There's many reasons why I don't compete in swim meets. One reason is I'm nowhere near competitive. At USMS nationals, after one of my heats, someone told me that I was one of the reasons the meet was taking so long. But I really would rather be doing other things with my time and money (such as a vacation to Europe). If I want to test how fast I'm swimming, why not just ask my coach to time me? I'm certainly not about to shell out hundreds of dollars for a fancy suit that I'll wear a handful of times. We hardly have anyone on my team who competes, so I really don't see much of a point.
I see swimming as a way to relieve stress. Worrying about things like meets, buying the best suit, etc simply create stress.
Whatever jackass told you that you were dragging out the meet needs to be stuffed in a bottle and sent out on the Japanese current, to paraphrase the late, great Hunter S. Thompson. Anyone can swim 3 events at Nats with no qualifying whatsoever, and anyone with the guts to swim an event on the National level deserves a round of applause when he or she touches the wall, whether their time was smokin' or glacial.
Competing for me is all about fun. I didn't spend a whole lot of time agonizing over whether the B70 would be better than the FS Pro I already had, or whether the Jaked is better yet. I felt like buying a tech suit or two, and did. I'm not by any means a top tier competitor, but I get a rush out of trying to better my times; beating an occasional nemesis or two; swimming relays with friends and folks I've admired; and watching the jaw-dropping performances of the top tier competitors, especially the ones in the older age groups. I suppose competing causes me a minor amount of stress, but in my mind it's good, motivational stress, as opposed to the negative stresses brought on by work and family life. As my coach says, where else can folks our age get the old butterflies going with no real negative consequences for falling short of whatever it is you were hoping to achieve?
I can't get all of that out of practice. Obviously, YMMV, but for any fence-sitters out there, competing keeps me motivated and is really just a whole bunch of fun. I highly recommend it -- at any level, but the fun factor just ramps up at the National level -- to all.
There's many reasons why I don't compete in swim meets. One reason is I'm nowhere near competitive. At USMS nationals, after one of my heats, someone told me that I was one of the reasons the meet was taking so long. But I really would rather be doing other things with my time and money (such as a vacation to Europe). If I want to test how fast I'm swimming, why not just ask my coach to time me? I'm certainly not about to shell out hundreds of dollars for a fancy suit that I'll wear a handful of times. We hardly have anyone on my team who competes, so I really don't see much of a point.
I see swimming as a way to relieve stress. Worrying about things like meets, buying the best suit, etc simply create stress.
Whatever jackass told you that you were dragging out the meet needs to be stuffed in a bottle and sent out on the Japanese current, to paraphrase the late, great Hunter S. Thompson. Anyone can swim 3 events at Nats with no qualifying whatsoever, and anyone with the guts to swim an event on the National level deserves a round of applause when he or she touches the wall, whether their time was smokin' or glacial.
Competing for me is all about fun. I didn't spend a whole lot of time agonizing over whether the B70 would be better than the FS Pro I already had, or whether the Jaked is better yet. I felt like buying a tech suit or two, and did. I'm not by any means a top tier competitor, but I get a rush out of trying to better my times; beating an occasional nemesis or two; swimming relays with friends and folks I've admired; and watching the jaw-dropping performances of the top tier competitors, especially the ones in the older age groups. I suppose competing causes me a minor amount of stress, but in my mind it's good, motivational stress, as opposed to the negative stresses brought on by work and family life. As my coach says, where else can folks our age get the old butterflies going with no real negative consequences for falling short of whatever it is you were hoping to achieve?
I can't get all of that out of practice. Obviously, YMMV, but for any fence-sitters out there, competing keeps me motivated and is really just a whole bunch of fun. I highly recommend it -- at any level, but the fun factor just ramps up at the National level -- to all.
