Narrative Essay About Swimming

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.

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.

As if it were an instinct, my body launched itself into the freezing cold water. I snapped my arms quickly, like my coach had told me, swimming the stroke of butterfly. However, half way through the lap, my arms drew weary and began to drag slightly.

Once I was afraid of bodies of water since I did not know how to swim, now I am in love with any activity that has to do with water. I was raised in the Dominican Republic, a caribbean island, where it is customary to throw one’s child in the deep end of a pool so that their natural instinct of swimming is awakened. I was not the case. My mother pushed me to the water and amazingly enough I did not panic. Instead of panicking, I accepted my fate and sunk down. After about 30 seconds in my cousin dove in a took me out. Once out of the water, I began to panic. Consequently, I began crying, shaking and screaming at my mother for throwing me into the pool. Shortly after that my mother placed me in swimming classes and everything changed.

Thesis/main topic – Learning how to swim is essential for being around water, it will help strengthen a person confidence, improve your physical fitness, and provide an area for stress release.

I opened my eyes at the bottom of the deep end and saw water swirling around me. “How in the world will I ever reach the top?” I thought. I repeated Emily’s words in my head, “You can do this, Clover, You can do this Clover, You can do this, Clover!” I did what years of swim teaching at Daland had taught me. I pushed the bottom of my feet against the bottom of the water.

While everyone else treaded and paddled in the water, I was sent home because I was screaming uncontrollably, holding onto dear life nearly ripping the skin off my swimming instructor. I have never liked being in water. I never went near it. I was even scared of standing on the wooden planks at Pier 39. I was embarrassed when my mother signed me up for swimming lessons again when I was in 8th grade. I was the oldest and the tallest student in the entire group, but I was eager to learn. I took a deep breath and submerged myself into the chlorine-filled water. After three months, I was able to dive and swim in freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly

This paper begins with my own existing knowledge of swimming, followed by questions that I wanted to find out in my research that were answered in my paper. It then gets into my research and what I found out while conducting my senior paper. After that is

It was a cold October day. The closer I came to the fogged up windows, the faster my heart would beat making my breath quicken. I step into the locker room to prepare for the pool. As soon as I step out the humidity hit me. I’ve been scoping out the competition for a few hours now and they are good. I say to my friend” I sure hope that I don’t have to race against them” . Then my name gets called and what do you know I have to go against a state winner and 6 more excellent swimmers. Suddenly my number gets called.”Swimmer's step up!”.My heart racing. Adrenalin pumping. Me trying to calm down so I can actually go. “ Swimmers ready?”...The whistle blows.

Stay positive, this is one of the hardest things you learn in swimming, but once you get it, you got it and it’s so easy.” “I don’t understand I’ve always been good at learning things fast and catching on really quickly to things, but I’m scared and it’s holding me back.” “Haven, trust yourself and try again.” “Okay, I can do this, trust myself.”

As I was staring at the blue and white tiles on the floor, I felt the fear in body pressing me down. I turned around to see that my friend was pointing towards a piece of paper taped to the brick wall. He advised me to get ready to put on my swim cap and goggles because my swim event was coming up shortly. The event seemed quite easy, the only problem I had was the pressure that had built up inside me. All the previous thoughts were stuck in my head, making me

I can feel my stomach churning as I slowly creep up the steps to the diving board. The metal scorches my bare feet as the sun begins to form little blisters on my shoulders; my SPF 80 obviously isn't doing its job. I try to muster up enough courage to finish the last three steps, but my knees are trembling ferociously. As I finally make it to the top, the smell of chlorine is rancid enough to make me hold my nose and prepare for my leap into the icy chemical bath. I take one last deep breath and mentally prepare myself by repeating quietly, "Today is the day I conquer my fear of the high dive.”

The crash of the waves hitting the sand, the crisp scent of salt in the air, the soft grainy texture under the toes, the vast blue water stretching out in front looking endless, as I step into it ever so carefully. I descend into the refreshing water, with just a snorkel sticking above the brink. I am surrounded by neon colors of corals, fish and many other sea creatures. Encompassed by the sea life, I felt like they accepted me as one of their own as they whirled around me. The strategic way of swimming is new but life changing. Swimming amongst many other living species was difficult because you really couldn’t use your legs; if you did you could possibly disturb the life around you. Swimming without using your legs is quite difficult because you are then force to use just your arms to project yourself forward.

The next part of the training turned out to be the toughest. We were required to dive ten feet to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a ten pound weight. Once the weight was brought to the surface we were supposed to tread water for two minutes while keeping the weight above the water line. This appeared to be simple so I dived in, expecting an easy time. I had no trouble getting the weight to the surface and proceeded to tread water with a feeling of undoubtable success. But once again my anti-floating physical quality began to take effect. At one minute and thirty seconds I began to sink and within the next fifteen seconds my head was submerged and I was fighting for air. The water from the pool began flowing into my mouth with each desperate grasp for air; it felt as if an ocean were draining into my body. I remember hearing from under the water the instructor's muffled voice counting down the last ten seconds of the exercise. When it was all over I slowly made my way back to the pool's edge where I was informed by the two young girls that they had no difficulty