University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vol Diary - Ashley Quinn
December 14, 2007 | Women's Swimming & Diving
I have learned a lot of things in my three years as a Lady Vol. I have learned that a game of ???Fun Day Frisbee Friday??? can turn really rough, pulled-pork sandwiches can be the best or worst thing before a race and all the lyrics to ???Living on a Prayer.??? While all of these are extremely important life lessons, I have also learned how to deal with fear, which might carry me a little further in life than my advice on pulled pork.
Usually when I walk into practice in the morning I am in a pretty good mindset. I am ready for the day until it happens???when Coach Kredich steps up and says the worst eight words I can imagine- ???Now we???re going to do some kicking???underwater.??? As most of my teammates know, I am not the biggest fan of underwater kicking. In the past, just hearing this would bring me to tears. For me, being underwater while holding your breath to the point of near explosion is just not natural. And with my giant fear of drowning, this set scares me. I am afraid of underwater sets.
Thinking back to my freshman year, I was afraid of a lot of things. I was scared to be swimming on a college team because I didn???t know what to expect. I was TERRIFIED about my first Christmas training trip. I was scared about swimming at the Southeastern Conference Championships. There have been so many things in my swimming career that I have been afraid of, but one thing I have learned is to attack what I am afraid of head on. I have learned not to waste time living in fear but to ???enjoy this moment and embrace this pain. Love the pain.??? This is a quote Coach Arndt likes to use when I am swimming a hard set.
I am not going to waste my time being afraid anymore, thinking about what the next set might be or if we are going to swim underwater that day. I know that just because I am not afraid, I am not all of a sudden going to start swimming 50s with no breath. But I will get better one black line at a time and I will become a better swimmer because of this one day at a time.
