By SwimSwam Contributors on SwimSwam
Courtesy: Larry Reines
In swimming, time away from the pool doesn’t feel like time paused.
It feels like time stolen from you.
I didn’t fully understand that until I watched my son Joshua live it.
At what should have been a critical point in his age-group progression, Joshua had shoulder surgery. Then another. Torn labrums. Both shoulders. One after the other. What we were told would be a temporary interruption turned into 14 months out of the water without any meaningful training.
In a sport where improvement is measured in weeks—and sometimes tenths—that kind of absence changes everything.
There were no interval sets taped to the wall. No conversations about taper. No meet calendars planned months in advance. Instead, there were physical therapy appointments, resistance bands scattered around the house, and long stretches where progress wasn’t obvious to anyone, including him.
Some days, the hardest part wasn’t rehab; it was the pool he couldn’t enter.
Eventually, the question came up. Not dramatically. Not in a single conversation. Just quietly; Who am I if I’m not swimming?
Joshua didn’t answer that question quickly. And he didn’t answer it out loud.
At first, there was loss. Then frustration. Then a kind of silence. Not sadness exactly—more like detachment.
Swimming had always provided feedback. You swim. The clock answers. Take the clock away, and the noise shows up somewhere else.
What I noticed as a parent was that, slowly, swimming stopped being the only organizing force in his life. Without times to chase, he had to decide whether the work itself still mattered.
And it did.
Not because of cuts or rankings, but because of what the sport demanded when no one was watching: discipline, accountability, patience, and of course, he said, “I love swimming.”
Swimming stopped defining him by default and became something he chose, again.
He chose that swimming would be part of his life—not the sum of it. That distinction mattered. It gave him room to recover without panic and return without trying to make up for lost time. When he finally came back to the water, it wasn’t to reclaim an identity he’d lost—it was to continue the journey.
The Part of Injury No One Talks About
Physical recovery is easy to measure. Strength comes back. Stability improves. Range of motion increases. Mental recovery doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet.
Joshua didn’t just lose conditioning. He lost rhythm. He lost momentum. Friends kept racing and cuts were made without him in the water. Seasons passed.
One thing that mattered more than most people realize was that he wasn’t alone.
His brother, a swimmer of comparable caliber, was there the entire time. Not just cheering from the deck, but training, pushing forward, and also waiting. Injury isolates athletes. Brotherhood counteracts that isolation in a way no program or pep talk ever could.
Joshua’s comeback didn’t begin when he swam his first race back.
It began 18 months ago, when he committed to recovery without knowing what the outcome would be.
The Long Way Back
Getting back in the water wasn’t inspiring. It was awkward.
Before he swam a single lap, there were bands. Every day. Bands before you get into the water. Rotator cuff work. Slow, deliberate movements. No shortcuts. Swim came after preparation. It became a rule, not a suggestion.
The swims were short. Intensity was controlled. Pain wasn’t sharp, but it was always there—just enough to demand respect. Every practice required restraint, especially on the days he felt good. Those were often the hardest days to manage.
Progress came slowly. Then stalled. Then came back again.
There was no breakthrough practice. No moment where everything suddenly clicked.
Just showing up. Day after day. Month after month.
Stroke for Stroke
This weekend, Joshua raced the 400 IM.
It wasn’t the A final. It was the B final—earned, competitive, honest. He was seeded next to his brother. In the second 50 of the butterfly leg—the part of the race where effort starts to show—his brother was there. In sync, stroke for stroke. Setting the rhythm. Leading the way.
Nothing needed to be said.
Joshua missed the Summer Junior National cut by .84 seconds.
On paper, that’s a miss.
In context, it’s a marker of how far he’s come.
Because 18 months earlier, he wasn’t chasing cuts. He was chasing the ability to train consistently. He was racing doubt, frustration, and the quiet fear that too much time had passed.
The New Reality of Recovery
There’s something injured athletes eventually learn that doesn’t get talked about enough: recovery doesn’t end. Joshua’s orthopedist—who spent years working with an NBA team—was direct about it. There wasn’t a single practice or game when he walked into the locker room where players weren’t icing, taping, or doing some form of remediation. Not because they were injured, but because staying healthy at a high level requires constant maintenance.
The ice pack and the heating pad are part of Joshua’s routine now. And it always will be.
This reframed what “healthy” actually means.
Not pain-free but prepared.
What Injury Really Builds
Swimming doesn’t reward shortcuts, it rewards the people who put in the time.
Injury doesn’t help build grit in big moments. It builds it quietly—in rehab rooms, empty lanes, and races most people won’t notice.
Joshua isn’t defined by missing a cut by .84 seconds.
He’s defined by refusing to let injury decide the end of his story.
And that lesson—learned slowly, without guarantees—will last longer than any medal ever could.
ABOUT LARRY REINES
Larry Reines is a parent of a competitive swimmer and a former swimmer. He shares this story not as a professional writer, but as a parent hoping to give voice to an experience many families in the sport don’t want to face—but often do. Larry is also the CEO of Floafers, though this piece is written solely from the perspective of a parent.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Fourteen Months Out of the Water: What Injury Really Teaches a Swimmer
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