I have failed and excelled in many sports events, but, believe it or not, the events that stick to my memory are the ones in which I do both well and poorly. One of the most recent events in which I had this experience was a swim meet at TMEC, or the Temecula Swim Club.
On January 11th, my mom and I set out for Temecula, one and a half hours before the warm up time at one o’clock . After an uneventful one hour drive, we arrived at the swimming pool with ten minutes to spare. But when I saw my couch, Tyler, he informed me that the swim meet was 15 minutes behind schedule. So my mom and I found a comfortable, shady seat and settled down for the wait. While I just stared at my book without taking anything in because of my nervousness, my mom started to let out a stream of continuous advice on all of my weaknesses, like the start and the different types of turns.
At around 1:20, we started our warm-ups. These were pretty uneventful, apart from being kicked one the head a couple of times and having people brush my toes for the whole warm up. At 1:40, the actual meet finally started, but I still had to wait a while before my first event, the 100-yard IM’s.
I had a bad start. Even though my time for the IM’s improved, I got DQ because I turned my shoulders past vertical in the Back to Breast turn. But quickly I forgot about that as my next event came up, the 100-yard freestyle. I made a satisfactory dive in, keeping up with the others. My muscles steadily became sore as I pushed on. The three flip turns I did were all neat and quick. When I took my first breath after my third flip turn, I caught a fleeting glimpse of Coach Tyler bent down, yelling at me to put in greater efforts. As I reached the last 25 meters, I gave a final effort, and with my muscles screaming, I finished the race, coming in third of the heat. I was even more happy about the fact that I got in the Red Division, one division above the entry level.
Before I knew it, the next event, 50 Breaststroke, was up. My mom encouraged me and patted me on the back. It somehow gave me strength, and I was grateful for that simple yet effective gesture. As the starting machine beeped, my dive this time was not so great, for I belly-flopped slightly, and a small amount of water found its way into my goggles. But the dive was still okay, and I recovered quickly. After the first 12 meters of the race, I gave it my all as I had before, and hit the finish with the muscles seriously on fire. When I talked to Coach Tyler, he was impressed that I dropped about 5 seconds on a 50-yard race. I also made the Red Division for this event.
My last event, the 50 Free, was separated from the 50 Breaststroke by more than 10 events, so my mom and I settled in for another long wait. Sometimes we would chat quietly about random things, and the rest of the time was spent in companionable silence. Finally, after almost thirty minutes of waiting, my last event was up. As soon as I left the diving block, I knew the dive was a good one. After 4 quick dolphin kicks I broke the surface and swam furiously to the other end. The flip turn was excellent, and I finished first of the heat.
This 50 Free event made the swim meet stick to my memory because I also found out that I had squeezed my way into the Blue division, only one level below the Junior Olympics. Also, the DQ of the 100 IM’s gave me a learning experience. My mom told me that a great way of learning is through your mistakes and failures. Surprisingly , I agree.
This swim meet contained both the positives and negatives I needed to learn. I hope this experience will stay with me for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment