Swimming pool

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…

a one fluid motion I latch my cap on my bun and pull it over my head. The next step is my goggles, I place them on my eyes and let the tint change my surroundings. I jump into the cool, but some how thick water of the YWCA’s pool. I focus on my goal for the hour of swimming that now I am facing, 190 laps or just under 3 miles. The hour starts off strong as I remember to hold my breath and kick, but as time moves along I start to slow and my mind starts to wonder. I have to remind myself why I…

Thanks to the Michael Phelps-Ryan Lochte rivalry, the 200 Individual Medley is one of the most watched competitive swimming events in the world (Park np). This race combines all four strokes and tests both the skill and the guts of a competitor. The IM is comprised of speed and endurance. To fully understand the complexity of this race, personal experience is required. Although some will never attempt the IM, a complete description allows spectators a more in-depth comprehension as well.…

The buzzer sounds as the 8 fastest swimmers dive into the pool. At the wall he’s seventh, more than a half a second off the lead. His perfect record is on the line. Then, a burst of energy off the wall. He passes the leader at the last possible moment, winning by one hundredth of a second. The perfect record is intact. When people think of swimming, they most likely think of Michael Phelps. He has won 28 olympic medals, 23 of them being gold. He also won 8 gold medals in one Olympics, the most…

ambivalent. During my freshman year of swimming, I could…

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…

what I told myself then. Assistant Head Pre-Team Coach is a very flashy title, but really I was just teaching kids how to swim. The first few days were hard; the water was so cold. These tiny 5- and 6-year-olds can’t keep themselves warm while in the pool, so the first week of practices were all very brief. Honestly, I would rather have been at home, sleeping, eating - doing homework, even - than in the water, but I had signed a contract, and a deal's a deal, so there I was. One big part of my…

hundreds of reported serious injuries and even more minor injuries. With a death rate of 1.06, beaten only by men's softball; a sport to be wary of is water polo because of the constant threat of injuries. Water polo is a game played by swimmers in a pool with seven players on each side. The ball used is like a volleyball thrown into the opponent's net. Sounds simple now but it is not,the game is so much more then that. Three types of players to worry about in water polo are: the fighter, the…

had heard a lot about polo from inexperienced people. I heard it was a lot like volleyball. “Polo couldn't be that hard”. We had a while until school started and I had talked myself out of playing because 1.) I had no idea what the sport was, 2.) Swimming? I’ve never even been on a swim team, and 3.) I couldn't see me wearing one of those latex and silicone swim caps. One day, about 2 weeks later, I went to dinner with my biological father and step siblings. I really look up to my step sister…

that we should get ready. I grabbed my already secure yellow cap that in bold blue stated my team name “Marlins”, making sure that it was stable under my thick strawberry blonde locks and likewise trying to not pull it over my eyebrows because in swimming terms that’s bad. Remembering how ruined my hair looks after my hair had the battle between the chlorine. The little girl I helped calm…