Rants

Swimming

Sports. I'm terrible at them. I can swim, but I can't do any land sports. I am a horrific runner and can barely stand up without falling over absolutely nothing. But, I can swim.

If you are not fimilar with swimming, a 25 is one lap of the pool, a 50 is two laps, and so on. 66 laps is a mile.

On average I swim 20 laps...for a warm-up. That is a breeze though, because at this point we haven't even reached any stroke, but freestyle. (Which most people know of.) But, there are DEFINITELY more strokes. Let me explain:

Freestyle - Sometimes referred to as "front crawl", is the most basic stroke consisting of kicking and forward arm movements that when sprinted can leave you tears. You WILL get yelled at for breathing too much. While it is simple it can be painful and should not be underestimated.

Backstroke - Is basically like freesyle except you are on your back (obviously) and your arms go the oppisite direction. Best quality is that you can breathe as much as you want. If you or other fellow swimmer is on the wrong side of the lane it will result in a horrendous outcome of:
A. awkwardly stroking fellow swimmer(s)
B. A nasty concussion
C. Weird eye contact and quiet "sorry" when you bump into some one

Breakstoke - A weird 'frog-like' stroke that is slower and requires more technique to do than most. While you have to breathe every stroke, you need to focus on your timing and make sure you glide as well. Warning: May get kicked in face multiple times.

Butterfly- Or shall I 'Butterdie'? It is a very painful stroke that can easily lead to tears and vomit. You are supposed to breathe as little as possible while your arms slowly die.

On an average practice you will swim anywhere from 2-3 miles while holding your breath and maybe doing dreaded 'test sets'. Generally swimming is done 6 days a week and can be held at 5:00 in the morning. (Though I don't do that)

Meets last all day, all weekend and you stay to swim maybe for two minutes, and hopefully drop just half a second.

As you can see swimming is not easy.

That is why I hate it when people diss swimming. They say "It's not a sport" or "It's really easy".

Sorry. What was that? I couldn't hear over the sound of the Olympics.

They probably wouldn't be able to swim a full 25 butterfly without stopping.

People just need to not, and be respectful of things they don't know what they are talking about. At least I have tried football is P.E. I'm not saying football is easy, because I stink at it, but swimming is definitely no walk in the park.

Thank you. Man, could you see how hard I tried to not caps lock. *sigh* I haven't ranted in a while. School starts soon and I get my schedule Tuesday. I'm starting high school guys! I don't want to! Too many people. Ugh.
-Rhane