How I Reflect On My Swim Year (And You Should, Too)!
If you know me, you know that I love a good reflection, and this year’s did not disappoint. Reflecting helps me to celebrate my wins, think through where I could have been better, and come back stronger the next time I try (hello 2026)! Swimmers and swim coaches, being the best you can be doesn’t mean trying the same thing over and over again.
It means taking some slow moments to pause and think about where you need to make changes in your life. I’ll show you my flow and reflection for the year, and give you my 2025 Swim Coach Wrapped (Spotify wrapped if you know you know), in the meantime.
It comes down to 5 steps and 5 questions that I ask myself and reflect on my swim year. I write it down in my notes app or in a notebook.
Let’s Get Started…
#1) How Did This Year Go?
When reflecting, always start with where you currently are. Without going too easy or too hard on yourself, ask yourself how the year went? You don’t get a prize one way or the other. The benefit comes from leaning into the reality of how things are going.
Check out SLAF’s 2025 Goals at the start of the year for an example!
In the day to day swim year, it’s so easy to get caught up in what’s next. You start thinking to yourself, “Well first I go to Dryland, then into the water, I’ll grab a protein bar then head to study…” And on and on and on.
This is the moment where you purposefully shift and zoom out. Are your habits helping you or hurting you? And which habits are those exactly?
What did you want out of 2025 when you walked into the year and where are you now? What systems in my life are working and what do I need to tweak or put into place?
#2) What Were My Wins?
Acknowledging what went well TRAINS YOUR BRAIN to notice and generate more wins. It’s scientifically proven that what we focus on multiplies. So why wouldn’t you be focusing on your wins? Even if you’re disappointed in how a season is going, pick out what did go well, what aspect of a race you improved on, or how you grew as a person. That’s the surest way to get out of a down spell. It’s also a surefire way to be proud of yourself (which if you’re trying your best, you absolutely should be).
For me, I split my wins into 2 categories: The wins that I came back to this year, and the wins that were new for me this year!
Repeat Wins
- Sending a FREE newsletter EVERY SINGLE WEEK for bite-size swimming technique education
- Facilitating life-changing Swim Like A. Fish Mentorship calls
- Adding 100’s of videos to the SLAF Video Vault: The Gold Standard of Swim Coaching Tools
- Creating lots of content for USA Swimming
- Running the Seward Tsunani’s swim camp in Alaska for the 4th year in a row – going back next year for year 5!
New Wins
- Being named to the High Performance Staff for the USA Swimming National Junior Team Camp
- Speaking at the Oregon Swimming Mini Expo
- Coaching in Africa with World Aquatics
- Hosting a RECORD NUMBER of SLAF Swim Camps!
Bonus Category: Personal Wins
- Traveling to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa – one of my favorite places on the planet that has been on my bucket list for YEARS!
- Vacationing for the 1st time in 5 years to see the Christmas Markets in Germany! I tend to overwork myself, so this was a huge personal win. Of course, what was not so good is me being sick the entire time HAHA. Guess I’m never taking a vacation again.
If you feel disappointed in what you “didn’t” accomplish in and out of the pool this year, I encourage you to write it all out. You might surprise yourself with how much you handled and succeeded at!
#3) Where Did I Fall Short… And Why Could That Be?
And, just like in the world of social media, for every win that you see, there are countless missed opportunities, closed doors and working really hard for something only for it to fall short. That’s a life lesson that swimming teaches us if we let it.
Although there is a lot we can’t control (sometimes you’re just going to get told no), I like to look at where I can grow and learn. What is my part in getting what I want?
For SLAF, we took this as a huge learning year. And when you ask to learn the world certainly hears that and delivers.
Every single mentorship call that we had solidified for me how life-changing this product really is. And yet, I felt we fell short of getting the word out and showing people what they are missing out on.
The same goes for the Video Vault. It’s the product that I reach for EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I step on deck. It undoubtedly makes me a better and more effective coach for my swimmers and campers. Not to mention, it’s our best price point. And yet, we didn’t rock the world with it as much as I thought we were going to. Why is that? And how can we better communicate with swim coaches in 2026?
This is the place to be real with yourself about what didn’t go well and why that could be (after all, it’s a guess). But at the same time, offer yourself lots of compassion and grace. Look at all the wins you did accomplish – you’re doing the best you can!
#4) What Do I Want?
This step is one of the most common ones that swimmers and swim coaches miss. Even if you aren’t 100% sure where life will take you (after all none of us are – at the end of my career I got good at races I was previously never focusing on), you need to have an idea of what you want.
It’s also amazing to me how many people can’t answer this question when I ask them. If you don’t know what you want, how can you make smart decisions to get there? It would be like trying to find a treasure without knowing what the treasure looked like.
Ask yourself, what do I want in the next month, 3 months, 6 months and a year? What do I want in the next several years? This can change and it will change based on what opportunities come available to you, but having a vision helps you get those opportunities!
For me, and for Swim Like A. Fish, we want to pour fuel on the fire of every single swimmer and swim coach in the world (super reasonable, right). We are on a mission to make swimming education accessible and exciting for everyone so that the entire sport benefits and gets faster.
#5) What Decisions Would The Fastest Version Of You Make?
Make those starting now, and watch how quickly that version of you comes to fruition. This is the part where we go back to #3. What can we improve on and what’s our best guess for how to improve? For swimmers, a lot of times that comes down to better rest and better technique.
I know this time of year can feel really busy – especially with peak training season and the holidays. But if you prioritize a few minutes each day during break to think about these 5 questions and to write them down, I promise you’ll blast into a super successful 2026!
If no one has told you today, coach, swimmer and swim parent, those of us here at SLAF see all the hard work you’re doing. We are so proud of you! It takes every single member of our swimming community doing their best and helping one another to create a sport that others want to be apart of. We’re all on one big team!
Until next time,
Abbie Fish and the Swim Like A. Fish Team