Backstroke

In 2008, my mom took me to my older sister Hannah’s swim tryout. I was standing around on the deck, waiting for her to finish, when a man named Joe Cabel walked up to me and told me that I should try out, because my lengthy legs would make me fast. Cabel has been known to stretch the truth a little bit, and 8 1/2 years later, I’m not much faster. But I’ve definitely learned a lot of things, mostly from my high school seasons. Freshman year, I learned to follow and respect the seniors, and as I…

My sophomore swimming season marked my transition to adulthood. My journey to sectionals taught me to reach higher and push myself to attain goals that at first seem unrealistic. Ever since I began swimming at a young age, breaststroke has come easily to me. I would place in the top twelve at swim meets, but there was still room for improvement. During my sophomore year, my head coach, Kyle, saw potential in me, took me aside at practice, and told me that he believed I had the ability to…

The sport of swimming has taught me that I am not going to be able to win every competition and make a personal record every time I compete. From coming to the harsh reality and realization that most of the time I will not reach my audacious goals, I learned to focus on working hard and making small personal victories on a daily basis. In swimming the season consists of about a dozen small competitions that eventually lead up to the championship meet. The championship meet is when fastest…

I was watching the Santa Clara Arena Swim Series over the past weekend and I was reflecting on elite swimming careers. I watched the ageless Anthony Ervin and Natalie Coughlin race and compete at a high-level into their mid-thirties. Twenty years ago, no one was competing at this age! I kept asking myself, how are these older athletes having this historic swimming career? After much thought I realized, health is the answer! Health is a broad term, but holistically all the elements of health…

The crowd before me, my stage in sight, and the all too familiar scent of chlorine in the air; I live for these moments. All of the swim practices before now have been in preparation for my success in today’s meet. My vision is blue from my old plastic goggles that are now scratched from past meets and reminiscent practices. They are my good luck charm. I fidget with them, assuring for the fifth time that, yes, they are still exactly where I left them ten seconds ago. I take deep breaths, each…

Have you ever wondered how athletes make it to the Olympics? Well it's not from them training themselves. Every great athlete has an even better coach standing behind them. Coaching is the most important part of any sport, especially in swimming. Swimming is an extremely demanding sport both physically and mentally. Swimmers train year round for just a few hundred yards of racing. The one who is always there making up the sets, workouts, and motivational speeches is the coach. Coaching has come…

I think I would want to be either a coach or Information Technology consultant. In high school, I swim for four years along with being on a year-round team. Swimming was a big part of my life and still is. With the experience of being a high school and year-round team I feel like I could be a good coach. I would like being able to help new swimmers improve on strokes and be able to get faster. A lot of times when planning a swim meet and choosing events for the swimmers to participate in can be…

In 2013, Angela Duckworth, a research psychologist and associate professor at University of Pennsylvania, gave a TED talk on the topic of grit and how it is a significant predictor of success. As a competitive swimmer and lifeguard, I can relate with her topic and the persistence I personally needed to succeed in these activities. I started swimming competitively in the second grade and have continued through high school. Being a busy high school student with homework, responsibilities, and…

individual event victories. Sabrina Sabadeanu won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2 minutes, 04.89 seconds. On the diving board, Sarah Schank’s score of 275.45 on the three-meter dive earned her first place. One the one-meter dive, Schank finished third (231.10) with Haley Pederson right on Schank’s tale to take fourth (231.05). Alongside Sabadeanu’s first place finish, she also earned third place in the 100-yard backstroke (57.80), fourth place in the 200-yard individual medley…

doing backstroke. I have also learned how to kick right, when to breath, how to do the stroke exactly, and how to put that all together when doing butterfly. I also learned some good tips on where to look when swimming and when to breathe in a lot of strokes. This research will affect the way I swim at practice and hopefully make me swim a little bit faster than I used to. Through my research I found stretches for before and after swimming, what gear you should/need have, how to do backstroke…