Loving my sport

This week, my friend Bia made a microdocumetary about me as a swimmer. It was so much fun to make, and she did a fantastic job! You can view it here: https://vimeo.com/121246230

While interviewing me for the micro doc, Bia simply asked me to talk about swimming. I started to share with her how important my team is to me, but she stopped me. She asked me to talk about the sport--about racing and practice and how it feels to be underwater. I then realized that I've been forgetting about why I love the actual sport of swimming.

If you sit down and explain a swim practice to someone, they'll think you're crazy. Why would a team of 30 or so college kids want to stare at a black line for a hour every day? They will all say more or less the same thing: it's impossible to quit. Despite how mental my sport is, I would be lost without it.

Swimming is all about goal-oriented discipline. You train the same four strokes for the whole season (Or in my case just one because I'm a specializer) in order to drop a fraction of a second. Whether your goals are Olympic trials or being able to complete a hard set at practice, it's important to keep them at the forefront of your training. If you train without your goals in mind, this sport can be miserable.

While talking to Bia, she asked me specifically what it feels like to get in the water for practice. I don't think I've ever stopped to think about that feeling. It's the feeling of everything from your day being washed away. I love those few seconds when I'm underwater. No sounds. No worries. Just me suspended in the cool chlorine.

And then the hard work starts. Your heart pounds while you try to make the interval. Since I've been a part of MUSC, I've taken to training next to the boys, which means I'm pushing myself even more. By no means am I fast enough to keep up with them. They hold a faster pace than me, but it motivates me to work harder.

Nothing compares to the feeling of getting out after a hard practice. Your body aches but in a good way. And of course, you can go home and eat to replenish all the calories you just lost.

I love swimming. I love everything about this sport. It's my escape from the world on a bad day. It's my workout to stay in shape. It's my competitive outlet. It's how I met my best friend. It's where I go to see my swamily (swim+family) at every practice. It makes me smile from ear-to-ear to think about how blessed I am to be a swimmer.

So now I have Bia's video bookmarked, along with many other inspiring swim videos, to help me when I'm out of motivation. I listen to my own words in that video and know that no matter what, the pool will always be there for me whenever I need it.