With the first meet of the young season it’s time take what we’ve learned and move on. As I be already told you I’m not a big fan of watching the score board this early in the season and although it can be a good read at times it doesn’t always give the entire story. At this time of the year I take more enjoyment in watching you do the things well that we have been working on in practice, that is true progress no matter how the scoreboard reads.
Two of the things we have tried to hammer the first few weeks of practice are the way we work our streamlines and underwater dolphins off the wall and the way we finish our races. I saw a lot of great effort being put forth in these areas and believe are making some real progress that will carry us to some amazing results in March and April.
An area that I see we all have to work on and be better at is the way we talk to ourselves. We need to have a lot more positive self talk and less negative self talk. We talk about this all the time and have pointed out that the way you talk to yourself has more to do with your confidence or lack of than anything else you do. This is as important if not more important than anything you do at practice. Your first thought after getting a bad time is that was terrible, I did awful and I heard this over the weekend. Make no mistake about it times do matter especially in the world we live, it provides instant gratification,. But we have to dive deeper into this story because it is just important to focus and prioritize the quality of the race as it is the final results. If you have accomplished everything that you have been working on in practice and are making progress then that should have been an awesome experience..
Understand this simple fact as coaches we can pretty well write your story line by the way you talk, and the way you walk as you walk onto a pool deck. We can also write the second chapter watching you work though your warmup. The biggest opponent that you will always face is the one “ between your ears” and it’s how we talk to that opponent that will go a long way in determining success or failure.
followed by a not so great turn only to have a great finish.
Think about how challenging your races and other events are instead of what the outcome may be. This is when swimming becomes fun and exciting instead of always being consumed by the end result, the time. That can be boring and believe me you will fail often if all you worry about is the time.
Understand this simple fact as coaches we can pretty well write your story line by the way you talk, and the way you walk as you walk onto a pool deck. We can also write the second chapter watching you work though your warmup. The biggest opponent that you will always face is the one “ between your ears” and it’s how we talk to that opponent that will go a long way in determining success or failure.At this point of the season we should be taking more enjoyment from the quality of your races and not become a “prisoner of the results.” As we talked about last week you are going to experience a wide range of emotions in swimming 🏊 as in life ranging from moments of pure joy all the way to those of pure agony. My most memorable moment from playing rugby🏉 in college during a championship tournament. After three days and 5 games we had made it to the championship game and after 80 minutes we were headed to extended time. Towards the end after a scrum I picked up the ball and headed for the try line and after diving realized I had come up about a foot short and would lose a few minutes later. The bottom line is that although devastated I realized both teams played hard and I actually had more fun in that losing effort than any other game from the realization that I was exhausted and had left everything that day between the white lines.
Your always going to have those races that despite losing, or not getting your best time, the race itself was just an awesome experience to be part of. It could have been one of those races that you and your opponent were head to head all the way to the finish but you ended up losing by .001. It may have been a race that after your opponent got out to a huge lead you ran them down at the wall. Maybe you had a great start,
followed by a not so great turn only to have a great finish. Think about how challenging your races and other events are instead of what the outcome may be. This is when swimming becomes fun and exciting instead of always being consumed by the end result, the time. That can be boring and believe me you will fail often if all you worry about is the time.
In the end it comes down to this simple phrase “Trust your training” and believe in yourselves and it starts with the way you talk to yourself.
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