Swimming is a Hard Sport.

Swimming Is a Sport

Andrea Basile

        Authors Note: This piece is about how swimming is a very hard sport. This piece is for people who think swimming is easy. After you read it, I hope you realize the truth. I would like feedback on if your opinion about swimming has changed. Thanks!

The water rushing roughly past my ears, drowning out any other sounds.  My arms are flawlessly going back and forward, back and forward…my hands are catching the water beneath me, pulling me fiercely through the water. My legs never stop kicking, but that’s okay, because it moves me forward. My body smoothly rotates through the blue clear liquid. I curl my body into the smallest ball, and I explode of the wall, not breathing. The only thing I can hear besides the rushing water is the fast beating of my heart, fluttering like a butterfly. Thump-thump…thump-thump. I set that as a rhythm of harmony as a swim back and forward across the 25 meter pool. My body is exhausted and tired, when I touch the wall to the end. I do not care what anyone thinks. Swimming is a hard sport.  

            Everyday my body aches because of hard practices. I complain sometimes and people ask me why, and I tell them I’m sore from swimming. Their reaction is what sets me off. They say “Swimming? That’s not even a hard sport!” Well let me ask you this. Can you swim 6,800 yards in 2 hours? No. I don’t think so. Can you hold your breath underwater for 50 yards, then rest for 15 seconds, and do it again? No. I think the reason people think it’s not a hard sport is because you don’t get hurt in it. That’s probably the reason why I’m good at it, actually! I’m awful at combat sports. What I have realized over the years is that, the sports people think are the least “hard”; THOSE are the sports that are the hardest. For example, I used to think that gymnastics was easy…I was very wrong. But, to get back on topic, my answer to those people that say swimming is easy is usually this; “Come to one of my practices.”

            One thing people do not know about swimming is that, to be good, you need to work out besides just being in the pool. You need to do sit-ups, pushups, medicine ball activities, running, pull-ups, jumping, squats, planks, ropes, stretch-cords, you name it! Most people don’t know that. That’s why when I do so well in gym class; people say “Wow Andrea, you’re really good at pull-ups! Do you play any sports?” and I answer proudly “Yes, I’m a swimmer.” That is why I have the fasts time in the girl’s mile.

 Besides doing workouts other than being in the pool, swimming helps me a lot in my physical shape. Swimming is the reason I am not fat. I eat so much and I never gain a pound because I burn all of it off. A lot of people eat a lot but they don’t ever burn it off, so they need to be careful what they eat….but not me! I eat whatever I want. Therefore swimming is actually a great sport to do.

Besides swimming helping you with your weight, swimming work every single muscle in your whole body. Making it one of the hardest sports, in my opinion. It works you abs because you need to keep yourself rotating in the water and keep yourself afloat. It defiantly works you arms because you never stop swimming and pulling yourself through water. Your legs probably get the most tired because you’re constantly kicking very fast. Swimming helps you with cardiovascular fitness, strength, and mostly, in my case, it helps you with endurance. I am what’s considered a “distance swimmer” that means I am good at swimming fast for a long time. It also means I’m consistent with my speed and I don’t slow down. I have endurance. Swimming is what gave me endurance, and that’s the reason I’m so good at running the mile, because I can run fast for a long time.    

            So as you can see, it bothers me when people tell me that swimming’s “so easy”. When really it’s not. It works every muscle in your body, it helps you stay in shape, it helps with endurance, you don’t get hurt in it, and you do much more than just “swim”. So whenever someone tells me swimming is easy…well I guess they’ll just have to try it out first.