10 REASONS SWIMMERS ARE THANKFUL FOR SWIMMING

BY MIKE GUSTAFSON//CORRESPONDENT

Oh, we swimmers love to [sometimes] loathe swimming. Like any love-hate relationship, swimming is like the vegetables you consume but only-because-you-should, or like that long history textbook that takes a year to finish but makes an impact on you forever. It is good for you. It is cold. It gives you self-esteem. It is cold. It improves your goal setting and time management abilities. It is cold. 

As we approach the annual Time of Thanks, and beyond that Time, the Time of Never-Ending Pain and Doom [otherwise known as holiday training], it may be necessary to step back and reflect on all swimming offers. Because, really, we swimmers love to complain about the daily agonies and time commitments and chlorine stenches that accompany this sport, but deep down, we love it. And we are thankful. (Otherwise, why are you doing it?) 

Here are 10 Reasons Why Swimmers Are Thankful For Swimming…

10. One training wardrobe. 
I went running the other day; after 25 minutes, my clothes were soaked in sweat, my shoes smelled, and I knew I’d have to do laundry to run tomorrow. Swimming? Throw that training suit in your locker; let it dry, you’re good to go. The clothing efficiency is brilliant and underappreciated. No laundry. No multiple training apparel outfits. Sure, you need a racing suit, but training suits? I had the same training suit in high school for years. It became full of holes, frayed, and ultimately disgusting, but it lasted for years, and I never washed it once. 

9. The utter and complete domination of any pool/beach game against non-swimmer friends … for the rest of your life. 
Non-swimmers cannot compete with any swimmer in any pool or beach game, ever. Doesn’t matter what the game is. A non-swimmer competing against a swimmer in a game of Marco Polo is like an 8-year-old taking on LeBron James one-on-one. 

8. The obligatory reason involving Copious Amounts of Food.  
When you hit adulthood, you eat a slice of pizza and you gain like 10 pounds that day alone. But when you’re a swimmer, you can eat an entire pizza at lunch and still be like, “So what’s for lunch?” 

7. It’s a shower-and-workout-in-one. 
Didn’t shower yesterday? No problem. Let those sweet, sweet chemicals wash away your imperfections. 

6. The meditative escape of water. 
There are, right now in the country, special “blackout” resorts where people actually pay money to be in an internet-free zone, to get away from the daily grind of emails and screens. Thankfully, Google has not invented the Google Goggle, and we’re still a few years away from the iKickboard. The pool remains a respite away from the onslaught of our over-digitized lives. For many swimmers, the open waters and lanes and weightless gravity is a welcomed meditative escape. 

5. Confidence that comes from pushing one’s limits.
There are moments in my adult life where I literally tell myself, “If I can swim 10 400 IMs in practice, I can do this.” It’s good to be challenged, to be pushed to the brink of your limitations. Oftentimes, you will surpass them and set new limitations. Then, you aim to break those.

4. It is not [fill in another sport here.] 
Every time I watch football and see some young kid smashing his head against another, I just think, “Man, I’m glad not all sports require a violent body sacrifice.” Same thing with many other land sports that take a heavy physical toll long-term. Swimming is non-impact. You can swim until you’re 100-years-old. I don’t see many 100-year-old offensive linemen out there. 

3. Friends who also swim.
Swimming is sort of like a cult. You swim together. You eat together. You hang out together at all waking minutes of every single weekday and weekend. Your group of friends is known amongst other circles as “the swimmers.” Swimming, though isolated and immersed in water, is a social sport. As a swimmer, I spent so much time around other swimmers, my teammates ultimately became my best friends for life… whether they wanted to be or not. 

2. Swim Parkas.
The older I get, the more I wish oversized swim parkas were socially acceptable pieces of apparel in adulthood. You wear the parka. Dry off in the parka. Sleep in the parka. Wake up in the parka. A mobile tent made of an armor of nylon and fuzzy polyester, the swimmer’s swim parka is the single greatest apparel item ever invented, and you only have a few very special, select years in your life when you can wear one. Otherwise people will stare at you. They probably already stare at you. But if you’re a swimmer, you don’t care. 

1. Swimming can change your life.
I’ve seen swimming turn unhealthy kids into healthy kids. I’ve seen swimming save kids from unhealthy homes, from violence, from depression, from suicide. I’ve seen swimming be the one guiding light for kids living in areas of high crime and poverty. I’ve seen swimming give kids hope. Swimming allows you the opportunity to defeat Old You — a concept, when you’re young, which is a very important one to learn and understand. Swimming teaches you that you can be better than Old You, and with hard work and discipline, you can improve Old You. And that Old You can turn into New You — a New You that is better, stronger, healthier, and happier. 

So, thanks swimming, for all you do. Though we love to complain, we are thankful. Keep on doing what you do. [But it would help if you could be, just during those few lengths of warm-up, a tad bit warmer, okay? Thanks.]

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