feedback please?

I don't know you, of course, but it sounds like no matter what you do, you will always love swimming.

I know A part of me always will love swimming, I just dont enjoy it and i am not getting better and when you are the same speed you were 4 years ago but now slower its hard. I don't know if I am making the right decision. I am leaving here and attending a d3 school next year where I can swim if I choose , I just cant believe I am going to leave and give up my little scholarship i have here. I just love that people are giving me feedback and advice it helps me think about things more.Thanks everyone

I know A part of me always will love swimming, I just dont enjoy it and i am not getting better and when you are the same speed you were 4 years ago but now slower its hard. I don't know if I am making the right decision. I am leaving here and attending a d3 school next year where I can swim if I choose , I just cant believe I am going to leave and give up my little scholarship i have here. I just love that people are giving me feedback and advice it helps me think about things more.Thanks everyone Corny and mush I know, but have you seen the movie "Rudy?" Try watching again and wait for the scene where he quits and Charles Dutton lays it down to him. It's kind of how you need to llok at this situation. I never had the chance to go to university until I was 30. It was a hard slog (3 nights a week at class and 2 hours the other nights and all weekend reading) and it cost me a lot of my own money. I don't want to be harsh but look at what you have, the opportunity to get an education in exchange for your sweat in the pool--it's a gift. Trust me, it may seem like it's really hard now, but you will never have it so easy again. You need a hug or some sympathy? That's fine and perfectably undersatandable. Just don't give up on something now that you can never get back. OK? You will make it...just stick to the plan. :) :banana::banana:

Question: what changed between when you loved swimming and now?

There is a time to rest and take time off. I did this many times and competed until age 39. I would not give up the scholarship but you can always change your attitude about swimming make the training fun. Make plans for the summer that only includes fun swimming.

Thanks for the insight. It has me thinking more already even though I have been thinking a lot about this for a few months now. It is a hard decision and like many of you said, i will regret it many years down the road. Its hard but swimming has never come easy for me I was one of those people who always busted there butt, and never saw results in meets. I haven't really improved in about 4 years now and it gets harder all the time. I can't keep forcing myself to do something I don't enjoy or can I. Thanks for the input and if you have any more advice I would love it. Thanks

Thanks for the insight. It has me thinking more already even though I have been thinking a lot about this for a few months now. It is a hard decision and like many of you said, i will regret it many years down the road. Its hard but swimming has never come easy for me I was one of those people who always busted there butt, and never saw results in meets. I haven't really improved in about 4 years now and it gets harder all the time. I can't keep forcing myself to do something I don't enjoy or can I. Thanks for the input and if you have any more advice I would love it. Thanks You're not improving? Try the cross-training techniques I've posted at the bottom of this page, do this until the end of next semester. You should see some progress, and that will make you happy.

I understand your feeling about swimming. I was swimming from maybe 3rd or 4th grade I also lived and breathed swimming. Swimming everyday all year until High School. In HS I had alot of personal problems and just couldn't do it any more.. and just stopped. Looking back.30yrs later- I wished I would not have just stopped...I don't know if I would have kept going... but I didn't like knowing I just walked out- and quit. I'm now back with my HS swim coach and we laugh that I own him 2 years. Sometimes I think I was just burned out - along with the personal problems, Could you just be burned out or have you hit a wall? Or do you have freshman- itist - meaning alot of freshmen start out in College then go -Yikes - this is not what I thought it was going to be and drop out of school. Do you feel like this in swimming? We don't know how you feel I can only say don't make this decision because your mad or angry about something. But, It sounds at though you have thought it threw and if you feel you have to stop for a while then maybe that is what you have to do..if that is the case just go out and have fun and go and rip threw the water in your last meet. Seams like I remember a diver in the Olympics one year, was up on the board he was on his hands doing a hand stand getting ready to dive. Stopped, brought his feet down and walk off the board. He said he couldn't do this anymore and wouldn't dive if he could give it 100%. Of course we encourage you to stay and keep swimming. Maybe keep with it until schools get out for the summer and take the summer off, then get back in the water and see how you feel. Maybe you will feel better and won't have to give up the scholarship.

I know A part of me always will love swimming, I just dont enjoy it and i am not getting better and when you are the same speed you were 4 years ago but now slower its hard. I don't know if I am making the right decision. I am leaving here and attending a d3 school next year where I can swim if I choose , I just cant believe I am going to leave and give up my little scholarship i have here. I just love that people are giving me feedback and advice it helps me think about things more.Thanks everyone The scholarship complicates matters. I wish I could say I was ever good enough to merit one, but I wasn't. So even if you aren't improving, you must still be pretty darn good. Good for you. (Since you don't get along with your coach, I wonder if that is the reason you're not improving. If you don't embrace her/his system of training, that may be affecting your progress. Just a thought (my experience was similar)...) The question of whether you'll regret quitting swimming is a deceptively easy one to answer, and several people have hit on it already: it entirely depends on what you do with your life after swimming. I too quit swimming in college. (Like you, I was burned out and really didn't mesh with my coach.) I used that free time to party with my fraternity, join and become very active in student government, sleep in (!) and most importantly, meet and begin dating my (then future) wife. It's been 15 years since I last swam and I only recently got back into the pool. While I might feel some mild tinges of regret that I never lived up to my potential in college, I wouldn't change a thing in my life. If you quit, take advantage of the incredible amount of free time that quitting collegiate swimming will open up. The complication, again, is losing that scholarship. You could think of swimming like any part-time job you might have in college. Given the cost of school these days, on an hourly basis swimming might be a very well-paying job. Unless mom and dad will pay for you to go to this D3 school, it *might* be worth sucking up. Very tough decision. Good luck and remember that Masters Swimming will always be there for you should you quit swimming now and want to come back to it in the future. It's a million times more fun because *you* really dictate your involvement level. Getting up for 6:30am practices works a lot better as an adult when it's entirely voluntary.

A few thoughts from me as a former collegiate swimmer and current university professor. -- College swimming has an incredible attrition rate. I think only 3 people (out of about 8) in my class actually made it through the whole 4 years, and I have heard similar things from many others. It is very demanding physically, mentally, emotionally, and it takes a lot of time besides. So if you do quit, you are not alone. -- Masters swimming will still be there for you regardless of your decision. The majority of masters swimmers did not ever swim in college so you are already ahead of the game. Masters swimming is a blast, it is much less stressful, and you alone dictate the level of your committment. Still, you will likely not ever be as fast as you once were (though it is certainly possible). -- You mention how frustrated you are that you haven't improved lately. That is hard to deal with, granted, but everyone will plateau eventually. Get used to it. Because after you plateau, would you like to guess what comes next for most people? At some point swimming will have to become more for you then just the end result: the training, the striving, the racing, the cameraderie, etc. It sounds very zen or something, I know, but you have to enjoy the journey as much or more than the destination. -- This is the parent and educator in me speaking, but the single most important thing to consider is academics. Will the extra time improve your grades? How does the school you are considering compare with the one you are in now? And if quitting swimming means it is significantly less likely (for financial reasons) that you will get your college degree then that is a VERY powerful argument for sticking with it -- indeed, it should be the overriding factor. I loved college swimming and wouldn't trade it for anything. I never entertained a single thought of quitting. You have had a much tougher road and, barring a significant change in either your approach toward the sport or in the coach/team, that is likely to continue. If it makes your life miserable and seems like it will stay that way, then there is nothing at all shameful about stopping as long as it doesn't negatively impact your academics. You will still be able to train and compete, though likely not ever again at the same level. I hope that helps. Good luck with a tough decision. (And I also agree with those who say you should wait to make this decision until the off-season. Until then, try to enjoy what may be your last college season.) Chris