sports give a new outlet for someone who cant do anything else a chance to succeed. sports provide an oppurtunity for success that requires skills completely different than all others that society requires.

shows how sports offer an outlet that can be more emotinoal than physical. she can express an emotion that she might not even understand in words when she swims.

usually laying down is for sleep/relaxation but he uses words with this common connotation in completely different context-->laying down to work

after providing a lot of detail, he summarizes in one sentence- in case reader is confused or zoned out

I have never seen an author simply leave out distracting information and just tell the reader to look it up if he or she really cares. I think this is really smart because if he added all the details he would distract from his main point.

Here, the author conveys the a conversational tone when he contradicts himself. He easily could have edited out the first sentence, but then he would deprive the thought of the same sense of authenticity.

At this point, the narrative returns to the present. By splicing the ongoing story with descriptions of past events, the author gives dimension to his story and Sinatra simultaneously.