The best job in swimming isn't to be an Olympian. It isn't to be Michael Phelps. It isn't to be Michael Phelps's trainer. A summer coaching job with GKAISA, a summer swimming league, is the single best job for anybody who loves swimming and the growth of swimming itself.
I'm a swimmer. Every summer of my youth, I swam for the Sugarwood Stingrays. At first, I did it because it was a convenient way to stay active. My house was the closest in the neighborhood to the pool, and the team fee was outrageously cheap. Everybody and their mother hounded me to join as soon as my family joined The Sugarhood.
Up until I was about 17, I never cared about it. Swimming was the worst thing that anyone could ever imagine of doing for fun. It was a masochist's sport. Swimmers willingly put their bodies through the worst pain imaginable. They choose not to breathe. They choose to move through a barrier, constantly. They choose to push past their limits for what seems like an eternity.
It wasn't until that 17th year that I learned to love the sport that I call my own.
Swimming makes you a competitor.
Do it enough, and it makes you terrifying.
There's a zone you get into, and it's amazing.
They say that you know love, when you will know love. I never knew what that actually meant. I thought it was just somebody realizing that they love something or someone. Little did I know that love changes your life and everything that surrounds you.
Most people think that swimming is an individual's sport. You don't need to rely on anybody else to succeed.
Well, it really just isn't the case. Yes. Somebody like Michael Phelps might be able to find it within himself to become a world class athlete on his own, but for most, swimmers need a sort of comradery to become exceptional, to become truly passionate.
A team brings many things to the environment.
This past May, the Stringrays' head coach offered me a part-time position to come help the team during its meets. I'd mainly help motivate swimmers before their swims. I jumped on it in a heartbeat. Once you find true love, you never let it go.
I thought I'd just be there, but kind of in the shadows.
It turns out, this coaching experience has been the most amazing experience of my moderately long life.
The greatest satisfaction in my life is to help others. So, to pair that with the love of my life, brought me the happiest moments of my existence thus far. I can truly say that the smiles that I flashed have been some of the most sincere that I have ever felt, have ever known.
When you stand next to swimmers before their race, when you have their trust, when they look to you for advice, you have the weight of nearly three worlds in your hands- your own, the swimmer's, and their hopeful parents'.
Anything that you say will alter their racing experience in some way. Anything that you say can either motivate them to become a champion or tear them down to a puddle of nerves.
Every swimmer is also different in the way that they handle races emotionally. Each swimmer needs to hear different things before and after racing. Some swimmers need not to hear anything at all.
However, the greatest joy that you will ever experience, is when you break through to a swimmer's itsy bitsy heart, and help them to find even a glimmer of the love that you know for swimming as well.
When you see the smiles on their faces, the excitement in their voices, the energy in their movements, you feel alive, and you're happy just to be their for them in that moment.
That's what you're working for.
Summer swimming isn't about being the best. It's about finding joy in the water. It's about feeling confident in yourself. It's about being happy with who you are, instead of comparing yourself to everyone else. It's about accepting where you're at, but also knowing that improvement is possible.
That's why I push my swimmers through their practices; the harder they struggle, the harder they will smile.
That's what being a coach has taught me. The love of the sport isn't the love of the competition. The love of the sport, the true love, is to love yourself and nobody else.
In summer league, any age from 18 all the way down to zero can join as long as they can float. I get to watch these kids turn into incredible human beings in all but two months. I get to see how strong somebody can be, no matter how little they've experienced. I get to feel the passion that oozes out of a seven year-old's eyes as he stares nervously into the water, knowing what challenge is to come. I get to show an 18 year-old man that he's not ready to quit just yet. I get to guide a 13 year-old girl into swimming against the most intimidating girls she's ever seen. I get to show these kids that they're stronger than the monsters in their dreams. I get to show these kids that they're stronger than they seem.
Becoming a coach for the Sugarwood Stingrays has taught me more than I could've ever hoped. I've grown as a human being, and I've made plenty of new friends along the way. The kids are teaching me something new every day, and I can never repay them for that. Yet, I'll never stop trying.
