HOW TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL SWIMMER
Are you ready to take your swimming career to the next level?
Becoming a professional athlete isn’t typically something you wake up one morning and decide to pursue. It’s a long-standing commitment that typically begins with swim practices at a relatively young age. However, it’s absolutely viable to begin training later in life.
No matter what age you decide to start chasing this dream, the sooner you begin training, the better. It takes time to build a training regimen and even more so to acclimate your body to follow that regimen every day. If you want to be the best, you need to train like the best, and that’s true in any competitive sport. Once it has become second nature for your body to endure high-intensity training, you can embark on your journey as a professional swimmer.
Push Yourself to Be the Very Best in Your Division
If you’re younger, joining a high school or collegiate swim team gives you a fantastic opportunity to show off. During your scholar years, your reputation as an athlete can help you attain a spot with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Swimming coaches will then help you ignite that passion for the sport and take you into an Olympic gold medalist status by spotting your weaknesses and strengthening them daily.
If you’ve finished your schooling days, don’t fret! There’s nothing stopping you from practicing daily at your local pool. If need be, you can hire a coach to improve your technique and make a splash in the sport by competing in local competitions. You don’t need to be a high school or college student to be noticed by high-level coaches. Talent scouts will go wherever they think the talent will be, and that’s not always at a school.
There are many ways to take the initiative to participate in high-profile competitions and attain the attention of decision-makers. But before all of these amazing opportunities, you must start carving out the foundation of your swimming career by becoming the absolute best in your area. Before you can be #1 in the world, you must become #1 in your town or city.
Always Compete at an Elite Level
As an athlete, you must always try to wrestle the attention away from your competition. Naturally, the only real way to do this at a sporting event is to win, and by as large a margin as you can muster. Whether you know there are talent scouts or high-profile coaches in the audience or not, you should always compete as if they’re watching, just in case. If anything, it’ll serve as an additional motivator to push yourself past your limits.
When pushing yourself with your elite swimming training program, you must always keep an eye on the clock and challenge yourself to compete against your personal best. By doing so, you’ll be satisfying your motivation and your need to improve. No matter who you are, continuing to push through the pain is a lot more difficult when you’re not seeing tangible results. Progress is the name of the game, and by setting new personal records and breaking them, you’ll be proving to yourself that you can do it and making yourself a scarier opponent to compete against.
Be versatile in your craft. Learning how to outperform your team in backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle will make you a stronger swimmer in general. Mastering every stroke will open up more opportunities by allowing you to compete at higher levels in varied competitions. That being said, the freestyle stroke should always be your focus, as that’s the most widely used style in competitions.
Have a goal for every race, and your reputation as a great swimmer will follow.
Sponsorships are Key to a Lasting Career
Just because swimming only requires a pool, a suit, a cap, and goggles doesn’t mean it’s a cheap sport. Training with high-level coaches and fees to be entered into swim meets add up quickly. Making a financial planner on an 11-month season of travel and hotel expenses will give you a blueprint of how much you can afford.
According to SportsRec, “If you are interested in becoming a pro swimmer, continue to refine your swimming skills while contacting local businesses for small sponsorships. As your reputation grows, larger sponsorships can help pay the bills.”
Do you still want to become a successful professional swimmer? No doubt, it’s a challenging desire to have. Putting your body through an athletic regimen is for those that truly value the sport. The swimming pool has to be your second home. Nothing excites you more than seeing your hard work pay off in competition. Every day you must remind yourself how badly you want it when swimming alongside someone equally as determined.
Though it may be incredibly hard work, if it’s what you want to do, then nothing will satisfy you more than making it pro.