Ouachita Baptist’s Emily Knocke: The Walk On With The Walk Out Music

Emily Knocke

By Rachel Ewart, Swimming World College Intern

ARKADELPHIA – Sophomore Emily Knocke decided to walk on to Ouachita Baptist’s swim team this fall after nearly two years of retirement from the sport. Little did she know that she would become one of the Tigershark’s fastest female swimmers.

Early Swimming Burnout

Emily Knocke

Photo Courtesy: Cheryl Knocke

Knocke began competitively swimming at the age of six and continued to swim for her club team in Kansas, The Wichita Swim Club, until she was 16. However, as the years progressed she slowly found herself getting burned out on the sport.

“The training on my club team was intense; with early morning practices and a total of eight tough workouts a week, I found myself exhausted all the time.” Knocke said. “but more importantly my attitude continued to worsen, I dreaded going to each practice and felt like I was missing out on things in high school.”

After switching from club to high school swimming for her junior and senior year, Knocke decided to quit the sport for good; vowing to herself she would never swim again.

“I threw away all my swim suits, all my caps and goggles, I was done competing for good no matter who tried to convince me otherwise,” Knocke said.

After graduating high school, Emily went on to attend Ouachita Baptist University. She took her focus off competitive swimming and invested her time in other activities, such as school and friendships. However, she often found herself subconsciously missing the benefits of swimming.

“It was actually pretty difficult plugging in with friends my freshmen year of college,” Knocke said. “It really made me miss the swim team atmosphere and having that second family.”

Rediscovering her love for the sport

Emily Knocke

Photo Courtesy: Cheryl Knocke

Ouachita Baptist head coach Steven Bostick stumbled upon Emily at a facility student dinner, where he discovered her swimming history and managed to talk her into meeting the team.

“He kept asking about my previous swimming experience and said he could make me love the sport again if I gave it another chance,” Knocke said. “Somehow, he persuaded me to meet the team and when I did everyone was so welcoming towards me, it was incredible.”

After Bostick saw the connection Emily had with the team, he convinced her to get in the water and see how it felt again.

When the idea of rejoining a swim team came to mind, Emily discussed it with her closest friends and family; she received nothing but positive feedback from her loved ones as they supported her decision.

“A lot of the reason I walked onto the team was because of Coach Bostick’s willingness to work with me,” Knocke said. “He knew my swimming history, he was understanding about it and he put a ton of effort into my training.”

Improvement

Emily Knocke

Photo Courtesy: Emily Knocke

As the season progressed, Knocke continued to improve her attitude towards swimming and also her previous personal best times. Knocke exceled at the UALR Christmas Invitational this past weekend and claimed victories in both the backstroke events. She won the 100 backstrokes with a time of 58.80 and also won the 200 backstroke in 2:08.69.

Knocke swam so well she was seeded first in both races coming back to finals.

“She was the walk on with the walk out music,” Bostick said. “You don’t see that everyday.”

Bostick was impressed with Knocke’s stellar swims at the meet, and knew that she possessed the potential to be successful again in swimming.

“It wasn’t a surprise that she swam fast, she always came to practice and gave it her all; 99 percent of the time if you do that you’ll be rewarded,” Bostick said.

Although there is a definite transition from club or high school swimming to college swimming, Knocke has learned to appreciate the many positive aspects of being a collegiate swimmer.

“College swimming can be similar to club swimming intensity wise, but we have a lot of dual meets which is nice because it’s a smaller and less competitive environment in my opinion,” Knocke said. “I’m really happy with how this season has gone and it’s been awesome to be part of such a supportive team. It really has been nice to join swimming again because this time I chose to be here instead of being forced to do so.”

Swimming not only has many physical benefits, but it also has a certain rewarding feeling that can only be experienced through contributing hours of hard work towards the sport.

“There is a unique sense of accomplishment that I’ve only ever found in swimming,” Knocke said. “It’s an awesome feeling to know that something you’ve worked at for months and months has finally paid off. I can honestly say I’ve found a new appreciation for the sport; it’s so good to be back into swimming and to know that I can push myself this hard again.”

Bostick believes that coaches and swimmers should strive to reach out to former ‘burnout’ athletes more often.

“I think that we were in a special situation finding Emily, but I do believe it’s important to have a good social image, a reputation amongst the campus because you’ll never know who you’ll come across,” Knocke said.

Prevention of burning out

Emily Knocke is an example of swimmers who possess the natural athletic talent to excel in swimming, but somehow lose motivation and interest in the sport. Although Knocke managed to rekindle her love for swimming, many swimmers somehow cannot. This leads to the question, what prevents swimmers from burning out of the sport?

Bostick believes that in order to prevent swimmers from burning out, both the athlete and the coach must play a role in keeping the sport fun. Teaching swimmers to enjoy what they do and to be satisfied in their performance is an important factor to the sport.

“To all the swimmers who are wanting to give up, I’d say attempt change before you quit,” Bostick said. “Try something different like a new mental perspective or adopting a new source of inspiration.”

Something as small as developing a new mindset could transform a swimmer’s experience forever.

Rachel Ewart is a junior competing at Ouachita Baptist. Ewart has been swimming competitively since 1999 as part of Swim Omaha (1999-2001) and the City of Shreveport Swim Team (2001-12).

 

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