As we continue our preparation for your championship meet everything we do and talk about is to try and put you in the best position to succeed both physically and mentally.
The discussion that follows is all about how you approach this time of year, the goals you have and the results that you come out with. That first question that I have for all of you is, How many of you tell yourself, “This is the championship meet, the biggest meet of the year.” The pressure starts to build, you have never swam in a more meaningful meet. By the time your race arrives you feel an overwhelming pressure to swim a personal best, win a race or heat, to make finals. A lot of unnecessary worrying and stress that will not help you as you step onto the block.
Throughout the meet you just seem like you can’t get into the flow, bad warmups, people in your head just an overall bad vibe running through your bones.
Why do we do this to ourselves at this time of the season. I fully believe that besides all the garbage that we fill our heads with, we get wrapped up into that old saying of this being a championship event.
The first thing that we do to ourselves is that because of the meet name we try harder to have that perfect swim. We change our mental approach to the event and this can affect our performance. How I would like to see you approach this season, is to use the same approach as with any other meet. That is it’s a meet like so many others that I have competed and race in. Trust not only yourself but also your coaches and parents, and believe that you have put in the countless time and effort to get to this
moment.
Of course you will feel some degree of pressure, that’s normal but you have swam all season to get to this point, and when you feel like you’ve been there before you feel less pressure. Now you can focus on the best part of swimming and we all know what that is from the time we first jumped into a pool an that’s WANNA RACE?
A lot of times when these big meets arrive the tendency is to shift from the process and more towards the outcomes. The process if being with your friends and the little conversations, cheering for each other, the up beat atmosphere. Focusing during your warmups and warm downs, techniques and above all the plan you have prepared well in advance. In contrast outcome focus involves focusing on possible winning or losing, best times or adding times, who you might beat or lose to. Let’s not kid ourselves this kind of focus is like the kiss of death.
Ask yourself this, When does the outcome occur in a swimming race? It happens when that hand touches the pad and the clock 🕟stops, PERIOD! But wait a minute what about the process that involves getting that hand to the wall. the warmup, the warm downs, the start, the streamline, the underwater dolphins, that first turn, the breathing, in other words your plan.If you work through that process and enjoy that time, you’re in a better position to achieve the results your looking for. Stick to your plan.
The only thing you should be focusing is yourself and the progress you’re making as a swimmer. Everyone will always have ups and downs and they will come at different times, but the key is that you are headed in the right direction.
Being a Dallas Cowboy fan I will always remember from the 1972 Super Bowl when Duane Thomas the running back for the Cowboys was asked, “What was it like to play in the Super Bowl? Without skipping a beat Thomas said; If it’s so Super, why are they playing it again next year. The metaphor is that this will not be your last meet, there will be others.
In finishing swim these races not for your coaches, parents or even your team. Swim these races for that little girl/boy👧👦 that is still inside of each of you and jumped into that first pool many summers ago to have fun and may have asked that age old question, “ Do you wanna race?"🏊
Swim these races for yourself and have fun.
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