As with any sport, swimming is filled with pros and cons. Swimmers, take a second to recall the practices that were so hard that needed to empty your goggles of your tears so you could see clearly. Now, think about the feeling you had after the practices that were equally as hard, but you refused to let yourself fall behind. There are so many moments that lead swimmers to have a love-hate relationship with the sport. And for some, the cons just might seem to outweigh the pros enough to make the terribly difficult decision to quit. Here are some of the stages that every retired swimmer goes through:
1. Confusion
If you have experience as a competitive swimmer, you know the sport becomes your entire life. Whether it is the plans you make with friends, the way you manage your time, or foods you choose to eat, a swimmer's goals impact all kinds of daily decisions. So there is a great amount of confusion that comes when a competitive swimmer retires. All of a sudden, there is free time, which is baffling to someone who hasn't had free time since the second grade. Are we supposed to make friends that aren't swimmers? Or go to the gym? Sleep past 5 a.m.? Eat less than seven meals a day? The decisions are honestly overwhelming and hard to adjust to. As an newly retired swimmer, it is easy to take advantage of all this free time and catch up on the rest that you probably haven't gotten in years. So you flip on the TV, lay in bed, and do a whole lot of nothing. Although this may sound nice to active swimmers, it soon leads to the next struggle of retired swimmers: boredom.
3. Boredom
If you were once very serious about swimming, it is likely that almost all of your friends were teammates. If these friends keep swimming after you quit, this will call for some serious boredom. While your friends are headed to their four-hour practices and traveling to different meets, you are sitting at home watching "Scrubs" for the fourth time through and for the first time in your life, feeling guilty about the entire bag of chips you just ate. This boredom can often leave you second guessing your decision to quit.
2. Regret
After quitting something that made up your entire life, it is extremely common to have regrets. Like I said before, you don't know what to do with yourself when you quit swimming. You miss the sport, good times and bad. You miss being with your friends all the time. And you miss the satisfaction that comes with meeting your goals. These things may lead to strong regrets that may drive a retired swimmer back into the sport. But as for others, they may choose to push through the regret and accept their decision.
3. Acceptance
Those people who were truly not meant to be swimmers forever will eventually accept their decision to quit. These people are able to move on and leave swimming in the past. They pick up new sports and hobbies, make new friends and repurpose their lives. It is a life change that is bittersweet: Although it is difficult, it opens up doors to new opportunities and leads you to the life that you were meant to live. But this doesn't mean that you will ever forget or stop missing the times you had as a swimmer.
4. Reminiscence
Reminiscence is a huge part of a retired swimmer's life. I can't tell you how many times I think back on my days as a swimmer. I think about the feeling of satisfaction when my goals were reached and the feeling of devastation when I missed a cut. I remember bonding with my teammates over tears of laughter, and bonding with them over tears of sadness. I remember the times I made decisions to push through a hard set or event, and the times I made decisions to give into my exhaustion. These things remind me of my passion for the sport, which is something that a true swimmer will never give up.
