Dear All
Thank you very much for the fantastic fourm, I used to be a good swimmer However I moved to a small city( work req.), I joined there masters club..they seem very nice people, However I have hard problem to fit in and I do not enjoy swimming anymore ( I miss my friends and team mate back home ) and it seems I lost my love to the swimming ...any advice pls
I'm new to masters' swimming myself and my swimming talent won't impress you, but I know what it is to miss old friends and also to sometimes feel you've lost the interest/desire for something you used to love.
It may be that part of what you loved about swimming was bound up with your old team-mates, so it's very hard to relate to new team-mates and maybe different types of practices or coaching.
Have you had a chance to talk with any of your new team-mates one on one? Maybe start with just one person in the group... invite him/her to join you for coffee or something low-key. (Some clubs have snack bars on premises or at least a coffee machine.) Just maybe get to know one person and it could help break the ice with the others.
When I first started with a masters' group, I found that altho people were at first reserved (not unfriendly, really, just they didn't know me so well), they opened up more when I wrote an article for a local paper about the group and got some quotes from them for the article. I think what I learned from that is that if you're listening with interest to people, they are apt to open up... not always, but often. You don't have to write an article but I think simply listening and showing interest in a friendly way helps a lot.
As a newbie I always welcome advice from people with more ability and if you're friendly about it, I think people enjoy sharing what's helped them.
Also... you might ask yourself what about swimming you most enjoyed when you did enjoy it: was it the competition? the workouts? just swimming on your own? Maybe if you enter some event you haven't tried before, that could rekindle your excitement. Are there, maybe, some open water races you've always wanted to try?
Don't get discouraged. It's hard to make a big move, just give it time. And keep checking in here. These folks are pretty friendly, even to a slow swimmer like me.
Originally posted by sw70im
Dear All
...it seems I lost my love to the swimming ...any advice pls
What helps me most in keeping my interest in swimming is clearly identifying what motivates me to swim, and keeping that in the focus of my attention.
Some days, or weeks, it is tough to get motivated and drag myself over to the pool. When it gets really bad I have to just keep reminding myself why I do this, which is mainly for better health and overall better quality of day-to-day life.
Focusing on the rewards helps me a lot too. Better strength and mobility are the biggest rewards for me. Of course hearing female acquaintances say things like “Where do you get all those muscles?” doesn’t hurt either. ;-) :-D
