Sharing my love for the water has been amazing and I thought I should take a moment to share my somewhat unorthodox introduction to the world of water sports. In eighth grade I found myself looking for a sport to play through high school, in hopes of using it to help me get to college. I had always loved school but I needed to start expanding my extracurriculars out of my normal comfort zone. I had grown up going to the lake every summer for family vacations and had always loved the water, so swimming seemed like a natural choice. I set a tryout time for our local swim club and looked over the tryout criteria and was shocked to find that swimming wasn’t just splashing around in a modified doggy paddle… there were FOUR different strokes! So a mere 30 minutes before my tryout time, I pulled up YouTube tutorials and tried to teach myself the strokes on a kitchen barstool. Needless to say, the tryout did not go well and I found myself as a fourteen year old, in swim lessons with five year olds. The experience was humbling but I quickly progressed into more advanced lessons where I met the community team water polo coach. He suggested I try out for the water polo team. I had never seen a game in my life but decided to go for it. After a tough few months of learning I tried out for the high school team and by miracle made varsity, for both swim and water polo for all four years. I went on to play Division 1 college water polo but continue to be a student of the water every day. Upon graduation, I knew I wasn’t done with the water yet, and was so fortunate to get a job continuing my passion with Premier Swim Academy. I wasn’t born a swimmer and my learning process occurred much later in life then most. I think this has given me a special perspective into the learning process; as I had to be aware of the tools and commitment to get me to the level I was at.
