it only looks like a tangent
in high school, I was on the swim team. I did the backstroke. I was never the fastest swimmer, but coming up on regionals, the coaches realized part of my problem (aside from just being slow) was that I had a bad start. I didn't get far enough out of the water, so I had more drag and didn't go as far when I started as I ought. There was a solution, though, that might work a little faster than trying to build up a lot more leg muscle in the like, 3 days before regionals that we had. A standing start.
When you do backstroke, traditionally, you start in the water. When they say 'on your mark,' you kind of crouch up on your legs, holding on to the starting block, and then when they say 'go', you fling yourself as high and as far backwards as you can. But, you can start out of the water. Instead of holding onto the handles below the block, you start by bending forward over the block itself (so that your back faces the water). When they say 'on your mark,' you crouch down, and when they say 'go,' you're already in the air, so you just throw yourself as far backwards as you can and you don't have to worry about height. So, in the last few days before regionals, the coaches decide I should learn how to do a standing start.
All of this is backstory. The point is, if you do a standing start wrong, it's like a belly flop, right onto your back. The point is, I walked out of those practices with a back like a cooked lobster, essentially from smacking the water so many times I'd broken capillaries all over my back. The point is, once, after a day of many failed attempts at getting the start down, once, my coach said 'Go!' and I tensed, and sprung, and did not let go of the block with my hands because I knew I was was going to land it wrong, and I knew it would hurt when I did.
I meant to jump, but my hands decided they knew better, because they decided they didn't like pain and they were pretty darn sure pain was coming.
This is kind of what swallowing feels like right now. Everything tenses, and I mean to do it, I do, but then I have to talk myself into actually doing it because I know when I do, it's going to hurt.
I did eventually nail the start, and I dropped 10 seconds from my time at regionals (no mean feat, which any other swimmers out there know). I just wish there was something besides a desire to avoid drooling all over myself that would make swallowing that worth it.
When you do backstroke, traditionally, you start in the water. When they say 'on your mark,' you kind of crouch up on your legs, holding on to the starting block, and then when they say 'go', you fling yourself as high and as far backwards as you can. But, you can start out of the water. Instead of holding onto the handles below the block, you start by bending forward over the block itself (so that your back faces the water). When they say 'on your mark,' you crouch down, and when they say 'go,' you're already in the air, so you just throw yourself as far backwards as you can and you don't have to worry about height. So, in the last few days before regionals, the coaches decide I should learn how to do a standing start.
All of this is backstory. The point is, if you do a standing start wrong, it's like a belly flop, right onto your back. The point is, I walked out of those practices with a back like a cooked lobster, essentially from smacking the water so many times I'd broken capillaries all over my back. The point is, once, after a day of many failed attempts at getting the start down, once, my coach said 'Go!' and I tensed, and sprung, and did not let go of the block with my hands because I knew I was was going to land it wrong, and I knew it would hurt when I did.
I meant to jump, but my hands decided they knew better, because they decided they didn't like pain and they were pretty darn sure pain was coming.
This is kind of what swallowing feels like right now. Everything tenses, and I mean to do it, I do, but then I have to talk myself into actually doing it because I know when I do, it's going to hurt.
I did eventually nail the start, and I dropped 10 seconds from my time at regionals (no mean feat, which any other swimmers out there know). I just wish there was something besides a desire to avoid drooling all over myself that would make swallowing that worth it.