The 12-Year Plateau
My personal swimming journey and how I overcame adversity
I started swimming young—but “started” might be generous.
I showed up.
I tried.
I struggled.
While other kids sliced through the water like it owed them money, I fought it like it was personal. Progress came painfully slow. Months would pass and the stopwatch barely moved.
If this were a movie, this is before the montage—before the music, before the glow-up—just a lot of gasping for air and quiet frustration.
The First Intervention
My mom saw it before I said anything.
She noticed how hard I worked and how little the results showed. And instead of letting me fade into the background, she did what great origin-story mentors always do:
She intervened.
She found outside help. Extra coaching. Extra eyes. Someone who believed that slow progress didn’t mean no potential.
That’s when things started to change.
Not fast.
Not magically.
But enough.
Momentum
Stroke by stroke, I got better.
- Cleaner lines
- Better timing
- More confidence
And one day, at a national swim meet, I beat the coach’s favorite swimmer in a race.
You could feel the air shift.
That race kicked off a series of wins that year.
I didn’t just win—I reset expectations.
National records fell. My name showed up more often in newspapers. Eventually, I was accepted into an elite athlete program with funding to swim.
The Reset
Then things reset.
I went off to college thinking the hard part was over.
New chapter.
New team.
New chance to keep rising.
Instead, history repeated itself like a bad sequel.
Favorites were chosen early.
Loudly.
Clearly.
And I wasn’t one of them.
The 12-Year Plateau
Four years on the college team.
Four years of training, racing, grinding—without real improvement.
Times frozen.
Confidence tested.
It’s a strange kind of pain when you’re doing everything right and nothing is changing. Not failing. Not succeeding. Just stuck.
Like knowing what you’re capable of—but not being allowed to show it.
I never quit.
Not once.
The Turn Toward Understanding
I kept training.
I kept asking questions.
I kept wanting to understand why.
After college, I made a different choice.
I sought knowledge.
Real expertise.
Teachers.
Gurus.
People who understood their craft—the science, the details everyone else skipped.
Little by little, the fog lifted.
- Technique sharpened
- Training made sense
- Purpose returned
And then the plateau broke.
The Breakthrough
Not by luck.
Not by surprise.
By understanding.
I went back to the clock and beat the fastest time I had ever swum in college—at an age when most swimmers are long retired.
Faster not because I was stronger than my younger self, but because of knowledge.
For Those Who Feel Stuck
If this story resonates with you—if you feel stuck in your swimming journey—this platform is for you.
Here you’ll find:
- Online learning modules
- Performance analytics tools
- Personalized swimming roadmaps
- One-on-one sessions
All designed to help you be successful in your swimming journey.