AVOID the NOISE

 

You were ask to write down 2 practice and 2 meet fears that you all face in your swimming.  Some of you gave them to me and some did not but now the time has come to take a look at these fears.  

Let's take a look at these fears and see if we can come up with some coping mechanisms that you can use to deal with them.  There are no guarantees or promises that your fears will disappear.  The hope is that you can get to a point were they don't control you, as you step onto the blocks and that you are in a better position to remain calm and relax and just GO FOR IT.

The list;

PRACTICE FEARS

• having a fear with some part of my body (shoulder, cramps, head, foot) (5)
• not making the interval (3)
• getting lapped (2)
• being in a hard lane
• not keeping up and being behind
• doing an easy practice for long time because I feel I won't improve
• never be as fast as friends (2)
• getting injured
• having to sit out because I'm tired and getting embarrassed 
• missing practice
• distractions
• Getting burnt out

MEET FEARS

• not being prepared 
• gaining a lot of time (6)
• bad swim (9)
• getting beat (8)
• DQ (3)
• feeling embarrassed 
• feeling slow
• goggles fall off
• not being as good as sibling 
• other people getting faster but I don't (5)
• not getting a qualifying time for a meet (7)
• good effort but bad time
• missing my race
• false start (3)
• missed turn
• person next to me has faster seed time (5)
• going out too fast in a long event (4)
• distractions 
• not meeting dads or others expectations 
• not practicing as hard as others
• halving a non achievable goal

A very interesting list to be sure.  As a coach reading this I see that there is a lot of work to do on the mental side of your swimming which is as important as the work your doing in the pool.  Let's start with this premise, "I will not let the mental side sabotage my hard work in the pool."  Write it down in your journals.  Saying it is one thing but writing it down holds YOU accountable.

Swimming honestly is the toughest sport mentally out of all the sports.  Once you have reached the competitive level of the sport you need to develop a strong mental edge to be successful.  Think about it, when you step onto that block it is just you and the lane ahead.  The thrill that you have when your hand hits the pad and you look up and see a personal best on the scoreboard is thrilling for sure.  It's a testament to all of your hard work and sacrifices. 

However stepping up on the blocks can be a lonely feeling bringing with it all the stress, fears and anxieties that you shared above and they should not be dismissed, they exist and are real to each of you.  Now is the time to face those fears and to control them and use them to your advantage.

Over the next few weeks we will go through these fears and see if we can turn them around and look at them in a positive light.  A lot of these fears are directly related to practice and so that's where we will begin later this week.  If you have anything else write it on an index card and hand it to me at practice.