Emilia, Year 10

What were your plans for 2020?

I’ve been swimming competitively for six years. This year would have been my third year on the National Team, representing Victoria. This year I qualified for three events – the 100m and 200m Backstroke, and the 200m Individual Medley. I was aiming to qualify for the Olympic trials, which were in June. 

It was about three weeks out from Nationals when our coach suddenly told us it was cancelled. We all kind of looked around at each other and thought what are we going to do now? We’d been training for a whole year and we were probably in the best condition of our lives. After that, training was kind of pointless, we didn’t really know what to aim for, or what we were doing. It was really hard for all of us.

How did you adjust to lockdown?

During the first wave we were at home for 10 weeks. After that we were able to get into the water for about a month, and we were just getting back into hard training when we went into lockdown again. The second time has been much harder.

You can feel your swimming fitness disappearing. Every competition this year and next year has a big question mark on it so we don’t really have anything to aim for. That’s been one of the really hard things. You just have to try and overcome that and try and think ahead.

Our coach said something to us that resonated for me, “Discipline and motivation are two different things”. When you have discipline, everyday you just keep going. Eventually when we get out of all of this, the motivation will come back.

How did you come to terms with the disappointment?

It has taken a little while. I can’t control what the whole of Victoria is doing. I can’t control what stage of restrictions we are in. I can’t control the numbers. I can’t control anything except for myself. Knowing that I’m in control of my own body and I'm in control of the exercise I do, and my fitness has made me feel a little bit more grounded.

How have you adapted?

Before, it was easy to stay fit because we were swimming seven days a week. Now I’ve been exercising every day. I normally train two or three runs in a week, and I'm lucky enough to have my own gym equipment in the garage. Our coach is really in touch with us. He’s been sending out motivational videos and recipes and just trying to keep the squad and everyone together and letting us know that we are all in it together. Everyone is trying to support each other and I think it's definitely helping. It would be so much harder if you were on your own.

What have you learnt most about yourself?

I still have goals and I still really want to reach them - I’ve just had to change it up a little bit. I never really realised how strong I was until I was tested. But now it's surprising. I’ll take the mental skills that I’ve learnt into the future with me. This time has been a really good test of everyone’s resilience, not just in sport but in life in general.

Margo, Year 10

What were your plans for 2020?

At the start of this year, in January I qualified to swim for the National Australian Artistic Swimming Team. I was really proud. We were planning to go to Quebec to compete in the 2020 FINA World Artistic Swimming Championships. I was really excited to be able to compete with the older girls in the team and learn a lot from them.

What’s been the most challenging thing for you?

It was sad to hear that the competition wasn't going ahead. Setting yourself up for a year of competitive training and lots of different events - you have a whole plan. But very quickly it just turns around completely. You need to take a step back and look at what's going on and what you need to do next moving forward.

How have you adapted?

We’ve begun doing online Zoom sessions six times a week. So we workout together and we’ll spend time stretching as well. I do sessions with the Ivanhoe Girls’ team, my team outside of school, as well as sessions with the Victorian High Performance program. Sometimes we do sessions with the Russian coaches with connections to Coaching Australia.

As an Artistic Swimmer, teamwork is essential. How do you manage that on Zoom?

For the Ivanhoe Girls’ team we are starting to choreograph routines. We do it over the phone and [coaches] Gemma and Katrina help us to learn the new choreography. It's awkward because sometimes the camera is flipping… so it can be all over the place but we’re getting there, we are learning.

For my other teams we haven’t focussed on routines for the past few months. Instead we’ve gone back to foundations and worked on really building up our strength and endurance and trying to improve our flexibility. We probably won't be choreographing routines until restrictions ease.

What have you learnt about yourself?

I've definitely learnt that life doesn’t always go as planned. This year is kind of a testament to that! I’ve learnt that when things don’t go as planned, don’t waste time getting hung up about it, rather spend your time moving forward, and seeing where you can go from where you are. I've also learnt to really roll with it and work with the scenario you’re given and just try to do your best even if it's not what you expected.

Have you lost any of your passion for your sport?

Not at all! It has strengthened my passion. When it’s day after day of going to the pool, training, coming home late, you don't think this is what I love to do. You’re thinking I’m so tired, I have so much homework, I just want to sleep. Now I have all this time, I realise how much I love this sport and how much I miss it. I just want to get back in the pool and see all my friends!

Paige, Year 11

What were your plans for 2020? 

For me, 2020 was going to be very exciting - we would find out if Australia would get the bid for the Women’s World Cup. It’s so exciting that we’ve got it, and definitely something that girls around Australia are looking towards.

Earlier in the year, before COVID-19, I went to Brisbane with Melbourne Victory. That was a friendly match against China’s National Team. It was a really cool experience playing with all the older players, which I cherished.

So this year I was expecting to be training for soccer, and potentially going interstate for Training Camps or the National Championships. I don’t really get much notice when I’m going overseas. You just have to be ready at all times. You never know when the email will be coming. It’s a bit difficult, but it’s just keeping fit at all times.

What’s been the most challenging thing you’ve had to deal with?

I think that motivation might be the biggest challenge for everybody, especially in this situation. It’s kind of a barrier, mentally, because there’s nothing you're working towards. It's definitely challenging to keep motivated.

At the moment I’m training on my own, doing lots of fitness, running, keeping myself motivated. It was a challenge at the start, but I found that I’ve been getting better and I feel more happy within myself. It’s about thinking about what you are doing this for, and what your passion is. Your drive. It’s also good that I’m so close with some girls that I play soccer with, we call often and talk about how everything is going and do virtual gym sessions together. We all help each other, which is so nice.

How have you adapted your training schedule?

My family have been really keen on exercising together, so we find time during the day to do lots of running in the morning and some gym after school. We’ve got some bits of gym equipment at home which is very handy. We all use it, which is great. It’s really fun when you've got the whole family involved as well, you don’t feel so isolated on your own.

My coaches have been great and they’ve sent me lots of programs to do. Every Saturday we’ll have a meeting, and sometimes we’ll get some guest speakers to do some mindfulness or meditation with us. I’m so lucky for that - because it's so good just to relax, especially with everything going on. They are very mindful of our mental wellbeing, which is very important.

What have you learnt most about yourself?

I’m a bit more individual than I thought. When you are in such a team environment, you get approached as a team, so being on your own, having to do things for yourself and do things that best suit you - I found that I’ve grown a bit stronger and I’ve found strength within myself. Drive and resilience. I think about my goals. I used to play soccer with my grandpa. Sometimes I find myself playing for him.

Penny, Year 8

What were your plans for 2020?

I’ve moved up a new level in Gymnastics and Aerobics. For Aerobics, we had learnt our routine and were ready to compete in the first competition of the year. I got into the State Development Squad for Aerobics and I was excited to train with them. I’ve been a bit disappointed because I haven't been able to compete and I love competing. I’m a bit of a competitive person.

How have you adapted your training?

Honestly, I quite like being at home. It’s giving me a chance to do things like practise my flexibility and build on basics. For gymnastics, I do have gym equipment in the backyard, but, you just can't really learn new stuff because it’s a bit risky.

My team meet up on Zoom and we go from there. Some days we learn new skills. Last night we did a new dance routine in Aerobics. For gymnastics we usually just do strength or skills.

What have you learnt about yourself?

I’m a pretty positive person. When I keep in the mindset I can keep my motivation up. I think I’ve always been self driven but it's become more useful over isolation. I want to stay fit, and I want to stay at the top of my game for gymnastics and aerobics, so it's not that hard to go out and train.

What are you looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to seeing my friends and being back in a routine where I know I’ll get better every time I go to the gym. I’m looking forward to learning how to do a backwards twist on the floor in gymnastics.