Nighttime Snack: Swim Beginnings

An approximation of my freestyle for the first 5 years of my swimming career

Over the next couple days, we're going to be posting some stories about beginnings in the sport of swimming. One will be long form by Lisa Stephens tomorrow, the rest of the Swim Brief crew will be checking in by these Nighttime Snacks. As executive omnipotent editor in chief, I thought I'd post mine first. Take that, everybody else!

I started swimming at nine years old because my best friend asked me to do it during recess. He was the kind of guy who excelled at every sport. I was the guy who's Little League baseball coach once mandated that our entire team would stay at practice until I connected with one of his meatball lobs for a hit. He soon came to regret this decision when practice ran an hour late. My biggest memories from starting swimming was getting my butt kicked by girls half my size and having a splitting headache. At my first meet I swam a 100 IM and panicked when I got to the back to breast turn- what was I supposed to do? I think I did a 180 degree turn in the lane without touching the wall. When the official dq'd me, I was pissed! Why didn't she just tell me how to do my turn properly? I forgave, but never forgot.

Do you have a great memory from starting swimming? We might be interested! Check out our post earlier today about the open submissions to The Swim Brief and your story could be featured right here!