It’s never easy for me to admit that I had something wrong with me, or strange thoughts went through my mind. In the pool, is where the strange thoughts hurt me the most. I found a hidden talent inside of me that I never knew existed at the age of 13, and that was my ability to swim long distance races. The first time I swam one of these, I broke a team record and I knew this was the path to go down. But through the talent I soon came to find, nerves started to set in. The thought of swimming for fifteen minutes straight at high intensity scared me. What if I wasn’t to do well? All of that work for nothing? What are my friends or other competitors thinking of me?
This started a long trend of me getting nervous before races. My stomach would …show more content…
It brought more negative thoughts thinking about people knowing I was nervous all the time. These nerves kept me out of the pool for more than a month, as I battled through getting confidence back, and going to a psychiatrist to find ways to calm myself down. After long sessions of talking and practicing these new techniques to calm me down, I was finally ready to go back to the pool. The transition back to training was tough. I was out of shape from not working out, and my stroke felt awkward. I had four weeks until my end of the season meet, and I fought off nerves of not succeeding at that meet. At that moment, just a couple weeks out of my last meet of the season, I had a realization. I worked countless hours to get over anxiety, so why am I still getting nervous? Just as in the past I put in countless hours in the pool, and at the end of the season I always did well. So why was I questioning myself? Positive thoughts started flowing through my mind. I had confidence for the first time in over two months. The weeks counted down and I was feeling better each day. I got back in shape, and at my last meet of the season, I swam all of those distance events and threw down major time
This started a long trend of me getting nervous before races. My stomach would …show more content…
It brought more negative thoughts thinking about people knowing I was nervous all the time. These nerves kept me out of the pool for more than a month, as I battled through getting confidence back, and going to a psychiatrist to find ways to calm myself down. After long sessions of talking and practicing these new techniques to calm me down, I was finally ready to go back to the pool. The transition back to training was tough. I was out of shape from not working out, and my stroke felt awkward. I had four weeks until my end of the season meet, and I fought off nerves of not succeeding at that meet. At that moment, just a couple weeks out of my last meet of the season, I had a realization. I worked countless hours to get over anxiety, so why am I still getting nervous? Just as in the past I put in countless hours in the pool, and at the end of the season I always did well. So why was I questioning myself? Positive thoughts started flowing through my mind. I had confidence for the first time in over two months. The weeks counted down and I was feeling better each day. I got back in shape, and at my last meet of the season, I swam all of those distance events and threw down major time