My Swim Coach is Ted Bundy

We had a meeting for the swim team yesterday so people could be lectured on rules and try on suits and such. It was rather pointless and definitely a waste of an hour, but that’s beside the point.

Our swim coach decided it would be a good choice to grow a beard. This made him look even more like Ted Bundy (aka, the devil himself).

That was really all I wanted to say though. I’m sorry if you wanted another blog like my last Ted Bundy one, but I definitely don’t have enough content to make another 750 word blog about how my swim coach is Ted Bundy.

Instead we will discuss swimming. I do not see this coming season being extremely fun. I love the people I swim with, and when we hang out outside of swim it’s really fun, but the practices and meets suck. They’re boring and not challenging and time consuming. I do not feel like I’m working hard enough, but at the same time I feel absolutely no motivation to work harder. I know what I’ll be swimming at meets, it’s the same line up as the last three years, 200 free, 500 free and two relays. It will add up to be the most amount of yardage anyone can do without getting disqualified, and I’ll be expected to win both of my individual events.

Not that that will matter. We will still be crushed anyway.

And yes, that’s a very negative way to think about it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. That’s exactly what happened last year, and last year a bunch of our fast seniors graduated. I’m a descent swimmer, but I’m not talented enough to be able to win my event at every meet. I know for a fact that when we swim against Westford we will be absolutely destroyed. Westford has a crazy team. I know 50% of the girls on the team because I used to swim with them when I was 12, and they were all faster than me then. They’ve had consistent and dedicated training since then, so they are all much faster than me now.

Our swim team just can’t compete. We don’t have a large team, and we don’t have enough girls to put someone “fast” in every event and win it.

The only reason I went back to the team this year is because of the other people on it. I have made some good friends there, and I know that we will have some fun times. I also know that as captain I contribute to the vibe of the team, so potentially, this season could be a blast. But a lot is hinging on the first week of practice, and honestly I’m so tired from cross country that I have zero desire to plan for that.

I had hoped that the other captains and I could have worked together and made the season at least a little bit less of a shit show, but our coach refuses to work with us, so our power is limited. All we can do is organize things for outside of swim. Once we’re in the pool, we are no different than any other swimmer.

We could really help the team by going over basic rules of the pool, what each stroke is and how to count, the super basic basics, because so many kids have never been in the pool before. But it’s looking like we won’t be able to do that. Instead, we will be jumping right in to a five hundred, and we will loose half the team before the week ends.

Our suggestions aren’t listened to because we’re kids, and parent suggestions are disregarded because they aren’t coaches, and my dad, who has been coaching for ten years, can’t help because he works two hours away in Rhode Island. Last year when the other distance swimmers and I involved our parents, trying to get for yardage in the pool (because you can’t train sprinters and distance people the same, everyone knows this) the coach didn’t change anything. Except he was extra rude when he spoke to us after that.

This all makes it sound like I’m not looking forward to the season at all, and honestly, in general I am not. The practices are going to be painfully long, but I won’t get anything out of them. The lanes are going to be over crowded and the meets are going to be torture, and that’s the majority of the season. On paper. The truth is that I am excited. With a lot of effort, we can make it fun. And some of the people on the team really make it worth it. At least, in my opinion.