Friday, October 4, 2013

6A

My Relay Challenge

Ever since I was a young girl, I was on the swim team with my sister and friends.  I was a swim team member during my elementary school and middle school years on the Town of Wethersfield Swim Team called “Barracudas.”  Barracudas allows children from a very young age to start learning how to swim competitively.  The Barracuda Swim Team has daily practices during after school hours and also participates in swim meets across the State of Connecticut with other town teams.

I learned how to quickly swim all of the different strokes during Barracudas and how to swim during a race or meet.  When I entered high school, I swam on the Lady Eagles Swimming and Diving Team.  I enjoyed swimming during daily practices after school and participating in meets.  However, at times it was very challenging because there was a high expectation that our team would be successful during meets and improve our times. 

Many laps and many hours are involved with being a swimmer.  I had practice daily and my teammates and I often improved our times.  During one meet, four of my teammates and I swam the four-hundred freestyle relay or sixteen total laps.  That means that each swimmer on the relay team must swim a one hundred or four laps.  I was the fourth swimmer on the relay team so I had to swim last.  Unfortunately, the times of my teammates and I combined were too long and I felt like I lost the freestyle relay to the other team.  I had felt like I let down my relay team but also my entire team because I was the last swimmer of that relay. After that swim meet, I was reassured by my coach and my teammates that me and the relay team had done the best that we could and it was not any one individual’s fault that the race was lost to the other team. 

After that swim meet, I made sure that I practiced every day to reach my fullest potential.  I always took advice from my coach as well as my teammates in order to improve my strokes and times.  In order to improve, I had to be sure to dive quickly into the water, streamline with my head down, breathe at the right times, and always kick. As I grew throughout my high school swimming years, I became much better and faster.  I excelled in sports my whole life and always loved swimming, even though it was definitely a challenge, swimming was certainly a significant aspect of my life because it taught me about teamwork, practice, and learning from my mistakes.

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