Should I do competitive swimming? Thoughts on swim competition
- 7 years ago
Some people are born with a very strong competitive drive. Some people are not. If you are on either side, should you enter competitive swimming?
On this video I will share my point of view from both types, since I think I have a little bit of both and I have known both types of swimmers.
Competing is a very unique experience. Sometimes it can be the best feeling in the world and sometimes it is painful and disappointing. Either way, your first competition in the sport or your first in a long time can be nerve racking. You get to the pool not knowing what to expect and with a very strong feeling of making a fool of yourself. However, there is a big advantage to this. Since you are coming in fresh, there are no expectations. You really have a chance to enjoy and do your best. However, if you are not a competitive type you will not see the point of competing. Why would you? I'll give you a few reasons in a bit, but first let me talk to the competitive type swimmers.
If you are the competitive type of person and you decide to compete on the sport, you will most surely be beaten by someone with more experience. This is good. It is painful but it is good. When someone is faster than you, you will have painful thoughts that can either tell you to quit the sport or go back an improve. The choice is yours. If you decide to go back and work harder, then losing just served you as a motivation. Every time I lost an event I would warm down and think about what went wrong, then I would try to quickly move and think about what I can do in practice to make sure it never happens again. This lesson to draw inspiration out of failure has made me improve in many aspects of life.
Now, if you are not the competitive type, the hardest thing for you is to decide to compete. Two things might be holding you back. Maybe you don't like attracting too much attention to yourself or maybe you don't like the feeling of confrontation. There might be other reasons but I can tell you that in swimming, competing is not about asking for attention. While people might be looking at you, no one has higher expectations of you, than yourself. A swimming competition is about testing the limits of your mind and body. Competing can be sometimes confrontational and in some rare cases people's goal is to intimidate others, but most of the time it is about a few seconds of intense effort, sometimes not even seeing you rivals, followed by respect and appreciation. It is very common to make your main rivals your very best friends. Certainly most of my best friends have all competed against me. They are the ones who better understand what I have been through because they were in the same path, just in another lane.
Some of the best swimmers I have known are not competitive in nature, but they enjoy improving through constant hard work. The others are very competitive and have learned not to let their ego stand in their way. They have learn how to harness the power of competition into perseverance and diligence.
If you are a human being, I think you can learn a lot about yourself and in a swimming competition. You just need to learn to enjoy it.
Skills NT Shop:
https://skillswimming.com/store1/
Become our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4140610
Instragram:
https://www.instagram.com/skillsntalents
Our favorite swim wear:
Get 10% off with this code "SKILLSNT"
http://bit.ly/pinkfishsuits
Thanks for watching!
Swim fast!
On this video I will share my point of view from both types, since I think I have a little bit of both and I have known both types of swimmers.
Competing is a very unique experience. Sometimes it can be the best feeling in the world and sometimes it is painful and disappointing. Either way, your first competition in the sport or your first in a long time can be nerve racking. You get to the pool not knowing what to expect and with a very strong feeling of making a fool of yourself. However, there is a big advantage to this. Since you are coming in fresh, there are no expectations. You really have a chance to enjoy and do your best. However, if you are not a competitive type you will not see the point of competing. Why would you? I'll give you a few reasons in a bit, but first let me talk to the competitive type swimmers.
If you are the competitive type of person and you decide to compete on the sport, you will most surely be beaten by someone with more experience. This is good. It is painful but it is good. When someone is faster than you, you will have painful thoughts that can either tell you to quit the sport or go back an improve. The choice is yours. If you decide to go back and work harder, then losing just served you as a motivation. Every time I lost an event I would warm down and think about what went wrong, then I would try to quickly move and think about what I can do in practice to make sure it never happens again. This lesson to draw inspiration out of failure has made me improve in many aspects of life.
Now, if you are not the competitive type, the hardest thing for you is to decide to compete. Two things might be holding you back. Maybe you don't like attracting too much attention to yourself or maybe you don't like the feeling of confrontation. There might be other reasons but I can tell you that in swimming, competing is not about asking for attention. While people might be looking at you, no one has higher expectations of you, than yourself. A swimming competition is about testing the limits of your mind and body. Competing can be sometimes confrontational and in some rare cases people's goal is to intimidate others, but most of the time it is about a few seconds of intense effort, sometimes not even seeing you rivals, followed by respect and appreciation. It is very common to make your main rivals your very best friends. Certainly most of my best friends have all competed against me. They are the ones who better understand what I have been through because they were in the same path, just in another lane.
Some of the best swimmers I have known are not competitive in nature, but they enjoy improving through constant hard work. The others are very competitive and have learned not to let their ego stand in their way. They have learn how to harness the power of competition into perseverance and diligence.
If you are a human being, I think you can learn a lot about yourself and in a swimming competition. You just need to learn to enjoy it.
Skills NT Shop:
https://skillswimming.com/store1/
Become our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4140610
Instragram:
https://www.instagram.com/skillsntalents
Our favorite swim wear:
Get 10% off with this code "SKILLSNT"
http://bit.ly/pinkfishsuits
Thanks for watching!
Swim fast!