Maybe it’s just left over excitement from last weekend, maybe it’s my inclination to try something different, maybe it’s simply my love of the sport, or maybe it’s all three. Regardless, I’m thinking differently about how I’ll approach swimming workouts, which will inevitably effect Pilates.

This past weekend I went with the St. John’s Water Polo Club (the only NL water polo club) to Halifax to compete in a tournament to which we haven’t sent a team in several years. It was a very successful, undefeated weekend, and although I have great difficulty playing water polo since my brain injury; left side weakness and double vision, I felt some of the excitement I used to feel when I played, with university or formerly with the St. John’s Water Polo Club.

We were scheduled to arrive on Friday, which we did, and leave on Sunday. Which we didn’t (or more to the point, not all of us got out). Heavy snow in Halifax on Sunday, then in St. John’s on Monday, meant some of us couldn’t get out until Tuesday. While this was annoying, it did give me the opportunity to attend a scrimmage with the Dalhousie Water Polo Club and actually play a bit. It was an extremely tiring and difficult experience, but one I feel confident about doing again. It might be five or ten years before I feel confident in my game, but now that I am more focused on playing, I know it’ll come.

When I have been swimming since my brain injury, I have been doing a routine of pure swimming, head down for 50-400 metres. Now that I have a new goal, I’ll be working on my head up front crawl which I’ll do in shorter distances, more intensely. I will still need to do some longer workouts to keep my endurance up, but it’s amazing to have a new goal with a new plan!

This is the type of activity that makes me excited to test my abilities, hence giving me more confidence in general, but the same idea holds for anybody with any activity. As I test my abilities I’ll get frustrated, annoyed, really tired, but that’s part of the experience, that’s what makes it worth doing! What’s more, I seriously doubt I’ll ever get back to my level of play pre-brain injury, but again, that’s part of the experience, that’s where the enjoyment comes from. The aggravation is temporary. The whole experience is the interesting part.

Thanks Alex, Dalhousie Water Polo, and everyone who came out to scrimmage on Monday night!