Lots of people think that athletes join sports teams to win. This may be true for some, but in my experience, it is false. I know plenty of people that did not join a team to win. They joined for the companionship. And that is exactly what I did as well.
I joined my high school swimming team my 9th Grade year of High School. I had no clue what I was getting myself into. Okay, that's a lie. My older cousin and older sister were both on the team as well and I learned a lot of things from them about what the sport would entail.
It was the weekend before preseason started for the team. I was very confident that I was not going to swim. I mean, I was an overweight freshman that had never swam competitively. Well, that Friday night, something happened to me that I changed my mind, so the next day my mother drove me down to the Swim Store near us and we bought three suits and a pair of goggles. And so starts my swimming experience.
I showed up on the first day with no clue of what to expect. We talked about the lanes and stretching and then they said, "Okay! Let's get in!" Lucky for me, a lot of my friends from Marching Band Season swam as well so I looked at them in confusion and they helped and told me what to do.
We got in the water and I remember the first thing I ever heard to swim was a "50 on the bottom". I knew what a 50 was because of the agonizing swim meets that I had to sit through a couple years prior due to my sister. But on the bottom? What the heck did that mean? All of a sudden people start swimming and I just start following not knowing what to do.
We get back to the wall after the 50 and I have a sheer look of panic and confusion on my face. I ask one of my friends, "What's the bottom?" and she looks at me like I'm stupid and she said, "The bottom of the clock." She meant the bottom of a clock. Well she didn't explain that because here I am staring at a digital clock.
As I swim, I keep thinking about what she said. And then it dawns on me and I feel like a complete idiot. The bottom of the clock is 6 which is also 30. So when the coach said leave on the bottom, it meant to leave on the 30 second.
After conquering that first challenge, I had another one thrown right at me in the face.
One set that we did that day was four 75's: Kick-Drill-Swim. Now I thought I would be fine. I mean. How hard is it to kick, am I right? Well, I have never been more wrong. I have met my nemesis of swimming and it's name is kick.
I started to kick with my kick board out in front of me and I went ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE! I could not kick. Nothing would work. I just stayed in the same floating position, barely moving at all.
People were passing me left and right and here I was stranded in the middle of the lane not able to kick. Well, I quickly realized that Kick Day was the day that I dreaded forever and ever.
We did a couple more sets of swimming and then hopped out and stretched before going home. One of the things that was new to me was the chant to get out of the water. "One Heart. One Team. One Goal." Every time we get out of the water as a team, we chant this and then hop out as a team. Everyone gets out at the same time and it really shows how powerful a team can truly be.
Teammates stick together and that's exactly what happened on this swim team. Nothing could separate us and for that I will forever be grateful for swim team.
