Swimming gives character to my heart - Jovan Ponjević

His swimming heart has helped him endure all his life races, even when the waters were not calm, and it has helped him jump out of the pool into the cycling lanes and running trainers. Jovan Ponjević is a Serbian ex-national swimmer (junior category) and a Serbian national triathlete, an engineer and a sport enthusiast. He’s won quite a few medals in swimming, running and triathlon. Today, as an active sportsman and a triathlete, he is translating the years of his experience into a coaching philosophy which helps others maintain their sport hearts strong, and swim, cycle and run their own races.

I had a chance to be his swim coach at the point when no one else believe in him. We proved all them wrong. A year after our joint work and swimming, Ponjević was able to achieve best results, swimming shoulder to shoulder with the national champions. Even today, I am more than happy when he calls me “my coach”. My heart swells with joy and pride!

As a Swimming Dad #Blog guest, Jovan Ponjević is telling us: How has swimming helped him make his heart stronger? How has swimming nourished the heart of a premature baby, so that now it can beat fiercely as the heart of a successful triathlete? Does swimming give character to one’s hear…?

How does swimming nourish your HEART?

Swimming as a sport can nourish your heart by constantly making it stronger as a muscle, apart from making the parson grow as a healthy individual. Swimming is not called the healthiest sport for nothing. There are great benefits it brings to those who love and train swimming. Swimming is the food to our hearts as it develops our body and it also develops us as individuals.

Swimming is teaching us loads of thing in life.

How does swimming make your HEART stronger?

As a premature baby I was always sickly. Based on what my parents have told me, I used to visit doctors more often than not. When I started swimming, the things started changing for a bit. Like my friends at that time, I happened to be ill every other week or so. Once my heart got strong enough, my entire body could smoothly overcome all the challenges I faced at that time. Now as an adult, I basically have no health issues and I almost never get sick.

Is the HEART of a swimmer more resistant…?

The heart of a sportsman is generally much stronger, bigger and more resistant than the heart of those who never do any sport. The heart, as any other muscle in our body, is developing and growing as the child is developing and growing. It is always recommended to do sports because, apart from socializing, you also develop your body and your character. By choosing swimming as a sport you develop your heart for the lifetime. I can say from my personal experience that sportsmen are much healthier and more resistant than those who don’t do any sport.

Swimming gives character to my HEART …?

Even though it’s an individual sport, swimming gives my heart the feeling of closeness. By training swimming, we learn a lot about friendship. Children train with each other, have fun, meet up after the training, become part of each other’s daily activities, go to trainings and competitions together. There is that feeling of belonging to a team, even though the success in swimming depends only on the swimmer himself. Swimming has helped me learn many things in life and meet the most wonderful people.

Swimming hasn’t only nourished my heart, but also my personality and my character.