Activity #4

Timing at USA Swimming Swim Meets

11/9/13 & 11/16/13

9 hrs 

Service (9 hrs)

Timing at swim meets for USA Swimming usually requires two timers to work together on one lane. There is a timer and the person who records the times. This collaboration of efforts allowed me to reach Outcome 4. Outcome 5 was reached due to the longevity of swim meets, the strain of having to sit and stand up when for hours when timing, and my persistence to continue the job that I had volunteered to do and slack off.

Since the fourth grade I have been a year-round swimmer, but I went on a hiatus my junior year (and have started back up with it this year). Freshman and sophomore years it was a massive devotion of my time, for I was expected to be at most of the twelve available practices a week, meaning I was always at the pool. When I considered how rigorous my junior year of high school would be, I decided to take the year off to focus on school. Being a part of the swimming community never ends, so during this hiatus I decided to volunteer by timing at a couple of swim meets for my team. The first meet I timed at was Star Aquatic's IMR-IMX Invitational. The second one was Greensboro Swimming Association's John Dewey Invitational. Swimmers from as far as New York come to Greensboro to compete in these meets, and my entire team is always involved even if they aren't swimming in it. By timing in these meets I could still feel like part of the team even though I wasn’t swimming with them, as well be a huge help considering timers are always scarce at these swim meets. My coach was very thankful for the times I came to help out, for he didn’t expect me to spend any time doing things swimming-related when he knew I was trying to focus on my studies. I was there because I knew timing was not a huge commitment and would only take a couple hours of my time each meet. In the process I was also getting to witness great swimmers competing in Greensboro’s state of the art swimming facility, a place I practiced in every day. It felt good being in the shoes of the spectators, not the swimmers, because instead of feeling the nerves and the pain of pushing myself to the limit to swim my fastest, I got to see it happen in all of the other swimmers. It was inspirational, to say the least.