With winter sports starting up, so does the high school swim season. And with every season, there are need-to-knows for newcomers who do not know what to expect out of a competitive swim season.

     When people think about competitive swim, they usually only think about swimming laps with different strokes. But what they usually don’t think about is the physical toll that it takes on your body if you full sprint or make a mistake. If a swimmer were to make a mistake swimming butterfly, it could screw up the shoulder muscles beyond repair.

     Swimmers who strive to perform better put much thought and effort in their sport. They spend their days off, weekends, even winter breaks practicing to perform the best that they can in their sport. Many people believe that it is too much to have swimmers spend their breaks to pursue a sport that they won't ever think of doing after high school, but swimming strains the muscles that are not used to it because it uses them in different ways then they are normally used. That's why they use their breaks, to help them condition their muscles so they don’t get injured during the season.

     New swimmers always make the mistake of taking the warm ups and warm downs too fast and too hard, by doing that your muscles tighten up and cause a strain. When you warm up and warm down, they are supposed to be easy swims so that it can break down the lactic acid in your muscles, so it makes them less sore and makes them grow much faster.

     Now that you know the strenuous work of swimmers, be on the lookout for news about then events of the season in January and March

Pictured: Swimmer swimming freestyle

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