2 March 2024

I start­ed learn­ing to swim when I was five years old at Atlantis Swim­ming School. I start­ed swim­ming lessons with school at my local pool. At one ses­sion, a City of Leeds Swim­ming Club coach attend­ed and observed every­one. I was invit­ed to a tri­al for a place in the Stage 8 Group, was accept­ed and I began train­ing 3 times a week on evenings and com­pet­ed in short races at Devel­op­ment Galas every now and again.

A year lat­er, I was told I was being pro­mot­ed into a big­ger squad which was a part of the City of Leeds Swim­ming Club called Region­al Fast Track. Since then, I have been pro­mot­ed 3 times and I now train 8 times a week in the pool, with one ses­sion on land and com­pete at region­al lev­el, aim­ing towards National.

Swim­ming is enjoy­able for three reasons:

Com­mu­ni­ty: In a swim club, you are sur­round­ed with kind and sup­port­ive coach­es and amaz­ing friends. Per­son­al­ly, I enjoy com­pe­ti­tions because I get to spend the week­end with my friends, and we get to cheer each oth­er on when racing.

Life-skills: In swim­ming you gain many skills: You learn resilience, nutri­tion, self-con­fi­dence, self-con­trol, respect, reflec­tion, inde­pen­dence and motivation.

Health: Swim­ming is a fan­tas­tic sport to keep fit and healthy by exer­cis­ing and it is a great way to release endor­phins, which inter­act with your brain and reduces stress.

Why swim­ming helps me in my life:

  • Resilience is built when you expe­ri­ence those moments when you become so tired you feel like quit­ting but don’t.
  • Being a part of the club pro­vides the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make life-long friendships.
  • Reg­u­lar train­ing builds discipline.
  • You learn to work with oth­ers and to be a proud sup­port­ive and kind team member.
  • You learn to deal with dis­ap­point­ment when you don’t do as well in a race as you would have liked.
  • You make and accom­plish goals.
  • You learn to be patient when improve­ments in your swim­ming don’t come as quick­ly as you’d like.
  • You learn to enjoy cel­e­brat­ing suc­cess and col­lect­ing medals
  • I have gained expe­ri­ence in train­ing, com­pe­ti­tions and I have also assist­ed coach­ing in ses­sions with younger swim­mers as a part of my Duke of Edin­burgh Award. I am very out­spo­ken and con­fi­dent to always give me opin­ion. I com­plet­ed the Young Leader Aquat­ic Helper Train­ing to help with my development.

I have since joined the Swim Eng­land North East Region Youth Forum because I love swim­ming and I would love the oppor­tu­ni­ty to give back to the sport by tak­ing part in the youth forum. I would like to gain more expe­ri­ence in vol­un­teer­ing, team­work and lead­er­ship. I would love to rep­re­sent my sport as I believe that I have been ded­i­cat­ed to swim­ming for many years and I would be a good representative.

Any young per­son inter­est­ed in young leader oppor­tu­ni­ties should con­tact swimnortheast@​swimming.​org.