My journey with swimming has been a long one, with lots of twists and turns. It all started when I was 4. Over the summer, my mom signed me up for swim lessons at the YMCA. For the next couple years, I kept doing summer lessons until I finished all the levels.
I am very grateful that my mom signed me up when she did, as this became the foundation of my skills. When I was 10 years old, I decided it was time to take my swimming to the next level. My mom signed me up for a tryout at a club swimming team.
I distinctly remember that tryout, as it was my first. After swimming all four strokes, and showcasing my turns, the coach talked to my mom. I was so nervous as I dried off, not knowing what they were talking about. When they finally finished their conversation, the coach walked up to me.
She introduced herself, saying, “Hi, my name is Coach Beth! Congratulations, you made the team!”
I was overjoyed, and began practice with Coach Beth two weeks later. At the time, I was placed in the lowest group due to my age and experience level. However, less than a month after joining, Beth pulled me aside after practice one day and told me she was going to promote me to the higher group.
At the end of summer, there were formal move-ups. I got moved up again. This time, I got placed in Silver, the intermediate group for age group swimming. I was very pleased with myself, having moved up 2 groups over the course of 3 months.
As the year goes by, I find myself progressing well. However, at the time I did not particularly like my coach. She was a very blunt woman who did not mince words, and my 11 year old self did not like that. Back then, I thought she was just being mean to me.
During my time in the Silver group, I did very well, and broke several 11-12 girls team records. At the end of the season, I got moved up to Age Group Select, which was the highest group for my age on the team. It was composed of the fastest 10-13 year olds in the entire team of over 400 swimmers.
I felt very proud and accomplished of myself for making it to this group. At first, it was a difficult adjustment, as the swimming was much more difficult than what I had ever done before. But it was worth it, as progress showed immediately. One month in, I had already gotten seven new Junior Olympic times.
Particularly, I was doing well in backstroke. I had broken the team record 4x, and was place one in my age group across many Southern California swim teams.
I felt very motivated, and was doing my best to keep my momentum going. Unfortunately, things took a bad turn.
Around February, I noticed that my arm began acting up. Sometimes it would just hurt, and other times it wouldn’t bend properly. It affected my stroke work, and I noticed that my backstoke was not as good as usual. However, I made a bad choice and just ignored it, assuming that everything was fine.
This was a terrible mistake in the long run. Things got to the point where I couldn’t even raise my left arm, much less swim backstroke. At that point, I had to wait for my arm to heal, so I was not allowed to swim anymore. At practice, Coach made me do kicking only. While my legs became somewhat stronger, I definitely regressed, and not just in backstroke.
I felt really bad about myself at this time, and didn’t know what to do to make things better. Swimming was my only passion, and without it I had no special talents.
At the end of the season, I did not move up that year. Both my parents and I were disappointed, so they decided to switch teams. They thought a change of scenery and exposure to new coaches would help me improve.
In some aspects, my new team has helped me lots. I’ve dropped 5 seconds in my 100 breaststroke, over a year, which is very good progress. However, I have not improved at all in freestyle, and my backstroke is much worse.
For now, my main focus is high school swimming. I want to be able to say that I broke records at my school. In addition, I want to try and fix my backstroke, as it was my favorite stroke, and it makes me sad that I can’t swim it properly anymore.
Deesha Pathak 