Competitive swimming is a sport that is not well known except for at the Olympics. Swimming, outside of competitive, is usually offered for middle school and high schoolers; while, competitive swim teams will commonly offer divisions for children over the age of five. Swimming is a very intense and challenging sport, more so than others. Swimming is a heavily taxing sport not only for the intense full-body-work-out, the lack of sustainable air flow, constantly being in freezing water, having your entire body covered in chlorine and having to deal with two to three hour work-outs daily. Swimming practice is not a sprint but a long distance workout. Having that level of physical exertion daily, working on different muscle groups and various levels of intensity causes strain on the body. The strain on the body daily will also greatly strain the mind. In order to succeed in the pool, the mind and body have to operate at the best that they can to be able to perform at their best. The hardest part is that the constant strain on the mind is the harder of the two to train. Swimmers often hit an emotional wall in training. This wall is hard to overcome and it can take years for some to tear through these walls, and some swimmers are not ever able to overcome them. The swimmers that can actually break these walls and only have to deal with the physical strains, those are the swimmers that will go for the gold.
The problem with swimming is that the more it pushes you the tougher you have to become, and if you are not able to push harder, you get left behind. Being left behind at a swim meet is unbearable. The most exciting time to be a swimmer is just as you step up to the block, the rush of adrenaline pulsing through your body, and your about to jump into the freezing water. As soon as your body hits the water, all of your body kicks into extreme overdrive and you move as fast as possible. As soon as you finish the race, and your hand hosts the wall, the relief and fresh air that you have gasp in to refill your lungs, the adrenaline will leave your body and you will want to feel that excitement again. Right after any meet, every practice will be energized to get better and feel that rush again; however, the key to succeeding is to keep that rush going, in your mind and heart, until the next meet comes up.
The best way to swim and to swim at the best of your ability is to keep a positive attitude. Surrounded with friends and family that are uplifting and helpful people. If there are people that are neutral or downers, it becomes much harder to keep a positive attitude towards swimming and especially practices. Swimmers are put through challenging intense practices and workouts and they band together and form strong connections with their team members. The athletes often develop closer bonds with their teammates than even with their own family.
