By Lori Tanaka
From the desk of: Joyce Wellhoefer
In order to live up to your full potential as a student-athlete, you must be willing to put in the work. Don’t be satisfied with just swimming a few laps here and there at a medium pace. Every time you dive into the pool, work to improve from the last time you swam. It’s like the old adage says, “To get to where you’ve never gone before, you must do what you’ve never done before.”
Be determined and committed to your goal of being a great collegiate swimmer. Dreams aren’t something that you wait for; they are something that you earn. When everyone else is done swimming laps, make yourself do extra. Even when you think you can’t swim another lap, mentally motivate yourself and push through one more. Take pride in having a strong work ethic because in the end you will be that much better. When you swim your final lap in the conference championship, that extra time in the pool will pay off and you will be more prepared than those swimmers who did just enough to get by. At the end of the meet, when you were a tenth of a second away from first place, don’t ask yourself, “What if I swam those extra laps after practice?”
When in doubt, do not quit. Then you will always know you gave it your all and will have no regrets.
