NOVEMBER 10

WEEK AHEAD:    This week starts the high school swim season and we would like to wish three of our  swimmers from the group GOOD LUCK as they prepare for their first try outs at their school.  Katie Krouse at Oakton, Gabby Kuehhas at Centreville, and Katie Karlinchak at Lake  Braddock.  

 All practices this week will be held as normal.  Please sign up for the 200 fly and 400 IM for Saturday. 
 

WEEKLY TOPIC:  MENTAL TOUGHNESS

I have talked with all of you for the last couple of weeks about your mental toughness, and some of you have asked what do I mean by the last laps will take care of itself, all you have to do is have to do is have a little heart.
Mental toughness is defined as"doing whatever is necessary to get the job done, which includes handling a tough workout, withstanding pain, and touching out an opponent at the end of a race.  Letting go of what your body feels and focusing on YOUR race, and finishing YOUR race and not letting anyone beat you.
This toughness begins the moment you step onto the deck for practice, by not allowing any distractions affect the purpose of you being there.  YOU need to learn to block out what is not important for your success.  There are some key characteristics that will help you as you develop this mental toughness and they are,

• SELF BELIEF:  Before a swimmer even reaches the blocks before their race, they sometimes have filled their minds with a lot of negative thoughts which may or may not affect their chances of success.  It could start as early as getting out of bed and saying to oneself "gee I'm tired, or I don,t want to swim today."  You have already position yourself in  a negative environment and your chances of success have taken a big hit no matter what you say later on.  You need to have an unshakable belief in yourself and your ability to achieve your goal.  Don't create problems!
• MOTIVATION:  You meet to have the desire and the internal motivation to succeed, YOU REALLY HAVE GOT TO WANT IT.  Saying it alone is not enough.  When you have a setback you have to have the motivation and the ability bounce back--with an increased determination to succeed.
• FOCUS:  Some swimmers think that they only need to show up at practice or a meet and the " good times" will roll.  This is so far from the truth, but it happens all the time.  YOU need to be fully focused on your task at hand in the face of any distractions. You haven't control over another swimmers race so why let it distract you?
• COMPOSURE/ HANDLING PRESSURE:  Things will go wrong and you need to have the ability to regain control following these distractions or events.   The pressure of competition is always going to be there at some level.  It will vary from athlete to athlete, so you need to find a way to embrace it.  "STEP INTO THE MOMENT"  and "DARE TO SWIM GREAT."

Developing a mental toughness starts with ones ATTITUDE, the confidence that you are prepared for any thing.  You need to be honest with yourself when developing this attitude. Have you really done everything possible that will allow you to race without that fear of failure.  Will this attitude allow you to leave it all in the pool with heart, determination and full focus.

The next thing that you need to do is to PROGRAM your mind with positive words and expectations.    When you swim expect he best from yourself with phrases such as; I will, I can, I am going to.  Train your mind to focus on what you want to happen rather than things your afraid might go wrong.  Visualize yourself having a GREAT start with a great break out stroke..   Imagine explosive turns and some fast under water kicking off the walls.  Visualize accelerating into the finish and looking over to the swimmer next to you as they finish.  PRICELESS RIGHT.?

After we have gotten the right attitude and programmed your mind to expect great thing YOU need to routinize your behavior.   Develop a systematic pre- performance routine that on for practice and competitions.  Whether it is practice or a meet as soon as you walk on deck-- you commit yourself to giving everything you have to the task at hand.  At practice it starts with listening to the coaches instructions for the set, and than performing the sets correctly.  This includes watching the clock and leaving on the set interval ( not early and not late), performing the sets and the drills correctly.  At a meet program yourself that once you dive between the lane lines, " game on" ,commit   yourself to being a mentally tough and great competitor and sportsman throughout the entire race.  Keep bringing it!

Now we need to develop POISE and COMPOSURE, because as I said before things don't always go as planned.   You need to learn to let go of bad races quickly if things do not go your way.    Learn to adjust and develop focal points to get focus back to the task at hand.  Be persistent don't allow frustrations and distractions to get in the way of YOUR goals.

The next step in this process is to TAKE CONTROL OF NEGATIVE TALK,  you need to re frame from " stinking thinking."  We all encounter situations that cause us to get frustrated, rushed intimidated, lose focus.  Be aware of situations like this and turn the negative into mentally tough self talk. Look at a bad race as a stepping stone for future achievement.  Swim to win as opposed to fear of making a mistake.  " He missed 900 shots, 26 game winning shots, lost 300 games.  Michael Jordan ( NBA 6 time world champion) said I failed over and over, that is why I succeed."  Focus on process of competing well, winning will take care of itself.

Be a difference maker STEP UP AND HAVE A PEAK PERFORMANCE WHEN IT MATTERS MOST.

STAY  FOCUSED ON TASK AT HAND      MIKE AND SHANNON