Synchronized Swimming – Love at First Sight
At seven years old I fell in love with synchro the first time I saw it. My brain went crazy trying to figure out how the girls were able to stay on the surface of the water AND move foot first. I could get on the surface okay, but travel foot first. WOW!!
After that, I was into anything synchro- posters of the national teams, autographs from swimmers/coaches, the summer Olympics, and just plain old obsessing over the synchro videos I had courtesy of my Dad video taping the 1991 Canada Winter Games and anything he found on TV for me. It’s not like today where you can find synchro instantly on the internet.
I still remember land drilling to Sheilagh Croxon’s Canada Games team (1991) and falling in love with team Ontario’s duet of Erin Woodley and Janice Bremner. I can still land drill their first figure. In 1996, Erin Woodley was in Edmonton training with the Canadian Olympic team and would occasionally guest coach at our club. A dream come true.
Anyways enough reminiscing. The purpose of today’s blog post was to share a dilemma I had a few weeks ago. In my country a new way to support the national team was unveiled. At first I ignored it and dismissed it so I thought. I had lots of reasons why I should not support it.
I found myself thinking about it often and trying to rationalize what I was feeling. I was very conflicted, but why?
It dawned on my that I was thinking about this all wrong. I forgot why I started synchro in the first place. I sat back and thought about that little girl who fell in love with synchro. The little girl who searched for any way possible to support her heroes. As a 7 year old I did not join synchro and think about how the national teams were funded, can I make money or a living doing this, the judging, winning, or how the teams are picked.
I fell in love with the movements, the training, the preforming and that’s all I wanted; to eat, sleep and be doing synchro. But as I got older, my passion changed and I lost sight of what synchro meant to me. I started thinking too much about a lot of things I really have no control over. My head got in the way of what my 7 year old heart could not get enough of.
If I took all the other stuff away, I still love synchro. I always will. In the end I listened to that little girl who just loved synchro and I supported the swimmers and coaches who are pursuing their love of the sport. (Not endorsing anything)
I encourage you to think about an area of your life that you were once so passionate about. Consider how you think about your passion today versus when you first started. Has it changed? Has the change been for better or worse? Can you change it?
You see this in professional sports. The athlete gets the big money deal and then their performance is never is the same as when they were not playing for the money.
Have you stopped listening to you little girl or little boy inside you? What would they say to you if you would listen?
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