Swimming, and being a student-athlete who is a member of a scholastic swimming team, has many strong why reasons.

Why you want to create a life with swimming is explained below. Motivation is unique. You'll discover it on your own, but these reasons might give added justifications and offer will-power boosts.

Your reasons to explain why youngsters should swim are welcome too. Submit your reasons and highlights to Mark@Rauterkus.com or on the form below.

Personal experiences from countless of coaches and swimmers have been gathered and in the end, it is fair to say that swimming delivers results. We’re selling swimming experiences. Hope you are buying. You decide to build more purpose in your life and cherish the fun in swimming. Different strokes for different folks, but everyone can find their own reasons to swim.

Our Growing, Mega List

1. For fun! Swim teams are fun. Swimming is fun. Practices and meets are fun.
2. Being on the team allows kids from other grades to mingle with each other.
3. Participating on a swim team can build strength, confidence, and the ability to get along with others—which will help later in life.
4. You can join the swim team to support your school. School spirit! 
5. Swimming makes you smarter. Swimmers get better grades than the non-swimmers. Research supports this benefit. If you want to excel in your studies and be a scholar, be a swimmer too. The two help each other in complementary ways.
6. Individuals on a swim team can impact team spirit. Team-spirit influences are wonderful.
7. Swimming is the original total-body workout. Swimming offers the best form of exercise for a total-body workout.
8. Being on the swim team builds one physically and mentally – but just as valued is the understanding that swimmers on their scholastic swim teams are engaged in a sport that is far safer than other sports. Head injuries, concussions, blown ACLs and broken bones are uncommon in swimming. Of course, being a competitive swimmer does not make you immune from all injuries. However, that expression that “injuries are part of the game” does not apply to swim teams.
9. More and more, high school football teams are being forced to forfeit games within their seasons due to an abundance of injuries and lack of players able to compete in games. Swimming teams don’t suffer from rampant injury problems, nor are small participation numbers justification for forfeits. Tiny swim teams with only a few individual members can still compete in meets without being forced to forfeit. Going to championship meets with a lone athlete is a standard and common occurrence. Swimming supports its individual competitors so entire team advancements are nice, but not necessary.
10. In swimming, everyone can be strong. Just allow yourself the opportunities to find-and-see your inner strengths. As you find your strengths, you believe in yourself. You don't need to be athletic to be motivated. You don't even need to be athletic to swim. Just love yourself.
11. Swimming is great for those with issues with various joints – such as knees, ankles, hips, and backs. Swimming and water-based exercise also helps affected joints and decreases pain from osteoarthritis.
12. Swimming helps to increase flexibility.
13. Being on the swim team and putting on your swim suits gets one to feel super self conscious.
14. Swimming is a great place to learn and practice sportsmanship. 
15. Swimming and responsibility are interwoven. Swimming season teaches students to be more responsible with getting homework done and working on projects.
16. Time management matters greatly with swimmers. Time management needs to be sharpened for one to flourish as a student and a swimming athlete. Great time management skills are developed by swimmers.
17. Swimming is a lifelong activity and sport. People of any age—from babies to senior citizens—can go to the pool, enjoy themselves and exercise. Swimming is one of the few sports you can do throughout your lifetime. Unlike something like soccer, baseball, or skiing, you won't need to "retire" from swimming. Like a special friend, swimming will always be there for you. Be active!
18. Amp up your excitement by being on the swim team.
19. Swimming is not just a lifelong sport, but swimming is one of the few sports which incorporates life-saving skills. Be a swimmer to not only save your own life, but your strong swimming could make it possible to also save another person’s life if necessary.
20. A group of swimmers, from super-fast to super-slow, get to be together for swim practices at the same place (pool) but in different lanes. Meanwhile, fast-and-slow cross-country runners quickly separate in training sessions.
21. Being on your school's swim team makes great sense for water polo players of the present and the future. If you are not a water polo player now, fine. but keep up the competitive swimming because one day later you'll have water polo opportunities. Perhaps you will get into water polo while in college on a club team,, or as a graduate student after your swim eligibility expires, or even as a masters water polo player., Competitive swimmers can turn to the sport of water polo to stay on a squad and keep training at the swim pool. High school students who have the options of being part of both a their swimming and water polo teams have it best because the swim technique and fitness improvements compliment each other while keeping the time at the pool fresh and exciting.
22. The extra fun at specialized swim team practices would be missed if not a part of the team -- like when we take out some lane lines and play SKWIM. It is a really fun when SKWIM is played with another team, such as after a meet instead of a warm down, or at an early-season or post-season scrimmage. Coach calls them "SKWIMMAGES." 
23. One could become devoted to football or field hockey, but the days playing those sports are ending at the end of high school, or shortly thereafter. The cross-country runners, cyclists, golfers and tennis players do have decades of fun in their future. But swimmers and swimming can still endure for years beyond the eventual retirements from those other sports. Learn to swim well as a youngster, and you’ll have a lifetime of options ahead of you.
24. Colleges and university admissions officials love to admit varsity swimmers and divers to their institutions of higher education. Being a four-year swimmer looks great on a resume and is not overlooked. Likewise, many scholarships, internships and specialized travel opportunities have competitive application process. Being a swimmer helps build the resume and gives an edge to being accepted.
25.  Some smaller, exclusive, hard-to-get-into colleges and universities accept up to 65% or 70% of their undergraduate students from the ranks of varsity athletes. The elite schools want to accept varsity swimmers.
26.  Discipline. Learn discipline when on your swim team.
27. Travel for swim meets is fun for numerous reasons. Those on the team get regular field trips to other schools as a bonus activity. There are some days when the swimmers on the team get to skip out of classes early. 
28. The all-sports banquet at the end of the school year gets everyone gushing with pride -- but you have to be on a team to get invited.
29. Setting and meeting future goals is a great reason to be a swimmer and on a scholastic swim team. Goal setting is a skill that swim coaches teach to those on the swim team. And, while swimming, goals are highlighted and often central to the overall team drive. The goal setting in swimming and sports can also be shifted to other tasks and milestones as well.
30. Learn how to push yourself when on your swim team. We all have limits, but swimmers are great at going farther and faster than they think they can. Swimmers push themselves mentally and physically. Learn that you can do more by setting your mind to it and working toward and past those limits.
31. Swimming is great for cheering for others. 
32. Swimming is important to learn about team success as it can be as important as individual success. 
33. Hanging out with friends is enjoyable. Camaraderie. Swimming is a great place to make new friends too. Swim friends can be the best friends. Don't disappoint your friends by not swimming.
34. Some folks love the water. Humans are land animals, but there are some who flower in the water -- for the sake of the water.
35. Being on the high school swim team opens up a world of new perspectives to consider when it comes to one's eventual college admission process and final decisions. College visits are so much better when you have a willing college coach to meet you when visiting campus. Plus, meeting and hanging with that college's swimming team when on campus is so enlightening. Learning and witnessing what other, older teammates have done in prior years with their quest for a good college is interesting. Hearing ideas and receiving some back-channel support from various high school coaches makes a big difference in the outcomes as well. Calls between your high school swim coach and the college coaches,can be wonderful introductions to a schools and options not even on the radar -- and sometimes those calls yield in partial scholarship offers as well. There is so much to consider and discover in the college-decision process and the well-connected local swim coaches might have the key for some tremendous help along the way. 
36. Leadership is one of the most-valued intangibles that gets to be woven into one's life's story, and swimming experiences, being team captain and scoring points in this realm happens with all on their varsity swim team in various shapes and sizes. 
37. Swimming happens throughout the year. Sure, most winter-time swimming happens at indoor pools, but some are crazy are brave enough to swim outdoors in the winters. Polar bear swimmers gather on January 1 for some cold-water plunge. 
38. When people have lots of extra time, like in the summers or while on a relaxing vacation – swimming and hanging at the pool-or-beach is generally a go-to activity. Being a high school swimmer helps to guarantee more fun in those times of future vacations and days off.
39. When it is hot, and as temperatures rise with global warming, more are going to turn to the swim pool to cool off. When it is really, really hot, it is harder to overheat in the pool. 
40. Swimming on a varsity swim team doesn't cost lots of money. No extra fees are charged to families of swimmers at The Ellis School.
41. Swimming’s specialized gear and equipment is not excessively large and bulky. Most of the personalized swim equipment (cap, goggles, and wearable tech) is rather compact and light. The equipment bags of hockey players are huge. And, they often stink. 
42. The specialized swim gear for swimming is affordable.
43. Swimmers often get free, team, t-shirts. Some squads get large, warm parkas. The warm-ups and other clothing items swimmers get and wear make joining the team worth it.  
44. There isn’t any ability barrier for joining the Ellis swim teams. That double-black-diamond ski-slope isn’t for beginners. Those without existing swimming skills are welcome to join the team and learn to swim.
45. Swimming’s world-wide popularity always put it among the top five of all activities, regardless of culture and continent.
46. Swimming is not about being better than anyone else. Swimming is about being better than you used to be. Measures of success in swimming are extremely personal and meaningful. Plus, they’re attainable for everyone.
47. Thrill seeker should be on their high school swim teams. Some get jazzed by jumping off of high objects. If you can ever visualize yourself as one who is going to jump off a bridge, you should be a strong swimmer. Likewise, if you are the type that would one day jump out of a plane and sky dive, swim. You might find yourself landing with a parachute in the water of a lake, river or some other unexpected body of water.
48. Nature lovers (and those who one day will want to connect with nature) should be on the swim team. Water plays so many critical roles in countless nature settings. If you are going to go fishing, you had better be able to swim. Animals are attracted-to-and-seek-out water sources and humans need to be competent in and around the water. Unexpected swimming situations are often challenging life-and-death situations with rushing water while wearing boots, clothes and bogged down with gear. Building the strength and skills to swim in places when nature grabs comes from seasons of explosive, swim team practices.
49. Swimming for fitness is a growing trend. Swimming isn’t a fad.
50. Swimming for fitness is one of the top “aspirational sports.” Swimming participation is craved by many who can and can’t yet swim, in different stages of life. According to the Fitbit Activity Index, swimming is one of the top fitness activities for all ages.
51. Water's buoyancy reduces a person's functional body-weight by about 90 percent, according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE). When in the pool, the water's buoyancy counteracts the force of gravity. Being in the water and swimming provides an ideal low-impact form of exercise. Be buoyant. Float more.
52. Some people who can’t walk on land, can walk in the pool. So the pool provides a pathway to more mobility. So, when you’re older, and have some body issues and find yourself in a condition when you can’t walk – turn to the pool – and have a quicker return to mobility. But do so with the confidence that you’ve already mastered swimming skills when younger, without being fearful of the water.
53. In a heated pool, and most pool are heated, muscles become relaxed. Tension can be washed away while increases in flexibility make stretching exercises and life easier. The rest of the day is made more pleasant after departing the pool.
54. The lactic-acid-building endurance workouts in the pool can flush out toxins and impurities in one’s body.
55. Swimming is one of the easiest and best ways to burn unwanted calories. An hour of swimming burns about 500 calories. Plus, Swimming boosts your metabolism. Check out the humorous Michael Phelps diet?
56. Swimmers value their lungs and breathing to a higher degree. Swimmers know they should never start to smoke or vape. Swimming even helps those who are trying to quit smoking, as you can’t smoke at the pool, especially when in the water. If you know someone who is in the process of quitting smoking – or if you wish that they would, grab your pretty-irritable-friend or family-member and jump in a pool together. The lungs say, “thank you.”
57. Swimming moves improve coordination and one’s body control. Motor coordination with muscles and flow are better established with the brain, nerves, muscles, and limbs within the swim experience. These swim skills transfer from the wet-side to the dry-side of life and help with countless of other tasks.
58. Swimming is a way to fine tune one’s balance. Effort in the pool aim to build balance in the water, as one floats and strokes. That fine-motor feedback-and-adjustments that are cultivated in the water can be realized on land too.
59. Swimming can improve one’s posture. By-and-large, swimming is going to provide more strength and improve posture and fortify your positioning of the spinal column. High volume swimming of miles per day without giving attention to the back muscles might make one prone to slouching, but that’s just stupid swimming. We all know and do better than that.
60. Swimming is an excellent exercise for people with back problems. When you have an issue with your back, turning to the pool for rehab should be able to provide welcome relief and accelerate the road to recovery – especially when you have a swim background.
61. Swimming is an excellent exercise before and after surgery. Hopefully you’ll never have to experience surgery – or mend after some traumatic bodily injuries – but should those challenges arise, being fearless and strong in the water can pay huge health dividends. Furthermore, the roads of recovery from surgery to the swim pool can also apply to others in your life as well. Take your friend, spouse, parent and spouse’s parent to the pool with you after they’ve had surgery.
62. Swim with the team to be part of a group that is full of positive peer pressure. 
63. For teamwork experiences. Team bonding. 
64. School events such as pep-rallies and assemblies, are more fun when you know the classmates and their accomplishments for for whom the gathering celebrates. Having the scoop and being able to detail and describe the swimming feats of teammates to the non-swimmers is rewarding.
65. Swimming is a great sport if you are tall.
66. Swimming is a great sport for those who are heavy.
67. Swimming is a great sport for those who are short. Playing volleyball and basketball as a short person is possible, but more frustrating. Whereas, swimmers come in a wider range of sizes and shapes.
68. Swimmers realize how and why 5-seconds can be like an eternity. Time matters and swimmers get to perfect time-awareness and master the clock. 
69. In times of pregnancy, swimming is a wonderful activity. Become a high school swimmer so that in the future, when pregnant, your high school swim background can benefit you, your body and your baby.
70. Swimming is an ideal exercise for those of any fitness level. You can take an easy path at the pool and just do casual walks or easy kicking on the wall. Or, you can bust it with repeats and high-intensity swims. More butterfly, or else turn to elementary backstroke. You’re choice.
71. Swimming does not require heavy equipment. In the pool, a 10-pound weight belt is to the upper limit. More weights are just excessive. Most of the high school guy swimmers train with six-or-eight-pound weight belts. No need to move 250 pounds, or more, in the pool.
72. Swimmers don’t need to buy lots of different pieces of exercise equipment to work various muscle groups.
73. Swimming is the ultimate aerobic activity. The aerobic benefits of swimming help your circulatory system function better, leading to better blood circulation to your brain. If your brain gets enough blood and oxygen (through aerobic exercise), it starts a process called hippocampal neurogenesis, in which cells from the hippocampus that have been lost due to stress are replaced with new cells.
74. Aerobic exercises like swimming can trigger the release of endorphins in the brain. These bodily chemicals bring about feelings of contentment and euphoria. The endorphins felt after a swim workout are great for lifting one out of a seasonal slump.
75. Compared to running, there is more breath control with swimming, which creates an increased demand for oxygen, making those muscles work harder without knowing it.
76. Swimming strengthens the heart. More heart, more pumping, more prevention from ever needing to have a cardiologists. Blood circulation isn’t to be taken for granted.
77. Swimming is refreshing. Jumping in the pool sends the water all around you and awakens your skin. Did you know that the skin is your body’s largest organ of the integumentary system? It is the skin that keeps you all together. Awaken the skin, take a swim. Enjoy the rush.
78. Not only is the skin a large organ of the body, it is also one of the most sensitive. So, swimming is a great place to come alive with feelings, with being, with contrasting “wokeness.” Feel the changes in temperatures in a refined way – by practicing at the pool. Putting yourself into bigger bodies of water is stimulating, regardless of the crowd or time on the stopwatches.
79. Some people enjoy swimming at night, under the stars. Some enjoy swimming in the early morning, before the rest of the world awakens. Early morning and late night swimming can happen without UV sunblock. Become at one with the night-sky swimming or pre-dawn swimming – and have more magical days.
80. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology found that swimming is an activity that embraces feelings of gratitude. Gratitude increases athletes' self-esteem. Self-esteem is an essential component to peak performance.
81. Open minds and parachutes, find them both at the swim pool. Minds are like parachutes. They only work when open. Mini parachutes are used by some swim squads as a regular piece of swim equipment. Swimming is less expensive than skydiving.
82. Swimming is, perhaps, the best way to refine the number-one-skill of the world’s most influential people. That number one skill is simple, but hard to achieve: FOCUS. Great achievements come to those who are able to garner great focus. Swimming is a wonderful focus enhancement exercise. Focus is a great achievement separator, and the focus we learn, practice and master in swimming becomes a transferable skill that helps to make a positive impact. Swimming is a positive influence for those who are destined to be influencers.
83. Swimming can present time and opportunities for meditation. Active meditation’s benefits can make you happier in life and protect you from overwhelm. Swimming, like meditation, helps you in the quest to center yourself and kindle, amazing positive energies.
84. Swimming is a way to quickly change your perspective and helps you to see things more objectively in your life. Jumping and diving into a new environment, as provided with the swimming pool and a swim practice, is an incredible change of scenery, of scope, of presence. That change can unhinge other burdens of life. The temporary, and yet extraordinary, shifts of perspectives that occur at the pool help with one’s wellness. The acts of swimming can provide rocket-fuel for an individual seeking to re-create – hence – swimming is real recreation. Swimming can be a great way to clear your mind and improve your life.Swimming is about transformation. Swim teams are incubators for getting the most of the efforts of transformation -- so you can get the most out of yourself in the fastest time with compelling reasons to not stop nor slow down.
85. Swimming can give you many long-term thrills. Bettering your times and getting faster in the pool is a rush and empowering feeling. Beating your former self is obvious when you swim races. Swimmers and coaches compare times and chart progress in seconds, tenths-of-seconds and hundreds-of-seconds. That objective measurement capacity, built into swimming, is rewarding. In the long-view, swimming has a motivation factor like few others in sports and life.
86. It's true with any exercise or sport—self-esteem builds. Swimming can boost confidence and raise self-esteem. Swimming is about boosting your self-reliance. You feel more powerful—ready to face the world.
87. Some might argue that swimming can make you taller. Michael Phelps grew tall and he swam. While swimming isn't a scientifically proven way to add height, especially when also considering genetics, but, potentially, swimming has the ability to build longer, leaner muscles. It's those "swimmer's muscles" combined with resistance training and cardio that help boost your metabolism to keep those calories burning longer. Swimming can also put your body through a range of movements, helping your muscles stay long and flexible.
88. Let's say you're recovering from an injury and are hoping to rebuild strength. Swimming will fulfill that need and desire. Easy on the joints, swimming gives sore knees a rest from constant pounding that runners endure. Runners and land athletes often need to take a break from the constant leg strain and swimming is a great alternative for a while.
89. For some, just the idea or act of wearing a swimsuit in public (even in a backyard pool) can be the motivating force to shed a few pounds. People who consistently swim strenuously enough to be out-of-breath when they finish and elevate their heart-rate burn calories and lose weight says Jane Moore, M.D., a physician and active swimmer from Tacoma, Washington. "The key is to push yourself a bit."
90. Those that own swim pools know how a swim pool can be a magnet for gathering others, especially in the summers. Having one’s own pool means extra fencing, security and water watching, but pools are a are socialization magnets and going to the house or place with the pool is hard to deny. Pools brings children and adults together, socialization and a mini-culture unto themselves.
91. Scholastic swimming is both an individual-and-team sport. Nurture your competitive spirit while on the swim team. If you don't like head-to-head competitions, then make it about personal improvement.
92. Swimmers think about the Olympics often. Olympic swimming is exciting for all types of sports fans, but swimmers enjoy watching Olympic swimming the most. Be engaged when when watching Olympic swimming, but you also get to feel awfully slow. 
93. If you crave a chance to be part of high-pressure situations, then be a swimmer. The USA Olympic Swimming Trials happens before the Olympic Games. The meet is regarded as the highest-pressure sporting event in the world. Held once every four years, the Trials are pressure-packed, more-so than the Olympics finals. At the USA Swimming Trials, just the top two finishers per event get tickets punched to represent Team USA. Third place at the Trials is "first looser." 
94. Scholastic swimmers get treated to big-event, high-tension meets annually at district and state championships. People camp-out, over-night, outside of pools for chances to buy tickets to these big meets. Tickets to state swim championships, regardless of the state, are always in high demand.
95. Knowing how to swim means a person is less likely to drown. People who are proficient in swimming are never drown-proof, but being on a swim team is going to help greatly when the water rises. Every month, dozens of people die in the water throughout the US. Just recently, three were swept out of a car that was stuck in fast moving water flooding a street. In flooded Houston, families with small children had to wade and swim through neighborhoods to reach evacuation helicopters. Some can swim themselves to safety and others don’t make it.
96. It's a proven fact that physical activity improves mood in children and adults. For people with conditions like fibromyalgia, swimming can help decrease stress and anxiety, while relaxing, strengthening and toning muscles. Water-based exercise improves mental health. Swimming can improve mood in both men and women.
97. Water-based exercise can help people with chronic diseases. For those afflicted with arthritis, it improves the use of affected joints without worsening symptoms. Rheumatoid arthritis patients notice an improvement in health after participating in hydrotherapy, more than with other activities.
98. Swimming zaps the winter blues. There are few activities that impact one's attitude as greatly as swimming. Attitude establishes altitude.
99. Winter's weeks have a way of killing motivation. Being cold and snowy just becomes an excuse. Fight comfy with growth. Replace dark, snowy, icy and windy running, hiking and cycling with swimming.
100. Get ready for spring-and-summer track-and-road races by training with the swimming team in the winter.
101. Hip replacements and knee replacements are becoming easier medical procedures as modern medicine advances. Let’s hope these are not in your future nor in the future of those you care for. But, if those days should arrive, doctors are likely to recommend hydrotherapy. That means swimming. You can get in the pool right after sutures have been removed and the wound is healed, usually within 6-to-8 weeks after surgery.
102. Who and when efforts are fine, but more for the simple-minded. Swimmers are brilliant and deal mostly with the bigger challenges of how and why.
103. Swimmers get to have interesting hair. Grow it, color it, weird out with it, and eventually shave it. 
104. Swimming has proven to be beneficial for asthma sufferers. Swimming will encourage lung function and breathing control. If you suffer from exercise-induced asthma, jumping in the pool may relieve symptoms, because it allows asthmatics to work out in moist air, reducing symptoms. Because swimming requires breath control, it also improves overall lung and breathing capacity.
105. An urge to get away from it all, whatever "it all" is – can be suppressed with swimming. Everyone needs a little escape, and swimming can provide rest and relaxation. Stress from work, school, family, college searches and job hunting can build. While it may sound simple, being able to just jump in a pool and swim can provide an enormous relief of pressure.
106. Be a swimmer and give a boost your immune system. When cells in the body regularly get blood and oxygen, they function better and do a more effective job of removing toxins like carbon dioxide. This helps your body's overall well-being at the level of the cells.
107. Swimming also has a positive effect on the lymphatic system. When the lymph system is in order, white blood cells are regularly distributed, resulting in increased immunity against diseases and infections.
108. A good flu-season counter-measure is washing one’s hands. Do that often. But when on the swim team, you get to go a step beyond. By jumping into the swimming pool throughout the winter, one’s entire body stays clean and super-healthy. Be squeaky-clean in flu season when on your swimming team.
109. Some swim teams go above and beyond in pampering themselves. Step into an every-changing bubble in post-practice smorgasbord with a wide variety of products – often from a shared locker stocked with fragrances, body-washes, shampoos, conditioners, and other fancy lotions.
110. Access to a pool and provides a catalyst for many families to congregate: for swimming, playing, entertaining, and eating barbecue. Pool visits and swimming creates reasons to get families together. Swimming is family oriented and a kind of a focal point -- something around which to build activities.
111. Parents of children with developmental disabilities have found that outdoor activities in a casual setting, like swimming, help improve family bonds. It kind of takes the focus off the child, and gives everyone something fun to do; sort of a win/win situation.
112. Common-sense guidelines advise to "swim with a friend" for safety's sake. Keeping safety in mind at home, your child can swim solo at home provided you or a designated water watcher is stationed at the pool. The same would be true for senior adults who go swimming. It's best to have someone around to keep an eye on you during your workout. Going to the local pool with lifeguards is something that can be done while alone, or with a friend.
113. Swimming with many scholastic swim teams is a co-ed experience. Teen-age boys and girls get to be together at practices, meets, banquets and other events. Have fun meeting new friends.
114. Swimming is a great way to exercise without feeling like you are sweating, yet still burning calories.
115. Sports, and swimming, are great ways to learn the value of hard work.
116. Swimmers get to learn to work as team. In swimming, we learn how to be a motivator for others. These skills are vital should one ever plan to be an entrepreneur or teacher.
117. Join you swim team because you make lifelong friendships. Countless former swimmers are still in touch with their peers, their friends, and their coaches they got to train and compete with when on swimming teams. These friendships often survive more than 50-years into the future. And, you’ll love seeing and reminiscing with all of your ex-swim-teammates in the years to come – whenever and wherever you meet again. Build new friendships.
118. Join your swim team because your existing friends have asked you to do so. Some will ask and ask again, until you do join. So, you can swim to make new friends, and also, swim to make your existing friends happy by joining the swim team.
119. Join the swim team to please not only your friends, but also your parents and guardians. Encouragement from mom and dad to be on the team can lead to a positive outcome -- join the swim team. This might turn out to be a source of good advice.
120. Sports, and especially swimming, gives participants a chance to have a brush with excellence. To see the making of a new world-record, or state-record, and even a school-record is exciting and also validation of excellence. To excel is something to behold. And to witness it is nice. But, but be a part of it is great. Being on a team, a relay, or in a race with another who is a super-star is special. Support and be a part of programs where excellence and eye-popping results are expected.
121. Parents teach their children to walk, talk and often, how to make sense of colors, numbers, letters and even read. If you’ve been a scholastic swimmer, you’ll be able to be a confident parent at the swim pool, and also teach your child how to swim, navigate the deep end of the pool, jump off the diving board and do a flip turn. Plus, you’ll step beyond and be able to teach your nieces, nephews, neighborhood kids and new-found-friends’ children when at the pools, beaches and when on vacations.
122. With a swim team background, you’ll be the one who can, in fits of panic or worry, be able to offer the most reasoned and reassuring logic and compassion for dealing with athlete-team-and-coach drama in the decades to come. Having experience and skills in smoothing over hard times and intense training fatigue is sure to be a blessing when that manifests itself in the lives of other athletes who come into your life – especially that of your own children. You’ll know that the coaches are generally right, but you won’t be blind to sports’ ills. You’ll be steadfast when trouble’s ugly head should peek into one’s reality.
123. Some colleges have swimming requirements. For example, it is a requirement within certain governing authorities, such as the Victorian Institute of Teaching, that teachers seeking certification as PE graduates have a current teacher-of-swimming-and-water-safety qualification.
124. If you ever want to hit the river and row, expect to a swimming-test requirement. By being on the swim team, you’ll be able to sail through those swim tests in flying colors for rowing, sailing, board-sailing, para-gliding, skiing, wake-boarding,  
125. Some day in the future, someone may challenge you to do a triathlon. You’ll be ready, especially for the first leg, the swimming portion.
126. Swimmers get to wear tech swim suits – the closest mortals ever come to wearing a super-hero outfit. Just add you own cape!
127. Some of the newest swimmers are the ones who are able to totally surprise themselves, their coaches, their teammates and their families
128. Coach Merci talked to a freshman swimmer who, at the start of the season, couldn’t swim in the deep end of the pool. Coach quickly promised her that she would compete this season in a 50-yard-freestyle event. Plus, Coach predicted that the team would be behind her and cheer her on for her swim more than any of the others throughout the year.
129. Swimming test sets can be exciting, motivational and rewarding swim team activities.
130. An awareness of muscles and exercises to strengthen the moves of the body and its muscles provides valuable self awareness and can help with a foundation for future studies -- like being an Occupational Therapist, Athletic Trainer and Medical Doctor.
131. Certain swim coaches are great sources for letters of recommendations and job referrals. 
132. Being on a swim team expands your personal network.
133. Lingo, vocabulary and cryptic jargon advances come to those who are swimmers. Decoding workout sets is like learning a new language. 
134. Freshmen can make great contributions to their varsity swim teams. In other sports, the big roles or even making the squad, seem to be reserved for the juniors and seniors. In swimming, a fast freshman can be a star and then get better and better in the years to come.
135. Be on the swim team so you learn how to dive and dive off the starting blocks. Plus, if things go well, we get time to jump and dive of the 1-meter and 3-meter diving boards.
136. Use swimming to reward yourself. Some love to give themselves little rewards after swimming. One idea is to get a big stack of stickers and put one on your calendar when you swim. Do you love stickers, or donuts?
137. Use of a fitness log book is a great way to set goals, stay motivated and chart progress. Some love to see how many miles have been swum in the week, month and year. If feels great to set a target goal for one's swimming distance for the year and then see the recorded percentages climb throughout the year. Hashtag: Trust the process.
138. Be on the swim team so you get to sing songs when traveling to and from meets.
139. Students, “Try it. You may be a natural. And with some hard work, you can swim fast. Swimming fast with your peers is fun!”
140. Swimmers love to design, paint and post enormous signs. You’ve got to love seeing your own name plastered on the wall within a sweet decoration laced in school-spirit. If you can dig wall displays coupled with humorous and inspirational messages – be on the swim team.
141. You never regret being kind. Swimming is all about being kind. In swimming, you never need to steal the ball from the opponent. Swimmers don’t foul their opponents. Swimmers stay in their own lane. When a swimmer goes fast in a race, all can celebrate and try to go fast too – super kind.
142. Swimming reminds us and teaches that there are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.
143. Swimmers join the ranks of many illustrious, past heroes who also identified as swimmers such as Fred Rodgers, JFK, and Barbara Bush.
144. Swimming can open doorways for a job. Swim team members get the best crack at lifeguard training classes, lifeguard jobs, swim instructor positions and even private lesson opportunities.
145. Being a competitive swimmer opens the door to another type of part-time job when an adult. Become a swimming official. Scholastic officials get a pay check for each session worked. Stay connected to the sport. Help the next generation of swimmers. Serve and important role, but impose your own limits on the hours-per-week devoted to to the pool deck. 
146. Pearl divers need to be able to swim. Quote from Signs of the Unseen. The Discourses of JaLaluddin Ruon.
     “Someone comes to the seashore. Seeing nothing but turbulent water, crocodiles and fish, he says: “Where are the pearls? Perhaps there are no pearls.’ How is one to obtain a pearl merely by looking at the sea? Even if one measures the sea, cup by cup, a hundred times over, the pearls will not be found. One must be a diver in order to discover pearls; and not every diver will find them, only a fortunate skillful one.
147. If you want to go into marine biology and observe plants and animals in their natural habitat, you need to be a good swimmer. Be a swimmer to widen your job outlooks for the future.
148. If you want to join the Special Forces in the military, such as the Navy SEALs, you’ll need to swim well. Recruiters often seek out swimmers and water polo players due to the many skills and traits these athletes grow to possess.
149. Being on a swim team is fun because you get to motor around with fins. The blisters on the feet are a drag, but the speed while in the water is a rush. Zoom, zoom.
150. Swim on the team so you have something to do in your free time.
151. Your conation improves when you are part of a swim program. Conation is psychology term. You manifest conation as you strive. Of course, striving ranges from intense-bodily-activity to intellectual-activity that involves a minimum of bodily expression. However, the conation aspect of swimming goes to the trying, striving, endeavoring, paying-keen-attention, making-an-effort, working-hard, doing-our-utmost, exerting-ourselves, and concentrating-all-our-energies. The swim team's t-shirt slogan could be, "Manifesting conation!"
152. Swimming, and its community, is often centered upon attitudes of care. A motto at the University of Texas, a big-time Division I program, is, ‘Take care of yourself. Take care of each other, and that takes care of everything else.’ It is simple, not complicated.
153. If you want ownership, then swim on your team because, in most cases, the team is really, your team. You get ownership. Your swimming career is really yours to do as you wish. In most other sports, you'll be given a slot, if you make the team, with a specific position and role to fill. In those other sports, players get told what to do, and they become "Xs" and "Os" in the playbook and on coaches' chalkboards. However, Pitt's swim coach, John Hargis talks about his program saying, "The student-athletes truly take ownership of their athletic and academic lives to maximize their experience and reach their full potential."
154. Swimming teams are full of academically driven individuals who do very well in the classroom and embrace working hard. Associate with smart friends when you join the swim team. They can help you excel academically and athletically. 
155. Swimming is rich with mathematical language and concepts. Being exposed to mathematical discourses, (including the little words such as prepositions and adverbs) is important and integral to learning. Swimming lessons replete with mathematical terms and concepts, particularly relevant in the water context, offers considerable potential to add new forms of capital to learners.
156. If you can't dunk a basketball, then join the swim team because you will be able to dunk at the swim pool.
157. Human beings who enjoy meaningful relationships are happier than those who don’t. One of the most basic of our shared experiences, and a place where we forge many of our lifelong relationships, is school, and school sports.