Competitive Swimmer Research Paper

When I was eleven years old, I decided it was time to leave the informal, facile ways of recreation league swimming and join a competitive year-round club team. At the time I figured it was just the next step I needed to take in order to improve to the level that I wanted. Now, almost seven years later, as my time as a competitive swimmer is starting to come to an end, I realize how many things I learned from this sport besides how to race. The motto of my first club team was, “Learning life lessons through a lifetime sport”. Originally this phrase did not resonate much with me, but now as I am reflecting on my experiences as a swimmer I can see that while I was able to train hard and stay in shape, the “life lessons” that I was taught through the many grueling practices will be much more valuable in the long …show more content…
Whether it is waking up at 5:30 every morning over the summer or swimming two practices a day during the school year, commitment to the sport and my team is something I learned quickly as a competitive swimmer. Next, there is patience. All of the training in swimming leads up to one race that lasts less than a minute. To make matters worse, a lot of the time I would not even get a personal record or reach the qualifying time I needed for the next big meet. At that point, I would have to get over the frustration and find the patience to go back to the pool and continue training to make sure I could do even better the next time. Overcoming obstacles is the last thing I will address. In the middle of my third year on my competitive team, I started feeling pain in my right shoulder. At the time I was unaware that this pain would stick with me for the rest of my swimming career. Over the next four years, I visited a plethora of doctors for this shoulder, ranging from orthopedic surgeons to acupuncturists and everything in