Hutcherson 1

Ryan Hutcherson

Instructor Shelia Feilding

WRTC 103

11 September 2018

The World of competitive swimming goes back centuries; swimming itself is an

important skill known by few that has aided in shaping my identity. “Swimming ability was

valued in a number of ancient cultures, including Greece and Japan” (Lerner). With swimming

being around for centuries it has been valued by many including myself. Just as with any sport I

was a part of many different groups that aided in my socialization whether I wanted them to or

not. “Socialization refers to the process of interaction through which and individual ( a novice)

acquired the norms, values, beliefs, attitudes, and language characteristics of his or her

group.”(Gecas). Through the sport of swimming and its groups I have been socialized by the

people and the key principles that it possesses. I hope to convey those key principles through this

autoethnography.

Swimming was established as a sporting activity in the early 1800’s in Europe (Lerner).

In the beginning swimming wasn’t very organized nor did it have established strokes such as

Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle. Instead there was a variation of Breaststroke,

where the swimmer did not place their head underwater, but swam with their head up. As

swimming evolved through the century “The first successful attempt to swim the English

Channel, a distance of 23 miles occurred in 1875” (Lerner). Tremendous achievements like this

moved the sport of swimming forward and motivated young children like myself. Not many
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years later after this event swimming was included in the first modern Olympic games in 1896

(Lerner). From this, swimming expands into the sport that it is today and into the sport that

children like myself fall in love with and the best part, anybody can do it.

There a no requirements to take part in the sport of swimming. I started swimming at the

age of four and began swimming on a team at the age of six. Unlike in 2004, athletes like

Michael Phelps, Cullen Jones, and Ryan Lochte have progressed the sport and increased the size

and power of USA swimming. It is even easier now to learn how to swim with programs such as

the “make a splash” foundation which was started by Cullen Jones. This program attempts to

encourage African American children to learn to swim. Jones has stated that, "Access isn't

necessarily the issue for encouraging young African-Americans to swim, it's changing the

mindset that they don't swim.". I believe that this is a great example to show that swimming isn’t

just about learning to swim, but also an attempt to change racial stereotypes. Simply learning to

swim could change the lives of so many people. Choosing to stay with the sport of swimming

can open up many opportunities as well.

As one progresses throughout the sport of swimming they have the opportunity to

participate in meets. Swim meet are typically sanctioned by FINA (Federation Internationale de

Natation de Amateur) (Lerner), meaning that are run in an international format with a wide range

of events ranging from the 50 Freestyle to 200 Butterfly. Swim meets take place in structured

facilities with a pool, at a set length with lane lines separating swimmers. Swimming events that

take place in lakes, rivers, or oceans are considered open water. These events range from one

mile to nine plus miles and require an entire different level of athleticism to complete.

Swimmers as a whole are typically identified by distinct body characteristics. These

characteristics tend to be tall, broad shouldered, and above average to what is considered in
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shape. Some underlying characteristics that people cannot see is that swimmers are considered

intelligent because of their hard work ethic and willingness to devote a lot of time to success.

From this I will lead in to my pivotal experience that shaped who I am today and the impact that

the sport has had on my life.

From the beginning of my life I participated in many sports, as expected from any young

kid. I played baseball, football, soccer, lacrosse, and swimming; the first sport that I ever

participated in was swimming. As I grew up I always tried new sports, but I never really loved

them. There was always some aspect that I didn’t like. For instance, with football I hated the

contact, with lacrosse and soccer I disliked the amount of running and having to work as a team

to win. And with baseball I really disliked how there was little action involved, unless you were

up to bat. With swimming there was always something to no matter what, we were always

moving and I got to go to the pool a lot. It’s hard to say, but I very well could’ve fallen in love

with the water. As I grew older I stopped playing other sports and focused all my effort on

swimming. By the age of twelve I was swimming year round, this is where my experience

begins. I was swimming in a group called ‘Silver’ and my coach loved the sport as well as

pushing his swimmers extremely hard.

On a Thursday morning before school, my coach had us doing a hard ‘set’(A number of

swims ranging in length on a timed interval) and I was expected to reach a certain time on every

single swim and I failed to reach that time on one swim. My coach determined that I could’ve

gone that specific time and that I wasn’t giving it my best effort. He pulled me off to the side and

separated me from the other swimmers and told me that I wasn’t going to join them until I

reached the time that he wanted at least two more times, and we began. He said ‘GO’ and I

would begin my swim. Swim after swim I didn’t go the time that he wanted; before I knew it I
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had done the swim nine more times than everyone else. He stopped me before the tenth and

assured me that I could achieve the time that he wanted me to go and said “You keep failing,

over and over because you’re over thinking. Stop worrying about when you’re going to stop and

just focus on the next swim. Nothing else matters more than this swim right here right now.

Ready GO!” and off I went. This would be one of the hardest swims ever, but I went the time.

We then moved on to the next set as a group. It involved more racing and I prepared myself to

give it my all. We had to play a game called ‘tag’ where one swimmer would go and another

would follow after ten seconds and they had to catch up. If you didn’t catch the swimmer you

would have to go again. It was my turn to go and I was paired up with an 18 year old. We began

and my 12 year old self couldn’t catch up. I had to go again. This time I tried even harder and in

the middle of the swim I felt a searing pain in my legs, arms, and chest. My entire body cramped

up. I got to the wall by pulling on the lane line, climbed out and sat on the bench and tried to

keep myself from crying in front of everyone, but I couldn’t hold back and began. It was the end

of practice and everyone left, but me. My coach sat down with me and asked “What did we do

wrong today?”, through my tears I said “I don’t know” and he told me “You didn’t do what I

asked of you the first time because you didn’t give it you all. What have we learned today?” I

responded with “Do it right the first time.” and he finally let me leave.

As I progressed through the sport I joined different groups, most recently I swam at the

highest level possible in my club. We were all held to the absolute highest standard,

academically and physically. We were expected to attend nine practices a week, a total of 20

hours of swimming on top of the above average high school course load because we were

expected to take higher level classes. If you were not in these classes you would be considered

stupid by other swimmers. In my early years of high school I didn’t take higher level classes and
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I was considered to be stupid. By the end of high school I was taking a course load of at least

five advanced classes and still held to a very high standard. My peers were attending schools

such as Notre Dame, the Air Force and Naval Academy. I had an aspiration to attend the Air

Force academy, that dream was soon crushed by my peanut allergy. I was heartbroken, and

continued on with my life. I searched for other schools that I could swim at, which included the

University of Maine, Boston College, George Mason University, and the University of Mary

Washington. The values I learned through the sport provided me these opportunities. Values

such as hard work, persistence, respect, honesty, responsibility, and integrity just to name a few.

I am proud of these values as they capture a small part of my identity. After a year of thought

and many official visits, I came to the decision that I wasn’t going to swim for the rest of my life.

That is what led me to JMU, a school where I could challenge myself academically and not be

too far from home.

Swimming as a whole had aided in my socialization into society. I was part of a group

that hand values and norms that held me to a higher standard physically and mentally. I was

pushed to the limit and questioned why I choose the sport many times. Near the end I never

wanted to attend practice because of my teammates. Through my entire life I viewed myself as a

swimmer and I still do view myself as a swimmer. Without my experience in the sport I would

not be who I am today. After writing this autoethnography I can now see more clearly as to how

the sport has influenced me.

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1: My love for swimming is shown here as well as my seriousness about it. Wearing my Nations Capital Swimming Cap in front
of the American Flag.
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Works Cited

GECAS, VIKTOR. "Socialization." Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2nd ed., vol. 4, Macmillan

Reference USA, 2001, pp. 2855-2864. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3404400364/GVRL?u=viva_jmu&sid=GVRL&xi

d=8d7b499f. Accessed 7 Sept. 2018.

"Swimming." World of Sports Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner,

vol. 2, Gale, 2007, pp. 700-703. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3451100524/GVRL?u=viva_jmu&sid=GVRL&xi

d=6ff90f06. Accessed 7 Sept. 2018.