ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SWIMMING

Think like a Champion

This was written for me by a swimming coach and a very good friend of ours Juicy Lucy from the UK swimclub.

Another year ahead. Great! There are lots of opportunities out there for you to step up and claim great results for yourselves, providing you put in the necessary groundwork.

You have to be bold to be a winner

A new year signals the time to take stock of what you’ve achieved and what you’ll be working towards. Set clear goals of where you are going and how you are going to get there – write them down and agree them with your coach and parents. Never be bashful – aim high. It’s better to miss your target because it was over-ambitious, than be silently holding yourself back by settling for soft targets. Decide to take bold action and go for broke – you have to be bold to be a winner.

The more confident you feel,  the more brave you can feel. Go public with your goals and if you don’t quite get what you targeted, tell yourself it’s your reaction to this that matters and not the comments of others.

Beware of the dream-busters

Being the best does not necessarily make you everyone’s favourite. There will be the dream-busters poking fun and doubting you  -  “Oh look at her, she didn’t do so well, has she got the ability?”

Always remember, it’s what you think to yourself that matters. You are going to have to be tough to stand out in the crowd so start focusing on what matters to you and your own views.

The route to glory/excellence is strewn with setbacks and challenges, and it’s the one who is the most adaptable and determined who will be driven to overcome them. How do you think you learned to walk?…by trying to walk again and again, although that horrible little boy next door laughed at you every time you stumbled. Make a firm decision to do whatever it takes and go for gold.

Imagery training

Imagery and visualisation – mean the same thing – seeing in your mind’s eye a series of pictures representing a past (or future) performance (a bit like watching a video of yourself). I always find these terms can be slightly misleading as there appears to be an emphasis on ‘seeing’ and the other senses can be forgotten in ‘imagery training.’ You will also hear ‘imagery training’ referred to as ‘mental rehearsal.’ Whichever term you choose to use you should be aiming to include the use of all your senses to conjure up the experience of competition and your performance. You’re likely to find you’ll be stronger at visual images (pictures) but learn to develop your use of the other senses.

You should aim to mentally rehearse regularly – the more you do it, the better you will become, and it’s a great confidence builder. Let’s say, aim to run through your race in your head at least 3 times daily. You will become pretty expert at pre-playing your race. Also time yourself and you will be able to rehearse to within a second of your best time.

Competition is stressful

Regularly change the venue of your mental rehearsal – cars, buses, supermarkets, busy high streets – in this way you’ll be grooming yourself to focus your attention in uncontrolled environments. Competition is stressful and the venue is as you find it, so learning how to focus on you, and the task in hand, will go a big way in helping you to put in your best performance. You must be able to block out what you can’t control, and be absolutely self-focused.

Rehearse what you want

Use mental rehearsal to pre-play how you want your performance to be and replay what went well. The advantage is that you control the feedback and focus/reinforce good practice. It’s also useful for overcoming problems, practising new skills, and is useful when you are out of the pool with an injury. It gives you something to distract yourself with before anxiety and automatic negative thoughts start to play havoc. Rehearse what you want, not what you don’t want.

There is good research now to support the benefits of mental rehearsal and it is understood that neural pathways required for the performance are strengthened. It is best explained as beating a path through the jungle – the more you beat out the path, the more defined it becomes.

Focus on the experience 

Try this – Imagine yourself on the block and exploding off like a bullet. Now write down what you see, what you hear, what you are touching/feeling, what you smell and what you taste. Select an occasion when your start was like grease-lightning, to help you to focus on the experience.

Check out what you’ve recorded – how clear was your recall of the dive? Were there any senses which were more easily stirred up? Were you seeing it through your goggles?

Checking out your record of the dive will give you pointers on how you can brush up your imagery skills. Make this your year – if you don’t claim it for yourself, someone else will!