In this post, we’re chatting with North Carolina-based masters swimmer LaJoya Smith! Follow along on her journey (@lajoyabee) to reach her goals in USA swimming and personal development, and check out her amazing photos she captures along the way.



Meet LaJoya:

Hi! My name is LaJoya Smith and I live in Raleigh, North Carolina. I love absolutely everything about the water. I started swimming at 6 months old and grew up swimming for a club team for years until I graduated high school. I also grew up running and competing for my high school Track & Field team.

I took a Track Scholarship and ended up running collegiately for 5 years, and ended up really missing the pool.

After graduation, I decided to get back into competitive swimming!

Now I love to swim all the time, and I am really enjoying learning more about myself through my training. As much as the hard workouts and competitions are impacting my physical fitness, a huge focus for me this year is my mental health and my confidence in the water.

You can learn more about my swimming journey in my interview on the #AskASwimPro Show!

Related: LaJoya Smith on the #AskASwimPro Show

Why She Loves To Swim:

I currently compete with the Titans Masters Swim Team in Cary, North Carolina, and combine both practicing with the team and swimming on my own for my training.

My primary goal is to focus on the U.S. Masters Swimming circuit and to compete in the top tiers at Nationals each year.

I loving moving, and I find it’s important in how I function each and every day. I’m on a journey with swimming seeing how far I can take it, while also learning about myself and the great experience that comes along with the journey. Both the good and bad.

“Always have fun. Start somewhere, and just show up. Baby steps are important.”

I love how swimming is so therapeutic – you can do a workout and just let go of everything that is going on that day. All your stress just melts away in the water. I’ve learned some of my hardest lessons in life through swimming.


What Inspires Her:

I love watching the older swimmers still compete. These women in their 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s are still swimming everyday, they have no shame, come out to these meets, and always get it done.

Working on my mindset always keeps me inspired. With swimming, you’re in the water a lot, and it’s a lot of mental game. You have to push through those long swim sets. No matter what, just show up. Once you allow yourself to full be there, everything else will flow.


How She Trains with MySwimPro & Master Swimming:

I love training with the MySwimPro app! I have the app downloaded on my iPhone, and sync it to my Apple Watch. When I’m training with the team and our coach is leading the practice, MySwimPro is really easy to track the workout and see my progress over time.

Before practice, I just quickly type in the workout on my watch, then tap ‘START’ when we’re getting ready to swim! The workout will track my laps as I swim, and give me a detailed report on my iPhone app after the workout. It’s awesome.

On the days where I train alone, I choose a workout from the MySwimPro app and can easily customize it so it’s reaching my training goals.

“MySwimPro is a great way to connect with a community of other swimmers who want to get back into the sport. Getting to know some of the very new swimmers with their goal personal goals is also super inspiring!”

Ready to start your personal training plan? Use code LAJOYA20 for 20% off MySwimPro Coach.

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