...to swim or not to swim?
As some of ya'll might remember, I wrote a small blog on my daily swimming activities as a college swimmer this past season. If not for my back injury, I'm sure it would have been much more exciting...but oh well.
Well the season ended a few months ago, and I've been largely a land lubber since. Now that I'm settled for the summer though, I'm getting back into the pool on a regular basis.
The question is... do I swim as a member of the varsity team next year?
I just can't really decide.
My coach quit at the end of the season to move with her husband to Rhode Island (where he became the new head soccer coach at the university of rhode island). The new coach of both the men's and women's program is the former assistant coach of the men's team, Jason.
He's a pretty nice guy, but since the men's and women's teams were seperate last year, I don't really know much about his coaching methods.
I've got it down to the pros and cons of swimming next year, but I still can't decide what would be best...
Pros: Great exercise - forces me to go swim even when I'm tired
Seeing my teammates again
A chance to actually compete
The ability to say I'm still a college swimmer...
Cons: Last year's practice schedule was brutal. If this year is the same...if it's the same this year it means:
Crunch on academics
No social life for 5-6 months
Constantly exhausted
..possible reinjury of my back (although unlikely)
I just don't know. I'm concerned about my academics. I really screwed up my spring quarter, for unrelated personal reasons, and as a result my GPA is in the toilet. Since I'm entering my junior year, pulling up my academics is of huge concern to me. Also, I'm going abroad in the spring...so if I had no time to spend with my real friends during the season I wouldn't see them at all during the year....
....But I don't want to be a quitter. I know I wouldn't abandon the sport...but....agh...
What do I do?
GET IN THE POOL, SWIM AND REEK OF CHLORINE!!!
Seriously, swimming has helped many a person, whether it be for mental or physical reasons.
As for me? It's helped me two fold. I've met depression right in the face and Swimming has helped me ever since I've got back in the pool (and after a ten-year hiatus from swimming, too!!) and joined my Masters Team in '04.
As for the Varsity Team?? Give it a shot, what's the worse that could happen?? If you don't qualify for the team, it's no sweat off your back, at least you gave it your best.
If you're not already in a Masters Swim Club, do so, you won't regret it! You'll meet a lot of folks who share the same passion of swimming as you do, and possibly that one person that stands out of the crowd because of their enormous enthuseasm for the sport (I being one of those who has enormous enthuseasm myself) because swimming has changed their life so much and for the better, too.
