Yesterday I dipped my toes in the pool for the first time since last August. If you have ever been away from your home for more than a week, you know that moment when you get home you are glad you left but you are so excited to be back? That is what that moment felt like for me. Sitting on the edge of the pool putting on my swim cap and goggles with the smell of chlorine in the air. I love the smell of chlorine. If there were a car air freshener that smelled like it, I would probably use it. That chlorine smell brings back so many great memories that I wouldn't trade for anything. I played water polo all through high school and was on the swim team my senior year. Somehow I went from hating swim lessons (the one year I remember taking them as a child) and sticking my face in the water to being a swimmer. I think I learned the basics of swimming and I was done with swim lessons. I could swim enough to keep my head above water if needed. I didn't like to put my face in the water and never managed to grow out of that. I was the girl that couldn't jump in the pool without plugging her nose which also meant diving didn't happen cause I looked funny plugging my nose and trying to dive. However, in high school I had some friends that were on the swim team and they convince me to play water polo. I probably looked so silly trying to do any stroke other than freestyle but I learned to love that game, regardless of my previous dislike for having my face submerged in water and fear of drowning.
If you have no idea what water polo is here is a good video to check out:
She uses some different words than I would but "The Pitch" is the playing area or "field" so to speak. The "Sin Bin" is the ejection box. And I think when she says that is it similar to football she means soccer.
Another good video for it would be this one:
While swimming I thought about my swimmer and water polo player life and I came to the conclusion that it was probably the best decision I made for myself. I have always been a shy person with very little confidence. Playing water polo and swimming helped that a lot. There were days (sometimes twice a day) that I really felt like I couldn't swim another lap or do another pop up (a pop up is when you are treading water and then pop up as high as you can out of the water and no touching the bottom because that is not allowed in water polo. Also, coaches expected you to be about to get at least was it high out of the water). Through swimming and water polo I realized I could accomplish hard things. I always managed to swim that next lap and the next set after that one. Probably the most terrifying day was when my coach put me in as goalie in the middle of a game. Up until that point I don't think I had spent much time in the cage (the goal), maybe 5 minutes max. After that game I was the new team goalie. I felt so inadequate to be in such a position, the last stand of defense a team has against another team. Practices became harder because I had to work my legs, treading while holding a weighted medicine ball above my head and trying to keep my shoulders out of the water while doing so. It was tough but eventually my team started calling me The Wall. I came across this article (I think I already shared it on facebook) and in reading it over all I could think was, that is so true! I think swimming is great and on my team we had the super popular kids and geeks alike. I feel like it is a sport for everyone not just the "jocks". Based on my own personal experience I know that it helps build confidence and can change people for the better.
5 Things you will take away from Swimming
1. You’re part of an amazing community. We are separated by a few degrees of separation. It’s a big, open fraternity, but even better as we all have the shared background of two-a-days and countless weekends in poorly ventilated pools. This community extends far beyond the pool, as you will see in the years to come.
Even ten years removed from competitive swimming I can go to a local meet and find a few familiar faces in coaches, and the younger siblings of friends and people I’d raced against. Even some of the officials remain, having stuck with the sport even long after their own kids had moved on. The next generation and the longevity of those who have no commitment to the sport outside of their love for it, and this is a testament to the bond we grow with this sport.
2. Exercise and Fitness will never intimidate you. This is something you probably already know. You’ve gone through your share of Hell Weeks, and New Years Day 10×1000’s to not bat an eye at any physical challenge. Swimmers have ridiculous cardiovascular fitness, and as such when athletes from other sports complained about their workouts the gripes typically fall on deaf ears.
3. That discipline and mental toughness you honed as a swimmer will serve you well. You will enjoy not having to get up at 4:30am for morning practice long after you leave the arena of competitive swimming. This I can promise you. But the discipline that got you up that early will always be within you, ready to be seized upon when you find something else you are passionate about.
4. ‘What if’ Syndrome will pop up when the Olympics roll around. I get this to the point I can barely enjoy watching swimming events that used to be my forte. Thoughts like “If my shoulder hadn’t crapped out…” bubble to the surface. Avoid this passing sense of regret by leaving everything at the pool so that you aren’t watching the Olympics ten years later wondering if you could get into good enough shape to swim in Rio in 2016. Regardless of the expectations you have for your swimming career, whether it’s going to the Olympics, getting a scholarship to your local college team, or just making this summer’s traveling squad, embrace the opportunities for travel, competition and camaraderie that swimming provides.
5. The pool will always be home. You will always be a swimmer. People play basketball, playfootball or hockey, but you are a swimmer. It’s a sport that most people don’t understand or appreciate until the Olympics roll around, and that’s fine. Let them have their sports, for swimming will always be profoundly ours.
It will belong to the age-groupers struggling to get that first cut. To the teenagers trying to get noticed by a university program. To the athletes competing at the Olympics just happy to be there. From age grouper to World Record holder the sport all belongs to us, and while we may throw a “every other sport gets all the attention” tantrum in once in a while, in a lot of ways we should be happy with our place on the sporting totem pole.
To this day swimming still feels “mine,” as impossible of a feeling that may come across as. The quietness of the pool, the stillness of an empty lane, the quiet stare of that black line, will always be mine. Yours. Ours.
(from: http://swimswam.com/5-things-you-will-take-away-from-swimming/)
Made it to the State Swim Meet, my team is on the far left
Yea I thought I was really cool.
And just so you know the name on my swim cap is "Anna-mal"
No comments:
Post a Comment