5 Pieces of Advice from A College Swimmer

Photo Courtesy: Rollins College

By Katlynn Emaus, Swimming World College Intern

Cutting the strings from club swimming and becoming a college swimmer can be difficult. Whether you were on a club team for one season or 12 seasons, there are valuable relationships formed from the time spent with those people. Those relationships and people help shape the swimmer you become. It is hard to part from something that has become a comfort and make the jump into the mysterious world of college swimming.

New coaches, new teammates, new training — there is a lot of adjusting that takes place the first month of college. Also, there’s a lot of time spent reflecting. Swimmers will naturally compare how the new and foreign workouts to their familiar ones back home. Swimmers will naturally grow and learn to appreciate what they had back on their club team and appreciate the opportunity to swim at a college level.

Here are five pieces of advice from a collegiate swimmer…

1. Be grateful for all of it.

Photo Courtesy: ASU

Enjoy it. It truly does go by fast, as cliche as that sounds. You might be reading this as a freshman and roll your eyes thinking, “Oh please, I still have three years left,” but they really do go by in a blink of an eye. Enjoy every meet and be grateful you have the opportunity to represent your team there. Cherish every travel meet, bus ride, bonfire and team dance-off. Those are the times you will remember more than what the scoreboard says.

2. Forgive and forget.

Photo Courtesy: Abby Boone

Drama can go around a club team like wildfire, just simply “he said, she said” stuff. Every time someone pushes off the wall early on a set at practice or says something rude during meet warm up, and you allow that to get to you, you have already given up some of your race to them. It is just extra luggage that uses emotional energy to be carried around. It is really hard to swim fast with luggage tied to your back.

3. Do your best to help a teammate.

KNOXVILLE, TN - December 5, 2013 - SwimMAC Carolina teammates celebrate after winning the 4x50 Yard Freestyle Relay during the USA Swimming AT&T Winter National Championships at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tennessee

Photo Courtesy: Tia Patron/Tennessee Athletics

Offer your best advice to a teammate, even if it means they might surpass you in the pool. Swimming is, in many ways, a team sport that entails putting someone else in front of yourself to better the team. By offering help to teammates it also makes them feel appreciated, not just like another competitor. Thus, you’re creating a positive environment in which all athletes can blossom. It is much easier to improve when people are supportive rather than envious.

4. Believe in your coaches.

Brent Matheson CeraVe Invitational swim meet

Photo Courtesy: Heidi Torregroza

The best advice anyone can give an athlete: believe in your coaches. They know what they are doing. There is a reason they were hired. Believe it or not, most coaches used to be swimmers and know exactly what it is like to be in your position. When they see you struggling, they know what it feels like and will offer you the best advice possible. Believe in the process. If you don’t, then it won’t work.

Most of the time, there isn’t a flaw in a coach’s training, but there are flaws when it comes to the faith in the coach’s training. Coaches would never sit around and think “Oh, how can I sabotage Sally’s season today?” Coaches are walking life lessons and swimming gurus. They want nothing more than to see each of their swimmers achieve their potential in the pool and in life. Swim coaches are mentors and lifelong friends.

5. Live in the moment.

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Don’t waste energy worrying about what will happen in a week, month or year. Everything works out for the best. A lot of younger swimmers think that after one bad swim the world is over. A meteor will come out and end all life. It doesn’t work like that. Learn to shake it off and look at the next thing you have to tackle. Just look at the challenge in front of you and take it by the horns.

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Vicki Bognar Lindberg

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