Article November 5, 2012 Issue

A spiritual swim season

Daniel McKenzie

Courtesy photo

Swim season had arrived, and I was very excited about what lay ahead over the next couple of months. Our school’s swim team had doubled in size since last year, a lot of my close friends were on the team, and I had been named a co-captain. I began the season by setting several goals for myself, one of which was qualifying for the state meet in my two principal events: the 100-meter butterfly and the 50-meter freestyle. This seemed like a reasonable goal, and I had trained hard over the summer to prepare for it.

When our swim meets started, however, I noticed that my race times were significantly slower than they had been the year before. After every race I would look up excitedly at the score board, see the time I’d made, and feel discouraged.

One day before practice, my coach asked me if I would still be grateful for the season even if I didn’t qualify for the state meet. I don’t remember how I responded, but it was clear that he was trying to get me to think about why I was swimming. The question really made me wonder about my motivation—was it just to win medals or to break records? During practice that day, I thought about my reasons for swimming. I thought about all the good that was evident in the season: how much I enjoyed the company of my teammates, how I enjoyed the chance to be a leader on the team, and how much I had improved in my technique. I realized that these elements of swimming were much more important than the times on the scoreboard.