Retired or current swimmers.. would you share thoughts, please?!?

Question

I began swimming since I was four and became a competitive swimmer. At age 12 I became an endurance swimmer and did very well in regional and national meets. I had a great team, and really enjoyed being with my friends even though most of them were older than me. The time came when they retired to go to college or do other things, and though I stayed in the team along with some other teammates, I realized things weren't really the same. I stopped swimming competitively last year because I had rearranged my priorities and started focusing more in other things such as school. Now, I can't believe I spent so much time and effort in swimming, because I feel I was somehow missing many other things. However, I'm glad I did what I did and have no regrets. I often wonder what would it be like if I go back, and think that even though I could still swim well, I'd never really enjoy it as much because many of my old friends have gone or have changed too. Has any one ever felt the same?

Answer 1

I had to give up my hardcore swimmer status because of an injury that cost me a scholarship. I stopped swimming when I was 17 because of subluxed tendons in my left shoulder. I had surgery on said shoulder about a year later and was released back to swimming shortly after my PT ended. The surgery I had was experimental and supposedly at the time the only surgical procedure for my injury that would allow me to swim butterfly afterward. I couldn't WAIT to get back in the water! However, I was almost 20 by then and my career peaked when I was 16 so I knew I wouldn't be setting the world on fire.

My workouts were less intense as were my strength and power but I still LOVED to swim. I had to accept that I wasn't going to be anything spectacular and I readily took on the task of simply enjoying myself and bettering myself. I couldn't swim in college because it would have been too intense so I set my sights on triathlon and picked up lacrosse instead. Running, biking and swimming have become a way of life for me. I teach and coach swimming and I can't imagine life without it, I miss the pool when I am in the off season or tapering or sick. Though I never got to excel to the caliber I wanted to, I still enjoy being in the water and am still a swimmer at heart.

I currently compete with a triathlon team and coach a team at the YMCA. Swimming is a HUGE part of my life and I've never let it NOT be fun. To me, bettering your times and trainning hard ARE the fun of it! However, the friends and teammates do make a difference and I can see your dilemma. My buddies and I were so much alike that we never thought about swimming coming between us, just making us closer.

In conclusion, I think it's great that you swam and you enjoyed it and I think if you got back into the pool with people who felt more like you do about swimming (enjoying it, not pushing for Olympic gold) you would find your place again. Once a swimmer, always a swimmer!!!

Good luck in whatever you do!

Answer 2

ive been a competitive swimmer for quite some time and I really enjoy it, but I have seen many great athletes burn out. Swimming seems to have the greatest burn out rate among any other sport just because of its intensity and dedication.

I spend a lot of time in the pool and honestly sometimes wonder if its all worth it, because it basically sends my social life to the crapper. But on my all girls team we are all like sisters, so the girls I would normally spend all my time with are the girls who I am swimming with five hours a day. Swimming has always just been something I enjoyed, but mostly because I continue to see results that I like and want to keep pushing myself.

The thing that makes swimming worthwhile is--i know this sounds corny--when you hit the wall and break a record or get first place by a couple hundredths. This, for me, rekindles all the enthusiasm I have for the sport. Also, so many people respect swimmers for there dedication and envy our lean toned bodies and discipline. We are role models to the non swimmers and I continue to enjoy swimming, even though I do sometimes wonder if I am making the right choice

Answer 3

Yes !!! I'll tell you something.You were a junior to the people you mentioned here.All was in your heart was the respect for your seniors.Believe me I have the same feelings that you are talking about.It feels so bad when your mentor or the people you really admire from your heart are leaving you and you'll get very less time to meet them.It was certainly not the reason you left swimming.

I'll tell you a secret it will be more enjoyable if you back to swimming because as you grow up you will find your self in the same place where your seniors were.You'll be satisfied that know you are at the people who admire you were once just like you.Your problem is of respect and the misery of losing some one you like.So. if you want to swim then swim and put rest At bay.When time comes you'll get the real meaning of what I have said right now.The feeling of achievement and the feeling of respect are totally something Else and that is exactly what separates us as a sports persons.All the best.

Answer 4

I swam all the way through high school and college. I was never particularly good but stuck with it because of the friends I made and because I was in great shape. I always felt like crap in the off season compared to when I was swimming. My grades were even better during the season. I have no regrets at all. It was a wonderful time. I'm considering starting up again now with a Masters club.

Answer 5

I decided to quite when I was 14 and it became more competitive and less fun. The reason it was less fun was because my friends were so stuck in their workouts and times and trying to psych everyone else out before the race. The relays weren't fun anymore.

I think with swimming, you either are completely dedicated to improvement or completely dedicated to winning. It becomes less about friends and less about fun. I'm glad i got out when i did. My sister swam up through college and burned out. It stopped being fun for her when she was 15. And you're right, the fun comes from the friends you have and how you spend time with them between events.

Now I just get the urge to swim laps. The tranquility a pool offers warps you into another personal world under water. Find your fun in the relaxing laps without the competition.

If you find fun in the competition and pushing yourself to get better then take it up again. If you want a fun team... join a bowling league.

Answer 6

i can relate.... my friends are in high school and i am swimming all by myself now because they are doing high school swimming... when they come back for the summer they are so difftent (but i can still beat them) some times i know it is hard but you just have to keep truging also congrats for being so good. also if you had gone back if would of been diffrent you wouldn't of been as fast after you quit but if you haden't then you might of lost the love for the sport... but you can't go back it time so mabey you could start swimming again and get some of you friends back into swimming so yes i do feel the same as you did...

Answer 7

yea i think its only fun when you have friends to do it with. but i still love it anyways, but then again ive had friends with me the whole way. last year i had the option of stepping up to a team with one or two of my friends, that team was one of the best in the area. i chose to stick with the one i have because tonnsss of my friends are on my current team.

Answer 8

thought exactly the same thing, only i retired when i was 13, and still swim for school nd stuff

Answer 9

nope im 13 and my life is like eat sleep swim and it will always b that way no regrets 4 me