Courtesy of Natalie Brophy
“Swimmers, step up,” says the official, followed by two short whistle blows.
You step up on the starting block, plant your feet and bend over to grab the front of the block with your hands.
You hear the official say, “Take your mark” and you grip the block harder, tensing your muscles.
“BEEEEEEEEEP!”
The buzzer goes off and you throw your body forward, using all of your strength to propel yourself off the blocks, up into the air and down into the water.
Once you hit the water, you kick up to the surface and start swimming like mad. This is the moment you’ve been training for. All those months of hard work have led up to this one race.
This is the life of a division III college swimmer.
5:30 a.m.
“BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEEEEEEEP!”
You groan loudly as you sleepily pound on your alarm clock, willing that god-awful shrilling sound to stop.
After laying down for five more minutes and contemplating quitting for the ten thousandth time in your life, you drag yourself out of bed and into the bathroom to splash some water on your face and brush your teeth.
You shuffle back to your room, pull on your workout clothes and lace up your sneakers. You grab a granola bar from the kitchen because it’s too damn early to eat a real breakfast and walk to the front door to wait for your ride to come.
“Maybe they’ll forget about me so I can go back to bed,” you pray as the minutes tick by.
Then you see a pair of headlights cut through the morning darkness.
“Damnit!” you curse as you walk out to the car.
When you get in, no one talks. Everyone is too tired and too miserable. You drive to the pool in silence. There is a collective groan as the driver shuts off the car and everyone gets out and trudges towards the pool.
The silence continues as you plod into the locker room to hang up your coat and go down to the weight room.
When you get to the weight room the rest of your teammates are talking quietly in groups, lying on the floor or finishing up their morning PowerBar. You sit against the wall, sipping from your water bottle as you wait for practice to start.
“GOOOOOOD MORNING!” booms your overly enthusiastic weight room coach. “Everyone to the gym for warm up!”
More groans erupt from you and your teammates as you make your way up to the gym.
“Six laps around the perimeter!” barks coach. “No cutting corners!”
Reluctantly, you start running.
“I hate this,” you think to yourself. “I can’t run. That’s why I’m a swimmer!”
You finish your laps, huffing and puffing as if you just sprinted a marathon. You go through the rest of the warm up exercises and head back down to the gym to start your lift. You grab your lift sheet from the desk and meet up with your lifting group. You make small talk with them while you wait for coach to demonstrate the day’s exercises.
7:30 a.m.
After the hard workout you change out of your sweaty clothes and wriggle into your swimsuit. You grab your equipment
and wait behind your lane as you watch in horror as coach writes this morning’s set on the board.
1,000 SKIPS warm up
8×50 build 1-4, 5-8 @1:00
4×75 long turn drill
50 mid-pool 25s—work your turns!
200 cool down
“This shouldn’t be too bad,” you think to yourself as you get ready to dive in to the chilly water. “At least I won’t be sweaty after this.”
8:30 a.m.
You drag yourself out of the pool and into the locker room to shower and change before class. Everyone is a bit more talkative and there is a lot of conversation as you shampoo your hair and wash the chlorine off of your body.
“Why do I even bother showering before I go to class?” someone wonders aloud. “I’ll just be back here in eight hours anyways.”
“I have a class at 9:10, who wants to eat breakfast with me in Cooper?” someone else asks.
“Me! I will,” you respond.
You never turn down an invitation for food.
You finish changing and you and your teammate head over to the dinning hall for breakfast. The two of you wolf down enough eggs, cereal, hash browns and coffee to feed a family of four and rush off to class.
9:10 a.m.
You make it to your Tools for Computing class just as the professor begins his lecture.
“We’ll be watching a video today in class,” he says.
“Ugh! I hate this class,” you mumble to yourself.
The drab voice of the narrator begins droning on about god-knows-what. The lecture hall is so warm and you’re so tired.
You fight to keep your eyes open and your attention on the screen.
“I’ll just close my eyes for a second,” you think as you get comfortable in your seat.
Suddenly, you’re awoken by the lights flicking on and your professor saying, “That’s it for today. Check Angel for this week’s assignment.”
“Damn! That’s the third time I’ve fallen asleep in this class! I hope I can stay awake in my next two classes. I need a coffee…”
2:00 p.m.
You’re finally finished with class and back in your room. You sit down at your desk to start your homework. You turn on your computer and open up your public justice textbook, but you can’t focus on the words on the page. Your chair is so uncomfortable and you’re sick of sitting at desks all day.
“I’ll just do this in my bed,” you decide as you climb into bed and get comfy. “Ahhhhhh, much better.”
Your bed is so much more comfortable than your hard desk chair. And the handmade quilt your grandma knitted you for Christmas two years ago is so soft and warm. The arms of your boyfriend pillow are wrapping around you, begging you to lean back and relax. You’re trying so hard to be productive, but you’re so drowsy and you just can’t keep your eyes open any longer.
Suddenly, you’re shaken awake by your roommate.
“Wake up, it’s 3:45!” says your roommate. “Our ride is here for practice.”
4:00 p.m.
You’re back at the pool for afternoon practice. The looks on your teammates’ faces who just finished one o’clock practice do not reassure you.
“Was it a hard one?” you ask a teammate.
“Oh yeah,” he nods.
“Greeeeeat…” you say as you head into the locker room to put on your suit.
For the second time today, you grab your equipment and wait behind your lane as coach write this afternoon’s practice on the board.
“Jerry’s abs!” says your assistant coach. “Everyone grab a mat.”
By the time you’re done with the 20-minute set of planks, pushups and crunches, you’re dripping sweat and cannot wait to dive into the pool to cool off.
“I don’t even care if we do 21-Club today,” you say to your lane partner. “I just want to get in the water!”
6:30 p.m.
Practice is over and you and your teammates make a mad dash to the dining hall before it closes at 7:00 p.m. You make it there by 6:55 and you swear you see the dinning hall staff cringe when they see a gang of 15 hungry swimmers stampede up the steps.
You fill your tray with lots of protein and carbs—just what you need to build muscle and recover after that hell-ish practice. You don’t even feel self-conscious when you see people staring at the pile of chicken and mountains of pasta on your tray. You worked hard for this. You deserve to eat this food.
Dinner with your teammates is your favorite time of the day. Over the last few months, these people have become like your second family.
After “family dinner” you head over to the library to squeeze as much homework in as you can before you can’t keep your eyes open anymore. Coach always says that grades come first, so you can’t let yourself fall behind.
11:00 p.m.
After your study session in the library, you decide it’s time to relax before bed. You’re stretched out on one of your “non-swim” friend’s bed watching the last season of “How I Met Your Mother” on Netflix when you catch a glimpse at the time.
It’s already past 11 o’clock!
“I have to go!” you exclaim.
Your friends look confused.
“Why?” one of them asks, looking puzzled. “It’s only 11.”
“I have to go to bed,” you say. “I have practice at 5:30 tomorrow morning.”
Your lungs are burning as you come off your last wall and take a breath. Your body is exhausted and it would be so easy to give up now. But you’ve been training too hard all year to give up. You put your head down and sprint with all you have left to the wall.
You hit the touchpad, stopping the clock, and look up at your time. You won your heat and went a personal best time.
“YES!” you scream as you pump your fist in the air. “I did it!”
That is why you swim. That is why you wake up at 5:30 every morning and go to practice twice a day. That is why you sacrifice my weekends at swim meets and stay in when your friends are going out on a Thursday night.
You swim because you crave that feeling of accomplishment that comes after a hard race when you finally reach your goals.
You swim because you love the sport.
life as a swimmer
I feel that swimming is taking over my life and I just don’t want to do it anymore what should I do?
Just follow your gut feeling and do what makes you feel best
As a “swammer” reading this and looking back on my 4 years of college swimming, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to go through it all just 1 more time. When you swim your last race and the water has a chance to settle, there’s nothing in this article that you don’t miss. 5:30 alarms, that feeling of pain/accomplishment/ more pain after finishing a hard practice, are all worth it for that last race, and you’re friendship with your teammates is built around that struggle you all overcame together.
Future college swimmers: don’t let this article scare you. While it is hard, there is something amazing about it that you won’t experience anywhere else. It is definitely possible to swim,… Read more »
This has to be one of the most articulate, well-written, and absolutely true comments I’ve seen, here or elsewhere. This article describes college swimming to a T. Yes, it is hard, grueling, masochistic, and at times monotonous. And yes there are times you will question your decision. I was certainly one of those who did it more often than I probably should have. Yet, here I sit, two years out, aching to be woken up at 5:30 in the middle of December while the rest of school is already home for break, getting ready for practice. Seize the moments while you are there. Build off your teammates and coaches and the hard work you’re putting in. Those people will become… Read more »
Chills. Literally chills. 100% accurate. As frustrating as the desire to quit is, it’s real. Happy I didn’t, and trying to help young kids do the same now. Thank you Natalie!
This is fantastic! I only say to watch your transitions you had such brilliant ones at first and then they tapered off. Keep them, they show the time and at the ending it was brilliant wrap around, but if could have used a transition. Well done! Good luck next season!
I agree whole- heartedly with AD, this is exactly the article you’re daughter should be reading. If it makes her question why she wants to swim in college then it will help her decide better whether or not to swim. Because the last thing that anyone wants on their team, coaches and teammates alike is someone that’s going to complain about how hard practices are or how they don’t want to wake up in the morning. They made a commitment to swim in college and that’s a commitment that they should honor.
This is exactly the type of story she should be reading. College swimming is no joke and college coaches want serious, committed swimmers on their team. A lot of swimmers end up quitting after they have made a commitment to their team because they didn’t realize beforehand just how hard it would be. This is very frustrating to coaches. So if this story scares her and turns her off to college swimming, then she probably wasn’t that serious about it anyway.
This is NOT the story my 11th grade daughter needs to see as she ponders continuing her career in college…
As a college swimmer, this article is scarily accurate. If you or your daughter can’t read this before committing to a college, well then you or her must not be ready. This is what it takes to be a college athlete and student, KB: Hard work, commitment, and heart.