before beginning the season I had taken a two-year break, so I was quite rusty and out of shape. At the beginning of the season, I had a hard time getting breathing patterns back and making sure my technique was good. I would be negative and tell myself that I could not do it or I would tell myself that I was too fat to be a swimmer and I should just give up. But every day I seemed to walk through the pool doors to begin another day of practice. The first meet of

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

According to Dr. Rita Smilkstein’s research into learning, the Natural Human Learning Process explains how the brain develops when someone learns. The first step is motivation to learn a new skill. People get motivated when something becomes a necessity or seems fun to them. Then the second step is the beginning practice. The beginning practice is when someone uses hands on experience and uses trial and error with the skill they are motivated to learn. The third step, she calls the advanced practice stage. In this stage the learner gains control through repetition and continuing practice learning the skill. The fourth step is skillfulness. The learner becomes more successful due to practice and gets positive reinforcement from their results. The fifth step is the refinement stage. This is when the skill becomes second nature and the person can learn new methods. The sixths and final step is mastery. This is when you can teach your skill you learned to someone else

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

I wouldn’t say much in practice but what I did say seemed to amuse them, to my delight. Over the months, we would form a friendship and a bond that I never would have thought possible. I would be invited to their “group activities”, and eventually I would be swimming in the same lane with them. As my confidence grew, so did my skill. Day by day, it seemed like I was passing more and more swimmers, as well as leading lanes. The time eventually came for the younger children to be moved into the senior group. I hadn’t given it much thought until I heard that my new friends were to be moved up but I was under heavy consideration. I was determined like never before, meet after meet, best time after best time, I treated every swim like my life depended on it. On the last day of the season, the senior roster was posted. At the very bottom of the list I saw the name: Josh Poland. That was over 5 years ago; today I am in the fastest lane of the senior group, captain of the high school team (with 11 consecutive wins under its belt), and I have signed to swim at my dream college. All of these are good accomplishments, but I am the true champion in that is have won 4 lifelong

At age 16 I was told that I was incapable of being an athlete, I was told tennis was not a sport, I was told I could never play “a real man’s sport”. That same year, I stepped onto a soccer pitch for the first time in my life, I lined up against young men who had been playing the sport for more than a decade.Yet, I went out there with confidence and challenged them along with the notion that I could not play a real sport. Although, I was scared to embarrass myself, I knew that this decision would be one of the greatest I would ever make because of the life experiences I would gain from leaving my comfort zone for the first time,

I thought to myself “What if I’m not good enough? What if I dislike it as much as I remember? What will the Lyman Hall kids be like?” These worries only lasted until I opened the front door of the school, because I was greeted by many familiar faces. I shook hands with the captains, Victor Jacome and Robbie Driscoll, whom I had known from my previous swim team. The first practice was very difficult; in years past, I would have considered it to be very mild and easy, but I hadn’t tried to swim in a competitive manner in a very long time, and even after a couple laps, every muscle in my body ached. This was a very foreign feeling to me because I hadn’t felt this way since I first started swimming when I was 10 years old. At the peak of my conditioning when I was around 14 years old, I could swim a full mile, or 66 laps at a competitive pace, without stopping, and I would feel fine. However, like riding a bike, there is muscle memory involved, and after a few more practices swimming started to feel more like I remembered it. Despite this, some things still felt different; I changed a lot in 2 years: I grew from around 5’8 to 6’1 and went from very scrawny to somewhat a normal amount of muscle. These physical changes were beneficial to my swimming of course, and I felt myself traveling farther in the water with each stroke, therefore being more efficient. When swimming

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.

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.

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