Swimming is fun but also comes with a few problems which suck. Do you get bored easily? Then you better pray you don’t have a long freestyle practice after school. Are you typically hungry? Swimming makes you a lot hungrier and it’s pretty difficult to swim on an empty stomach. Do you hate when people point out how much you eat or how quickly? Well as you probably know swimmers eat a lot of food and normally eat it fast. Just have to suck it up buttercup.
Hunger…. Swimming hungry is terrible! You feel nauseous and are expected to swim fast and work hard. Imagine trying to swim a practice right after Thanksgiving dinner. Your stomach is full and kinda hurts and you are tired and just want to lay down and take a nap. Swimming on an empty stomach is a lot like swimming on an extremely full one. Your stomach hurts and you feel as if some of your food may come up. You are tired and all you want to do is go home and go to bed. It is NOT at all easy or something I ever would like to do. I always try to make sure to have a snack with me to avoid swimming hungry. If I am hungry during practice I can hardly swim and am unable to focus. It becomes a terrible practice that I just can’t wait to finish. Eating…. Swimmers are always hungry and eat quite a bit more than the average person. I think it’s cool and funny when a 14 year old swimmer girl can eat more than a 28 year old man who hardly works out. Don’t believe me? Well I have a story to tell you! My assistant coach freshman year told me a story about a small 14 year old girl. After a high school swim meet on the way back home the team stopped at Portillos to eat. This girl ate 3 Big Italian Beef sandwiches. For those of you who are saying well that sandwich must not actually be big. I can tell you that you are WRONG! This sucker is an 8 inch monster. Full of Italian beef and peppers. I can tell you that I have only seen that much meat on a Jimmy John’s Garganuan sandwich. The small girl ate 3!!! 3!!! To add to the story my freshman year one of the big senior boys tried to eat 3 just like the 14 year old girl after the same meet. He was only able to eat 2 and could not get close to finishing another. Those are a few of the problems that swimmers face; however, the enjoyment and good from swimming definitely outweighs the bad.
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What is a speedo? What is a drag suit? What are jammers? What is a fastskin? What is a tech suit? These are all questions non swimmers ask when they hear swimmers talking about swimsuits. Well maybe not the first question. I am sure everybody knows what a speedo is! When you think of a speedo you probably think of an old man on a beach wearing a speedo and a visor looking out at the ocean. Not a pretty picture right? What is a speedo? Well a speedo is what typical swimmers use at regular season meets and to practice in. You may still be picturing that old man but it isn’t as bad as you think. It is the go to suit for practices and regular meets because there is not much there to cause drag and slow you down but also has all the coverage you need. Ok, Ok I may be stretching that one a bit but it doesn’t matter. What is a drag suit? A drag suit is similar to a speedo; however, it covers up much more and is worn over a speedo. This is what most swimmers who wear a speedo at practice wear. To cover up more of course! And to provide drag during workouts. The drag suit acts as a mini underwater parachute that goes through the water slowly. This puts resistance on the swimmer while they are swimming and helps to increase their strength and speed. Swimmers also wear this to feel fast during a race. Confused? Well imagine swimming all of your practices for two weeks before a meet with a drag suit. Won’t you be used to the extra drag and the speed that you typically swim during practice. But now in your race you aren’t wearing your drag suit. As you are racing you feel lighter and quicker which in turn allows you to go faster.
You may ask yourself many questions about swimming when you see guy swimmers in February. Why is did they bleach their hair? Why are some bald? Why is there no hair on their legs? These are many questions I find people asking my swimmer friends and I towards the end of our high school season. I am going to try to answer these questions for you.
Lastly: Why do swimmers shave their legs? This is done for two main reasons. Reason number one is that it reduces drag that the water has on the body as a swimmer is swimming. The second, main reason is that it is a mental thing for swimmers. It gives this slick feeling as you are swimming. It makes you feel as if you are swimming much faster than normal. It boosts confidence and helps you feel quicker in the water. Shaving helps to give swimmers that mental push to get ourselves swimming faster at the most important meet of the season. As you are swimming you are pushing your body to the max and when you feel like you can’t move anymore you have to push through the wall and continue to swim as fast as you can. The mentality you have before and during a race can win or lose the most important race of the season. That is why swimmers bleach their hair, shave their heads, and shave their legs.
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Zach GloverSenior in high school who is a dedicated swimmer. ArchivesCategories |