james.w.ash - (Author)

The Power of Being a Great Teammate: 6 Ways to Provide Support Swimming may seem like an individual sport, but no swimmer achieves success alone. Whether it’s cheering your teammates on during their race, pushing each other through tough sets, or offering words of encouragement after a challenging p...

5 Ways to Ensure Your Body is Rested While Traveling to Your Championship Meet Championship meet season is here! It's the time of year when excitement is high and all your hard work and training are behind you (for now). But traveling to a big meet—whether it’s across the country or just down the ro...

The Unseen Nerves Behind Every Swim: A Community of Jitters When I swam, I was an emotional athlete—my highs were high, and my lows were low. Looking back, I thought that nothing could replicate the intensity of the nerves I experienced before a race. The racing heart, the sweaty palms, the tension ...

Surviving Taper: A Guide to Thriving During the Most Exciting Time of the Season It’s that time of year again. Practices gradually become shorter, the yards start to decrease, and the energy is at an all-time high. It’s taper time. For swimmers, tapering marks the beginning of championship season - ...

Lessons Learned From the Injured Swimmer And there I was again, sitting on the side of the pool deck with my college’s athletic trainer, watching my teammates practice. All I wanted to do was get back in the water, but my body had other plans. With every day that passed, it felt like I was falling f...

How Pre-Race Nerves Can Be Used to a Swimmer's Advantage My heart would race, my knees would feel weak, and my arms would get heavy… but this was not the start of an Eminem song. This was how my body felt every time I was about to dive into the water. The nerves and jitters that came before a race f...

Advice to My Younger Swimmer Self: Summer Finke Reflects on Her Career in the Pool As we begin a New Year, Swimming World is re-running this terrific piece by regular contributor Summer Finke, an Olympic Trials qualifier and standout during her collegiate days at North Carolina State. Summer's refle...

Breaking Through Plateaus: Keep the Faith - Your Day Will Come One stroke, two strokes—kick, pull, breathe. My heart pounded as I swam for the wall. I knew that this was the swim that  would be different, this is the swim where my hard work would finally pay off. I touched the wall, and slowly looke...

Celebrate the Small Wins: Finding Success in the Details Can Offset Bumps in the Road Touching the wall and feeling that all your hard work was for nothing is a feeling that is all too common in the world of swimming. At every swim meet you go to, there are a wide range of emotions scattered around ...