In most sports, particularly team sports, the pursuit
of winning usually becomes paramount at all age levels. Winning somehow defines a team. Winning somehow measures success. Not so much in swimming. I’ll even take that a step further … frequent
winning in the sport of swimming should be discouraged.
In swimming, winning depends heavily on who else takes the
blocks. If members of DART’s Gold group were
to race against similarly aged novice swimmers, they would win every race with
ease. Would those wins define them as
swimmers? Could they use those wins to
measure success? The answer to both
questions: Absolutely not. Beating
someone, you already know you can beat, defines nothing and measures nothing.
If a swimmer wants to determine their place within the sport
and measure their success, they will need to find greater challenges. They will need to find meets where winning
becomes far less certain. Furthermore,
as swimmers advance in the sport, they will need to advance to even greater
meets, also with uncertain outcomes.
That means they could (should) spend almost their entire swimming career
against opponents who can beat them. Consistent
winning at any level, simply means it’s time to move up to the next level. It’s the level that defines a swimmer and
measures their success, not winning.
What does this mean for your DART swimmer? It means they can compete, they can be
challenged and they can find success, regardless of their current level and
regardless of how often they touch the wall first.
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