Plunge? Try The "Transitions Test"
-c.u.
It’s fun, at times, to think about new sports you might want to try – just as it is fun to think of new kinds of goals. Like train tracks, goals may run in one direction for a long time. And then they change direction.
Often we wait a long time to make transitions or any kind of changes, uncertain of what is next. We may start cross training because of an injury – and we may turn cross training in a more focused direction to a new sport. Or we may want to continue our sport and just want another challenge. We may want to try something we never thought we could do. Or we may be curious about another sport but our time is limited and we’re unsure in general.
Why not try a new sport – even if you want to continue the one you love? Maybe it’s something to think about – and act on. “Act” is the key word. We often wait longer than we need to before starting something new.
This article talks about transitions and the transition to swimming -- a sport that complements the “pounding” sports like running, tennis, and squash. A number of athletes talk about adding swimming – either transitioning to swimming or adding swimming as a main sport. The article concludes with a pilot phase of a transitions questionnaire. That may tell you how open you are to trying anything new.
As Nancy Schlossberg and William Bridges say in their respective books, Overwhelmed: Coping With Life’s Ups and Downs and Transitions, Making Sense of Life’s Changes, change of all kinds is challenging. Many people avoid it, even if it’s something to consider and act on. Often they avoid it because they haven’t thought about the transition objectively. Change can raise charged logistical, physical, and psychological questions and uncertainties – like these: Where am I going with this sport? (What am I doing?) Do I need a coach and what kind? When can I fit it in? What are reasonable goals? Will I have any ability in this? Am I just experimenting or actually going for a first short-term goal? Any change can challenge identity.
Transitions are also an opportunity offer for growth. If you are thinking of starting swimming (or any sport), you may build new skills, meet new people, be better than you ever were at the sport, and learn more about yourself. How do you respond to unfamiliar situations? Can you enter a race and finish last? Can you enter an endurance swim just for the fun of it?
You can use MOVE! principles not just to achieve athletic goals but to clarify your thoughts as you transition to swimming. Apply MOVE! goal achievement concepts to it: the values of experimenting; of setting short-term successive goals; of focusing on specific tasks aimed at our weaknesses; of correcting them with feedback from others; of considering methods to anticipate obstacles; and of evaluating short-term goal achievement objectively.
Several athletes in their forties through seventies – Jane Demers, Eileen Troy, Inez Kelleher, Betsy Miller, Francesca Dominici, and Gina Shield – are among many who have recently tried swimming. In some cases they have just tried the sport a few times, in the early stage of experimenting. In other cases, they have committed to their sport for a year at least and are astounded by their progress so far.
Jane Demers, a competitive athlete through high school and college and a member of the US National Rowing Team after that, says about swimming that “I am delighted I now have a new sport I can enjoy and practice in so many different venues, both indoors and out.”
She’s delighted now but when she started about a year ago, swimming 25 yards was a challenge. “I had never been taught how to swim,” she said. “I got an instructor and struggled for about a year and a half in the pool because I could not calm down enough to figure out the breathing pattern.” Her first accomplishment was swimming a 25 “without wanting to die.”
“Progress was very slow and made even slower by my high anxiety,” she said. “My instructor told me to stay calm, to remember that air was always available to me ….and she told me I was absolutely capable of swimming for 10 minutes and not just 25 or 50 yards and I needed to get past the anxiety and the panic.”
“I fought hard to stay calm and swam for 10 minutes and once I had that confidence that I could do it, I quickly progressed to swimming for 25 minutes in the pool and just last week headed outside to do a mile plus open water swim. My anxiety in the water around breathing is always there but I did not give up and now, at age 60, after a year and a half of very slow progress, I had a breakthrough and I can now call myself a swimmer.”
The journey, she said, has “required courage, determination, trust in my instructors and a commitment to showing up despite lots of set backs and disappointments.”
Eileen Troy is a competitive masters runner who has run 13 Boston Marathons. Recently experiencing a number of minor injuries including Achilles tendonitis, she has started – just a few times – swimming 10 to 12 laps. “Swimming not only keeps me in shape for returning to running but gives me another fun form of competition which is less demanding on the joints!”
Senior Olympics silver medalist sprinter Dr. Inez Kelleher has also begun to integrate swimming into some of her weekly workouts for the same reason. She wants to keep focus on sprinting but open to swimming events, too.
Betsy Miller was a recreational swimmer as a child “spending every summer in and on the water.” Then came adulthood and “a full-time job, then spouse, then children…..and pretty much all exercise fell by the wayside.
“Then in my mid-fifties, stomach surgery necessitated rebuilding my core. I started out trying to do a couch-to-5K, but I'm not much of a runner and oddly, the couch never moved. I moved to a weights-based strength building routine, which worked well until I moved away to a new job and new environment…… I needed to get more exercise.”
She took on the challenge of running…..”but by the time the hot weather hit, I was miserable.” So she tried swimming. “I thought it would be easy,” she said….”Or so I thought at first.” She needed to rest after one length of the pool. Her legs were sinking. So she relearned the freestyle. “Week by week, the challenges got easier.” A few months later, she swam more than a mile at Walden Pond with high school friends “and we made it look easy!”
Competitive distance runner Francesca Dominici has been running marathons, including five Boston Marathon for years. A year and a half ago she began swimming when she was sidelined with plantar fasciitis. When she started swimming she could not swim for 25 yards. Four months later when she was back to running she continued swimming and is now preparing for her first sprint triathlon. She’ll compete in that three weeks before she runs the Rejkavik half marathon.
“It is a total exhilarating experience transitioning from a situation where running was the ONLY sport I could do, to a situation where I have added a whole new dimension in my life, swimming! I worked really hard on the swimming. I started from a situation where I was not even able to put my head under the water, to kicking with the board with fins at the pool, to taking lessons on freestyle - every Sunday for over a year…and finally I am now swimming for 3/4 mile at the lake. Swimming is so different from running, being able to accomplish something so big for me has further boosted my level of confidence. It has given me a sense of freedom and demonstrated the important lesson is life: always leverage a set back and an injury as an opportunity to do something new.”
Gina Shield was a Division 3 College tennis player who became, in adulthood, a competitive masters runner focused on PRs. She is now swimming in addition to running. “I am interested in open water group swims because I want to be able to run for a long time and feel cross training will help me do that and allow me to develop new skills to achieve those goals. Also it's definitely outside my comfort zone and a little scary for me (I've had 2 panic attacks in the water) and I think that will be good to push myself through that to improve my confidence not only for swimming and running but for all that I do.”
Why not “take the plunge”?
If you’re thinking of taking on a new sport (or any new activity), see how ready you are for transition. This is a pilot test. Take it and, if you want, let me know your results and what you think about the test. Are the results accurate?
Transition Test
1. I have a sense of humor about myself.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
2. Routine is very important for me.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
3. Looking awkward bothers me.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
4. If given the opportunity, I like to seek out new friends and environments.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
5. I do everything I can to avoid making mistakes.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
6. I tend to view new things as exciting rather than scary.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
7. I would rather learn more about what I know that learn a little about something new.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
8. I am impatient.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
9. I try new things even if no one I know does them.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
10. I am someone who likes to experiment.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
11. I have done the same extracurricular activities, including sports, since I was young.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
12. I am comfortable asking for help when I need it.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
Scoring:
1. For questions 1, 4, 6, 9, 10 and 12 assign the following points: 5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
2. For questions 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 11 assign the following points: 1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
Add up all the points and divide by 12. The maximum score on this scale is 5 (extremely willing to make changes), and the lowest scale on this scale is 1 (not at all willing to make changes).
Often we wait a long time to make transitions or any kind of changes, uncertain of what is next. We may start cross training because of an injury – and we may turn cross training in a more focused direction to a new sport. Or we may want to continue our sport and just want another challenge. We may want to try something we never thought we could do. Or we may be curious about another sport but our time is limited and we’re unsure in general.
Why not try a new sport – even if you want to continue the one you love? Maybe it’s something to think about – and act on. “Act” is the key word. We often wait longer than we need to before starting something new.
This article talks about transitions and the transition to swimming -- a sport that complements the “pounding” sports like running, tennis, and squash. A number of athletes talk about adding swimming – either transitioning to swimming or adding swimming as a main sport. The article concludes with a pilot phase of a transitions questionnaire. That may tell you how open you are to trying anything new.
As Nancy Schlossberg and William Bridges say in their respective books, Overwhelmed: Coping With Life’s Ups and Downs and Transitions, Making Sense of Life’s Changes, change of all kinds is challenging. Many people avoid it, even if it’s something to consider and act on. Often they avoid it because they haven’t thought about the transition objectively. Change can raise charged logistical, physical, and psychological questions and uncertainties – like these: Where am I going with this sport? (What am I doing?) Do I need a coach and what kind? When can I fit it in? What are reasonable goals? Will I have any ability in this? Am I just experimenting or actually going for a first short-term goal? Any change can challenge identity.
Transitions are also an opportunity offer for growth. If you are thinking of starting swimming (or any sport), you may build new skills, meet new people, be better than you ever were at the sport, and learn more about yourself. How do you respond to unfamiliar situations? Can you enter a race and finish last? Can you enter an endurance swim just for the fun of it?
You can use MOVE! principles not just to achieve athletic goals but to clarify your thoughts as you transition to swimming. Apply MOVE! goal achievement concepts to it: the values of experimenting; of setting short-term successive goals; of focusing on specific tasks aimed at our weaknesses; of correcting them with feedback from others; of considering methods to anticipate obstacles; and of evaluating short-term goal achievement objectively.
Several athletes in their forties through seventies – Jane Demers, Eileen Troy, Inez Kelleher, Betsy Miller, Francesca Dominici, and Gina Shield – are among many who have recently tried swimming. In some cases they have just tried the sport a few times, in the early stage of experimenting. In other cases, they have committed to their sport for a year at least and are astounded by their progress so far.
Jane Demers, a competitive athlete through high school and college and a member of the US National Rowing Team after that, says about swimming that “I am delighted I now have a new sport I can enjoy and practice in so many different venues, both indoors and out.”
She’s delighted now but when she started about a year ago, swimming 25 yards was a challenge. “I had never been taught how to swim,” she said. “I got an instructor and struggled for about a year and a half in the pool because I could not calm down enough to figure out the breathing pattern.” Her first accomplishment was swimming a 25 “without wanting to die.”
“Progress was very slow and made even slower by my high anxiety,” she said. “My instructor told me to stay calm, to remember that air was always available to me ….and she told me I was absolutely capable of swimming for 10 minutes and not just 25 or 50 yards and I needed to get past the anxiety and the panic.”
“I fought hard to stay calm and swam for 10 minutes and once I had that confidence that I could do it, I quickly progressed to swimming for 25 minutes in the pool and just last week headed outside to do a mile plus open water swim. My anxiety in the water around breathing is always there but I did not give up and now, at age 60, after a year and a half of very slow progress, I had a breakthrough and I can now call myself a swimmer.”
The journey, she said, has “required courage, determination, trust in my instructors and a commitment to showing up despite lots of set backs and disappointments.”
Eileen Troy is a competitive masters runner who has run 13 Boston Marathons. Recently experiencing a number of minor injuries including Achilles tendonitis, she has started – just a few times – swimming 10 to 12 laps. “Swimming not only keeps me in shape for returning to running but gives me another fun form of competition which is less demanding on the joints!”
Senior Olympics silver medalist sprinter Dr. Inez Kelleher has also begun to integrate swimming into some of her weekly workouts for the same reason. She wants to keep focus on sprinting but open to swimming events, too.
Betsy Miller was a recreational swimmer as a child “spending every summer in and on the water.” Then came adulthood and “a full-time job, then spouse, then children…..and pretty much all exercise fell by the wayside.
“Then in my mid-fifties, stomach surgery necessitated rebuilding my core. I started out trying to do a couch-to-5K, but I'm not much of a runner and oddly, the couch never moved. I moved to a weights-based strength building routine, which worked well until I moved away to a new job and new environment…… I needed to get more exercise.”
She took on the challenge of running…..”but by the time the hot weather hit, I was miserable.” So she tried swimming. “I thought it would be easy,” she said….”Or so I thought at first.” She needed to rest after one length of the pool. Her legs were sinking. So she relearned the freestyle. “Week by week, the challenges got easier.” A few months later, she swam more than a mile at Walden Pond with high school friends “and we made it look easy!”
Competitive distance runner Francesca Dominici has been running marathons, including five Boston Marathon for years. A year and a half ago she began swimming when she was sidelined with plantar fasciitis. When she started swimming she could not swim for 25 yards. Four months later when she was back to running she continued swimming and is now preparing for her first sprint triathlon. She’ll compete in that three weeks before she runs the Rejkavik half marathon.
“It is a total exhilarating experience transitioning from a situation where running was the ONLY sport I could do, to a situation where I have added a whole new dimension in my life, swimming! I worked really hard on the swimming. I started from a situation where I was not even able to put my head under the water, to kicking with the board with fins at the pool, to taking lessons on freestyle - every Sunday for over a year…and finally I am now swimming for 3/4 mile at the lake. Swimming is so different from running, being able to accomplish something so big for me has further boosted my level of confidence. It has given me a sense of freedom and demonstrated the important lesson is life: always leverage a set back and an injury as an opportunity to do something new.”
Gina Shield was a Division 3 College tennis player who became, in adulthood, a competitive masters runner focused on PRs. She is now swimming in addition to running. “I am interested in open water group swims because I want to be able to run for a long time and feel cross training will help me do that and allow me to develop new skills to achieve those goals. Also it's definitely outside my comfort zone and a little scary for me (I've had 2 panic attacks in the water) and I think that will be good to push myself through that to improve my confidence not only for swimming and running but for all that I do.”
Why not “take the plunge”?
If you’re thinking of taking on a new sport (or any new activity), see how ready you are for transition. This is a pilot test. Take it and, if you want, let me know your results and what you think about the test. Are the results accurate?
Transition Test
1. I have a sense of humor about myself.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
2. Routine is very important for me.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
3. Looking awkward bothers me.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
4. If given the opportunity, I like to seek out new friends and environments.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
5. I do everything I can to avoid making mistakes.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
6. I tend to view new things as exciting rather than scary.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
7. I would rather learn more about what I know that learn a little about something new.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
8. I am impatient.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
9. I try new things even if no one I know does them.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
10. I am someone who likes to experiment.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
11. I have done the same extracurricular activities, including sports, since I was young.
1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
12. I am comfortable asking for help when I need it.
5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
Scoring:
1. For questions 1, 4, 6, 9, 10 and 12 assign the following points: 5 = Very much like me 4 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 2 = Not much like me 1 = Not like me at all
2. For questions 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 11 assign the following points: 1 = Very much like me 2 = Mostly like me 3 = Somewhat like me 4 = Not much like me 5 = Not like me at all
Add up all the points and divide by 12. The maximum score on this scale is 5 (extremely willing to make changes), and the lowest scale on this scale is 1 (not at all willing to make changes).