Who am I swimming for?

Over the years I have seen swimmers come into the sport, swim really fast at a young age, and they leave before they even graduate high school.  I have always found this an interesting phenomenon, though I am sure it is not limited to just swimming.  However, I believe this happens for a couple of reasons. 

The first reason is that these swimmers commonly develop strength at young age and they are much bigger and stronger than their peers.  They may not have the greatest technique, but they swim fast times and can do so on strength alone.  These swimmers eventually are caught by their peers because not only have they gained strength but do so while gaining better technique in order to be more competitive.   As a coach, I see this every year. I try to work with swimmers like this, but they are normally only successful if I can get them to buy in to the importance in developing their technique to go along with what is sometimes natural strength.  Yes, their peers do catch up to them, but they normally have started to work on their technique in order stay competitive.

The second reason is because they begin to see swimming as a job. Many times I associate this with the swimmer whose parents push them to the point where swimming is no longer fun.  This is the swimmer who swims because “Well my Mom wants me to.”  This same swimmer after a race comes up to me and says, “My Dad is not happy because I lost to (insert name).”, or “My Parent’s are upset because I added time.”  I have heard this more times than I can even count and it still makes my blood boil.  This swimmer is not swimming for them; they are swimming for someone else.  This is in my opinion one of the most difficult athletes to work with.  The only way they are motivated is by the repercussions of how their parent might reacts.  Over the years I have spent a lot of time trying to educate parents on expectations and explain in detail why we are doing what we are doing in practice and meets.  This is still a challenge as these parents believe they have their swimmers best interest at heart. I understand this, but parents have to learn and trust in the plan of their child’s professional coach.  Because despite what some parents think, the coach normally has their swimmers best interest in mind.  If the swimmer is only swimming to please their parent and not themselves they will only get so far.

The truth is swimming is very much an individualized sport.  You have to have the desire and drive to achieve the highest levels. Swimming needs to be something that you want to do. Yes, you swim with a team, but ultimately your success is not determined on how well your team does in a given meet like most sports. The swimmer spends hours upon hours immersed in water staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool.  You rarely hear anything else that is going on around you other than the thoughts in your own head.  I remember some days wondering how many tiles were on the bottom of the pool and trying to count them.  (I never found out the answer to that question, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t try to figure it out.) 

The question ever serious swimmer needs to ask themselves is… are you swimming for yourself or someone else? 

Disclaimer:  These are my opinions and are not to be a reflection on anyone other than myself.