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 swimmers peak and all compete against each other. The smaller meets are used for as momentum builders and checks for swimmers to see how well they're doing at that particular point in the year.
In high school I had a championship competition …show more content…
I knew that if I did not go my goal times during champs then I wasn't going to hit them at some regular, less important meets. This negative mentality, the mentality of not giving your greatest effort because you know you won't improve your best performance, eventually became a habit. It became a habit at small competitions and then it became a habit in training.
My coach writes out the practice on the white board and after taking a quick glance at it I immediately come to the conclusion that it is too hard for me to do. I reach the ultimatum in my head that I am going to put in minimal effort because “what the hell right? It’s all pointless anyway.” Or I look at the workout and laugh out loud and make a discouraging and disrespectful comment to my teammates and coach along the lines of “this workout is stupid, no one is going to make it.”
One day my coach gave us an especially difficult practice to test us out. To see how mentally tough we were. He wrote the practice on the board and my initial thoughts were positive. I believed in myself and told myself that I would give it my best shot. Halfway into the set my mind became clouded with negative thoughts as I contemplated giving up. Giving up is always the easiest thing to do in hard situations and at that time I would always choose the easiest
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 swimmers peak and all compete against each other. The smaller meets are used for as momentum builders and checks for swimmers to see how well they're doing at that particular point in the year.
In high school I had a championship competition …show more content…
I knew that if I did not go my goal times during champs then I wasn't going to hit them at some regular, less important meets. This negative mentality, the mentality of not giving your greatest effort because you know you won't improve your best performance, eventually became a habit. It became a habit at small competitions and then it became a habit in training.
My coach writes out the practice on the white board and after taking a quick glance at it I immediately come to the conclusion that it is too hard for me to do. I reach the ultimatum in my head that I am going to put in minimal effort because “what the hell right? It’s all pointless anyway.” Or I look at the workout and laugh out loud and make a discouraging and disrespectful comment to my teammates and coach along the lines of “this workout is stupid, no one is going to make it.”
One day my coach gave us an especially difficult practice to test us out. To see how mentally tough we were. He wrote the practice on the board and my initial thoughts were positive. I believed in myself and told myself that I would give it my best shot. Halfway into the set my mind became clouded with negative thoughts as I contemplated giving up. Giving up is always the easiest thing to do in hard situations and at that time I would always choose the easiest