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 Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 8:23 am
I've been swimming for four years now, but it's just not fun anymore. Every practice feels more like work. I'm not close friends with a lot of people on the team, and it's cutting into a a lot of other clubs I'm in with several of my closer friends. At the beginning of the summer, I thought about quitting but then picked it up again, thinking the summer season would be better. It really wasn't. I don't enjoy going to meets anymore. I don't really like the highly competitve spirit of the school season, either. My parents are telling me that I should at least finish out this year, and that it will get better and I'll want to keep swimming. But I feel like that's what I tried to do this summer. Does anyone have any advice on what they think I should do?
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:16 pm
no, dont quit...you just need to make it more fun.
i swim on a highschool team and we are sooooooooo close! tons of ppl have said we're the closest team theyve ever seen. and since we're all awesome friends its really fun.
so...you just need to get your team closer. by doing things together [other than practice] our team does spaghetti dinners before meets and last year we went to this haunted house thing together one night and before our big meet at the end of the season we went to perkins for breakfast and last week we had 'night games' at someones house and on bus rides to away meets we sing and talk as a whole team the whole way. so help start your team doing things like that and hopefully it will be more fun for you to swim
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:23 pm
The problem is I'm not really into that stuff. Since I'm not super social, I just tend to fade into the background at large gatherings.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:41 pm
I got tired of swimming for a team also, so I quit and begain swimming with my best friend...there is no pressure of the coaches, but you still get to swim. That worked for me, good luck.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:50 am
I know what you mean, when you aren't close to your teammates. All of my friends are not swimmers, and those swimmers who I have become close with have always quit or moved away shortly after we became friends. My teammates are awesome as teammates, and our championship season meets are a blast because of them. I get along really well in that respect. What I find hardest is going to training camps, because we are training insanely, and they are my only form of human contact, so sometimes I feel rather left out.
I guess what's always kept me going has been my love for the sport, though recently (as in, the past two years), I haven't been doing as well in that respect either. I haven't made a best time in my best event since 2005. I've dreaded competing. The one thing I haven't lost is my enthusiasm for my best event - I can still chatter on to anyone about how great of an event it is, how cool are the people who are good at it, and I love to watch it.
I do hope to make a best time this year, as I will be retiring in early spring (this is my final year of university, and also, my last year on the varsity team). For many years I wanted to go to the Olympics, but I went through a self-discovery process last winter and I realized that that was not what I truly wanted deep down - I didn't want it for me, I wanted it to impress everyone else, and that is not the way to get there nor is it a way to let myself feel fulfilled. I know now what I want to do with my life, and what will make me happy, and I intend to pursue it. Heh, just in time for graduating from university (it took me long enough!). But even so, I would like to make this last year as awesome as possible, so I will support my teammates in their Olympic endeavors (there's bound to be at least 5 of them who make it... there were 5 last time, and 12 the time before). I will swim as best as I can at the university champs so that we can win it again (hopefully we will). And I will swim my best overall so that I can leave the sport satisfied with myself... I really want to make a best time... 0.01s is all I need.
So, all that being said, what I want you to think about are your goals in swimming. What do you want to get out of it? What do you enjoy about it? Is it worth it to you to continue swimming?
Do not think about what others want of you, because that will not satisfy you, and if you are not satisfied, you cannot possibly satisfy anyone else, so those who want you to do something will not be happy if you do it and you are unhappy... get it? So do what you want to do. Good luck!
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:07 pm
Lynor, thanks for that advice. I really don't think I have the love for the sport that I had in middle school. I swam because it was one of the few things I could do with my friends. All the friends I had on that team quit, either for other commitments or simply because they weren't really serious about it, as swimming was a no-cut sport at our school. I've been looking into a lot of different stuff lately (tennis and ballet seem to be the two biggest contenders for my possible future free time...) that I think I would like to try, but the rough training schedule never left room for.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 1:10 pm
in the end it all comes down to doing what you love or what challenges you, if you think youd have a greater time playing tennis and it will keep you in top form and quick then go for it it just all comes back down to having the passion for the sport your in
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Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:11 am
thesleepstalker in the end it all comes down to doing what you love or what challenges you, if you think youd have a greater time playing tennis and it will keep you in top form and quick then go for it it just all comes back down to having the passion for the sport your in yea i totally agree with him it depends on u really if u are getting tire of swimming than go do something else than don't let life bring u down -smiles-
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:48 am
I've had some serious thoughts about quiting also. I don't really have many friends on the team, but, I need some sport to keep me active and not become a couch potatoe redface so I've kept it up. I swim every morning in the summer from 6-8am, 9-11am and sometimes 4-6pm. So I'm very busy and swimming keeps me from getting fat and bored xp
My advice- Don't quit.
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