This article was submitted by Chris Fantz.
Just as we are swimmers (or swammers), we are also citizens of our world. Luckily, this is a role our sport prepares us well for.
Swimming transformed my life and it continues to do so over and over again. It brings me relationships and experiences that have forever shaped and improved my life. As athletes or coaches, we give a lot of ourselves to the sport. When our own contributions are sincere, we see them returned ten-fold in the lives we build through sport.
These ten keys lay out a framework for how we can excel as swimmers and citizens.
1. Show up to Workout.
Always. Swimming is a process-oriented sport and the best way to improve and master your process is to commit and follow through. Show dedication. You don’t stumble onto greatness. You forge it.
You should consider being physically here as the bare minimum. Much hard work follows. But, being the person who shows up without fail is no small feat in itself and therefore it must be our starting point. In life, showing up for others is how we grow and deepen our relationships. It is how we build trust. Swimming skills are life skills.
2. Train with Intention.
Showing up mentally is just as important as being physically present for workout. Think about what you’re doing. Ask good (polite) questions. Find out what works for others and what will work best for you. I always ask our collegiate swimmers to be a “student of the sport.”
Study swimming. Pay attention to what is happening around you. If you’re not racing in the championship final of your event, you should certainly be poolside watching that heat and learning everything you can.
3. Treat Swimming as a TEAM Sport.
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to stand in the media room at the men’s D-I NCAA meet in Federal Way. Tom Shields had just helped lead his team to victory and he was clearly in awe of what they’d been through. Though he had just won multiple individual events, it clearly was not all about him.
He said: “We are so much better than me. We are so much better than what I can give. We are… us.”
He sounds every bit the surfer poet from SoCal, but as athletes we can see what he’s getting at.
Every yard, every meter, every set you swim with your teammates can be a work of art. Our sport is an undertaking best performed with the backing of great teammates. You must be there for them just as they are trying to be their best for you.
My teammates challenged me and supported me. Just as I wanted to crush them in training, I also wanted to see every one of them succeed in competition. This doesn’t end. I still felt the same way about my masters teammates this morning at workout.
We must embrace what we can do together that might not be possible alone.
4. Be a Positive Influence Every Day.
You decide whether you add or subtract from your team and the world. No one else gets to make this call for you. Did your alarm go off before 5:00am? Did you have a rough day at school? Life happens. It’s still up to you whether you make someone’s day or ruin it. Never underestimate the power of this choice. Choose responsibly.
5. Be Punctual.
To workouts, to meets, to the block before your event, to the bus for a team road trip. Swimming skills are life skills. If you can’t get it together or show enough respect to be on time for these things, you aren’t going to do it in your classes, your internships, or your career. We are who we are and you can’t turn a skill like reliability on and off. Practice punctuality (which can also be read as RESPECT).
Practice it every day.
6. Celebrate the History of our Sport.
Learn all you can about those who came before you. When I talk to college or high school swimmers about the legends of my swimming youth—not so long ago—I see blank stares.
I get it. We’re in a golden age of swimming: the Phelps-Lochte-Missy-Ladecky era.
But, there have been other golden ages that paved the way. Read Stotan. Read Gold in the Water. Ask your coach about the best race they’ve ever seen.
Here’s something I did again recently with swim campers: Pull up some YouTube video of Misty Hymen in the 2000 Olympics and listen close for the moment that Rowdy Gaines realizes she isn’t going to die on the last lap of her 200 Fly, that the Olympic gold is hers. Shoot, you can even dip into the 90s or the 80s or before. Swimming has been around a while.
Most of our sport’s development came in the 20th century. Growing up, I studied and revered Biondi, Dolan, Evans, Rouse, Sanders, Stewart, Barrowman, Pankratov, Perkins, and dozens of others. Once you learn about your favorite swimmers, get to know who their coaches were. They just may prove your best resources and mentors when you inevitably make your way to coaching this sport you love.
7. Give Back to Swimming.
There is a real need for service and contribution in our sport. Mentor younger athletes. Get to know masters swimmers or lap swimmers who have different stories or different paths than yours. Help a friend or stranger conquer their fear of the water. It’s a liquid world out there and everyone deserves to swim in it.
In short, make this sport sing for others.
8. Be Thankful.
In much of the world, clean water is a luxury item. Gigantic pools full of that same clean water are often non-existent. Be thankful for this opportunity. While you’re at it, thank your parents and your coaches. Thank the teacher or professor who asks about your meet or excuses your absence from class.
Thank your officials. Most of them are unpaid and all of them are giving valuable time to our sport. For that matter, I’m not sure I ever thanked a lane timer until I became a coach and had to help secure timers. Now there is a thankless job—and one that many a better person than I will take on week in and week out because someone needs to keep the meeting running.
9. Keep Perspective.
I want to repeat one more time: Swimming skills are life skills.
Swim training does not happen in a vacuum—even if swimming with a snorkel or at high altitude can feel like all the air is gone. Giving your all to swimming sets you up to more effectively give your all to your family, your career, your art. Life is interconnected and examples you set in one area shine through in others. Adding to one facet of your life can improve all of them.
10. Live a Good Life.
We are swimming ambassadors in everything we do. We are part of a global family and our actions reflect on our sport. Our college swimmers know—even when they need reminded of it—that by being part of our program, they are representing our school and the sport of swimming wherever they go.
We are part of something great. Swimming affords each of us the opportunities to grow and learn about ourselves and the world. If you allow the sport to shape you in boundless ways, it will. And always remember that you have the ability to shape others, too.
Chris Fantz is the head swimming coach at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He has coached numerous conference champions and seen dozens of spectacular young men and women succeed in the sport of swimming, go on to graduate from college, and make positive impacts on our world. As a swimmer, he was a member of two NAIA National Championship teams.
Chris-Great article-I was a Lewis and Clark student and swimmer from 1989-’92. Some of my best memories from college were in that pool with my teammates. I am still close to many of them. It is true that the lessons I learned from collegiate swimming have been invaluable in my both my professional and personal life and have served me well. While I was not the strongest swimmer on the team, I was awarded most dedication and hustle for my team which was something I was proud of. I did continue to swim USMS for 10 years after I graduated and still swim today. As a career I went into secondary education and had the great fortune of coaching high… Read more »
Our society often overvalues sports ie. the hype, the cult of personality, the money, the win at any cost, that we lose perspective and lose the real value of sports. This post really turns it around in so many ways. Thank you!
Excellent post that provides greatly needed perspective these days. Thanks.
Most of these articles are kinda pointless, but I like all of the thoughts here, well done. I wish parents spent as much time teaching their kids to be good citizens as they did trying to make them “succeed” (academics, sports, other activities). The world would be a better place for it. If you value these attributes and teach them while coaching at your college I applaud you.
Thanks for taking the time to read and for sharing your feedback. I think giving real consideration to the kind of people we end up with through swimming (or education or other sports) is critical. The life skills and humanity can and do transfer. Many coaches do a great job mentoring and guiding young athletes as they navigate our tricky world. It’s something I hope we always keep working to improve.