No need for name calling! So you did some swimming back in the day! 40lbs. Is a big accomplishment! I don't know where you started. But, you weren't doing much swimming 40lbs over. Why did you decide to lose the weight?
It wasn't meant as a name calling as much as a "hello - look"... No insult meant.
Yes, I swam. I almost drown when I was two years old. I can still remember it to this day, it is my first memory that I can still remember.
My mom was visiting a friend who had an in-ground pool. My older brother (by 18 months) and I were playing with some of our bath toy boats on the edge of the pool. My boat got away from me and I tried to reach to get it, and I fell in....
My mom had her back to me, but luckily her friend saw me fall in and immediately jumped off her chair and yelled, "The baby...."
She jumped in the pool and pulled me out. I luckily instinctively didn't breathe under water. When she pulled me out, my cheeks were puffed out as I was holding my breath. However, it scared the heck out of me and I cried like any normal two year old would do...
by 4 years old, mom put us in swim lessons at the local high school. I was scared to go in the water the first lesson as I remembered falling in the pool. I wouldn't get in until the coach came around at the end to "test" you and see if you learned what they were teaching at that particular station/section (which happened to be holding your breath for 10 seconds). So coach came and was testing each student, and comes up to me on the edge of the pool and asks, "what's your name?. (It was my first lesson and he hadn't met me yet). I knew what was coming (he wanted me to get in the water) so I said, "I don't wanna..."
Coach said, "Ok, I don't wanna, get in the pool."
So I got in the pool and held my face under water until he counted off 10 seconds. Then he got all excited and told me, "you passed"! And then I "graduated" to the next section/station for the next lesson...
My brother decided to join the swim team. One day we went to a swim meet and I saw him swimming and met Roy (another swimmer our age). It looked like fun and I could meet some new kids/friends, so I asked my mom to let me do that also.
So I'm now on the swim team (I'm only 4 now). We had this thing that the coach called "time trials" where instead of work outs one day, he has us swim every event to see how we are at each event and he could put us in our strong strokes and establish the line up for the team.
I had completed learning freestyle and was in breast stroke. (then you learn back stroke and finally butterfly last). When it came time to test for butterfly, I hadn't swam that stroke yet. So I'm at the deep end about to swim butterfly and I don't know how to do it, so I ask my brother how to swim butterfly (he was one of the butterflyers in his age group). He tells me, "It's just like freestyle, but you have to keep your arms and legs together. So I jump in and swim butterfly and beat my brother!!!
Coach bumped me from learning breast stroke to butterfly right after that, and I became the butterflyer for my age group.... We swam year round on age group teams, as there was only like a month break between summer and winter seasons.
I couldn't wait to get to the top of our age group (8 and under) as the other swimmers at the top of the group were usually better. So now I'm 8 years old and on the top of my age group. That summer I only lost one race, and that guy was lucky because I was catching him fast. If the pool were slightly longer, like in meters instead of yards, I would have beat him.
My strategy back then for 50 freestyle (8 years old now) was to hold back a bit on the first lap so I didn't poop out before the race was over, then go full blast on the last lap (finish strong). Coach took me aside and we worked on my flip turn and I got real good at it. Most kids that age don't know how to do a flip turn, I practiced until I was real fast at it. So the last race of the season, I held back on the first lap and came into the wall 5th out of 6 swimmers. I flip my turn and come off the wall 3rd. Then pass the second place guy and as I was catching the first place guy, the wall came up before I could pass him, and I just got touched out for first. (I was pissed - it ruined my perfect undefeated season).
I went to the bull pen and hid under my sleeping bag until my next event. I focused all of my anger for the next race, butterfly, and beat the nearest guy by two body lengths. Then we took first in the freestyle relay to complete my most successful season with only one second place and the rest all wins!!!
When we weren't swimming on the team for practice or a swim meet, we were usually at the local country club swimming with our friends. I literally spent half of my life in the pool when I was younger...
We moved away for two years and there wasn't as good of a swim team league there as there was here, but there was one. The one thing that they did there, that we didn't was they had this "TV meet". Where they filmed it and ran it on one of the less popular tv stations. I wasn't as into swimming there as here, but I did for one season out of two years.
The tv meet was where all the local teams got together to compete. For our team Medley Relay, we had our work cut out for us. We had a better butterflyer than me, his name happened to be Steve Martin - LOL. But our breast stroker sucked...
In the team IM, the order is different than for the individual medley. the backstroker goes first, then the breast stroke, then fly, then freestyle. I was the freestyle guy, as Steve was quicker than me in fly. Our backstroke guy does ok and we are 2nd or 3rd, then the breast stroker gets in and we are last by the time he's done (I could have done better myself and that's my "weak" stroke). Then Steve gets in for butterfly and catches us up to 5th place out of 6. So as Steve is coming into the wall for me to go, I'm thinking about how far behind we are, and people can see this on tv, and I don't want to loose in front of all those people. So as soon as Steve touched the wall, I jumped in and swam my @ss off. All I could think about was loosing in front of everyone watching tv. I came from behind and just touched out the first place team!!!! (Whew)....
Then after that, we moved back home to where we first swam. They built a new high school in our district and split the team when I got into high school, and I got a new coach, who happened to be the brother of my first coach. He was a real @ss, and we didn't get along, and ended up getting in an arguement 3/4 of the way through the season and he kicked me off the team and I quit at the same time (mutually)....
However in the 3/4 season that I swam in high school, I swam varsity as a freshmen in a few meets, and also was the clean up man (fastest on the relay team) and we set the pool record for the freshman freestyle relay. I need to go back and see if it still stands today...
I also swam in a big meet with more than one team competing that year. They say that people who took first place here usually end up placing in the top 3 for the state competition. I ended up taking 13th place there, but was not swimming my best time then. My dad pointed out that I usually beat the guy who took 12th. So I probably would have made state in swimming, but I may not have won if I had kept swimming.
It wasn't just me that couldn't stand our new coach. Almost half of the good swimmers quit after a year or so because of the coach. He had as good of a swim team walking the halls as he had swimming. He was such an @sshole, that he got suspended for throwing a kick board at a female swimmer because she didn't flip her turn in swim practice the year after I left the team. He did try to convince me to go out again, but I refused to swim for that @ss. If I could have my first coach back, I would have kept swimming.
He got pissed off at me for going over to the other team's bench and talking to the other swimmers from that team that I grew up with... Really, you get mad at me for talking to my friends??? He accused me of "holding back" when I swam against them. How did I hold back, when I won??? If I was holding back, wouldn't I let them win. I don't care who you are, when we race, it's game on.... No brakes for you, if you beat me, you deserved it as you swam better than me that day. But it doesn't mean that I won't come back next time after working harder and beat you....
I always take competing seriously, even with friends. My friend Roy that I mentioned earlier, swam the Individual Medley (IM) also. This is where you swim two length of each stroke. Butterfly first, back stroke, then breast stroke, and finally freestyle. Roy was strong in breast stroke and back stroke. I was strong in butterfly, freestyle, and back stroke, but not as fast as Roy in breast stroke. We had this unspoken competition between the two of us, we pushed each other.
I would get the lead in butterfly, then hold my own or loose just a bit in backstroke, then Roy would catch me or pass me in breast stroke, then it was a free for all in freestyle to see if I could catch and pass him or if he could hold the lead (I was just a bit faster in freestyle than him and could sometimes catch and pass him if I got behind). Then we would be dead tired after the race with a tin/metal taste in our mouth from being so tired. But within 3-5 minutes after, we would be at our normal breathing and heart rate. There's nothing like that worn out feeling after pushing yourself in a 200 yard IM....
Also, our first team was much better socially. After every away meet, we would get together and grab a bite to eat after the meet on the way home. Over half of us would pick a restaurant and we would meet there. The parents would all sit at one table, and the kids/swimmers at our own table. We would talk and goof around with each other, and it brought us all closer together as a team. No matter if we won or lost the meet, we would all go out and eat together afterwards.
Not to mention that the team parents also volunteered when we hosted the meets at home. The parents would help time for each lane, some would help with the automatic timers, and my dad and two others took turns officiating. They took training classes and became certified judges. My dad and Roy's dad used to alternate being the starter. And if we broke a rule, they wouldn't hesitate to disqualify us. (like leaving early in a relay, or touching the wall with only one hand in butterfly or breaststroke - both hands have to touch together or you get disqualified). Our coach never yelled at our dads for disqualifying us, as we deserved it because we broke the rule.
The high school team didn't do that. We could get the people who came from the first team together, but the ones from that team didn't come out as a group as the other team members did.
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Why did I loose weight?
Because I'm fat. Plain and simple. The past 6 years, I've let myself go. I was busy taking care of my sick mother and neglecting myself. (and some of it's just plain my fault for being lazy).
You get to the point where you have no energy, can't stand up for long periods of time, you can't wear jeans or regular pants because belts don't work anymore and have to wear pants with elastic waist - and if you put too much in your pockets - your pants keep falling down, and when you really get bad, you have to hold your breath just to tie your shoes, or you have trouble reaching your @ss to wipe it,.... (that's a wake up call that you need to loose weight).... And nobody wants to hire you because you are fat and look terrible...
Not to mention that you feel lethargic and have no energy. It sucks you in and keeps bringing you further down.
So I have dropped 40 lbs in the last year and plan to do another 80 more if I can this year. I feel better and not as lethargic, like I used to. I can walk further, stand longer, tie my shoes without having to hold my breath while doing it. I actually have worked in my yard picking up leaves for 3 hours or more straight. I couldn't have done that a year ago. It's nice to be able to do some of the things that I used to do again.
Even though I'm fat, I can still swim. You don't loose the ability, you just loose the endurance and speed. But even fat, I can still beat most non-swimmers in a swim race (short distance of course - until I can work on my endurance). There was a period of time when I was younger where I was fat and still on the swim team. Just because someone is fat, doesn't mean that they can't swim.... They just have to overcome the extra resistance due to their increased size...
And when I finally reach my target, some people who haven't seen me in a while may not recognize me....
That reminds me of an old Emo Phillips joke:
I loaned a friend $10,000 for plastic surgery, now I don't know what he looks like....
