The Best I Can Be: Matt Farmer
As long as I can remember I was in the water every opportunity I had, spending summers from open to close at a pool in Riverside, Illinois in the Chicago area. Everyone from Chicago knows how important it is to take advantage of those summer days because when they go they don’t come back in a hurry. I spent most of my winter days at indoor pools and was swimming competitively starting at 6 years old, it was apparent early on that I had a natural gift in the water. I enjoyed the competition of racing, but I preferred playing in the pool when the lane lines were not in. The rules of gravity aren’t the same in the water, there is a freedom like being on the moon. My brother and I loved having slow motion fights underwater, sometimes recreating fights from movies like The Matrix, an activity that, I am not embarrassed to say, persisted with my friends through high school and into college. That feeling of freedom and fun was the reason I loved being in the water so much, and when I was 9 years old I found a sport that gave me the same feeling: Water Polo.
It’s impossible to overstate all that Water Polo has meant to me. From the day I started, I was in love and it has only continued to give meaning to and drive my life. One of the defining choices in my life was to play Division 1 Water Polo at the University of California, Los Angeles after high school. Choosing to study and play there meant I was making a full commitment to the sport; that I would be representing a school who had the same goal every year: to be the best in the country. It was at UCLA that I learned from my coach, our staff and my teammates how to approach training and everything else in my life as a professional, to take pride in what I care about. At first, I was overwhelmed by the amount of talent I had to contend with to make the travel roster at UCLA, coming from a place where I was a big fish in a small pond. There were times when I thought I would never be able to make that roster and almost gave up, but the commitment I made wasn’t just to attend UCLA but to give it my best effort; for myself, my family and all of the people who had supported me throughout my career.
It took countless extra hours of training and increased control over my own mind to claw my way onto the travel roster at UCLA, however the goal which drove me to that result was not “to make the travel roster” but was “to be the best of which I am capable of being”. My mindset was that if I was able to approach my ultimate potential that results would come on their own or, if they didn’t, I would have nothing to regret. That was the same approach I took to the rest of my career at UCLA and I was fortunate enough to be a part of three NCAA Championship teams between 2014 and 2017.
As a 12 year old playing Water Polo in Chicago, having nothing but fun and wanting to play this sport everyday for the rest of my life, of course I had dreams of playing for the National Team and representing the United States in the Olympic Games. However, as time went on and I came face to face with more and more incredible players I stopped really considering it as a possibility, thinking that I was not capable of playing at that level, I was fighting tooth and nail just to get playing time at UCLA. So, during my college years I focused only on playing for my University, committing everything I had to being my best for that program. After my last game and National Championship at UCLA I found that I wanted more out of the sport, that I wasn’t ready to retire just yet. So, at yet another large crossroads in my life, I chose Water Polo and recommitted myself to being the best player of which I was capable. Before I took a shot with the National Team I spent a season in Australia and in Italy where I, again, found myself surrounded by many players better than myself.
Again there were times when my confidence wavered, believing that maybe I had reached my ultimate potential after all, but if I could give my 2019-20 self some advice it would be “stay open minded”, that the way I had committed to playing the game at UCLA was not the ONLY way. Relearning to play a different style, with different players, takes time but I have improved to the point of feeling real confidence against some of the best players and teams in the world. Since I left school I have played in professional leagues in Italy, Spain and Greece and spent all the intermediate time with the USA Men’s Senior National Team. Suddenly that dream I had as a 12 year old doesn’t seem so out of reach. Now, as I help our team prepare for the upcoming 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games I don’t know whether I will make the final roster or not and that is not my goal. My goal remains: “Be the best player in which I am capable of being”.
I am thankful for many of the mental and physical tools that I have accumulated over my Water Polo career but nothing is more important to me than the friends and mentors I have accumulated because of Water Polo. Everything I have done in my career would not have been possible without a mountain of people behind me: my friends and family, my physical and mental performance staffs, my coaches and captains, and my teammates to who I am connected not only by our shared goals but by the highs and lows of the road that leads those goals. They have believed in me and made it easier for me to believe in myself. I am very thankful that my Father forced 9 year old me to try a sport called “Water Polo” back in LaGrange, Illinois, it was the moment that defined my life.
