BY DR. AIMEE KIMBALL//SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST
I had a coach one time who told me, “Potential means you haven’t done it yet.” I’m not sure if he stole the line from someone else, but for whatever reason this always stuck in my head. I never wanted to be someone who had a lot of potential. I wanted to be a person who consistently performed at her peak.
However, it’s hard to be that type of athlete all the time and there are going to be days when you underperform. This article focuses on why athletes underperform and how to get out of a performance slump.
It’s not always mental
First, recognize that underperforming isn’t always a mental thing. Especially with a sport like swimming, you have to take into consideration nutrition, tapering, conditioning, as well as physical development. The key to performing to your potential is to make sure you are committed to total training in all areas, including having positive habits in and out of the pool. You also have to be realistic about your talent level. Some swimmers think they are better than they actually are, and others might be better than they give themselves credit for. To find out where you stand, ask coaches to be brutally honest with you as to what times they think you should swim and at what point in the season you should be swimming those times. You don’t need to panic if it’s several weeks before a big race and you aren’t dropping time. It might just be a function of your training schedule. If you were a standout earlier in your teen years and it seems that others are catching up, don’t panic. That’s likely more due to them than you, especially if you were an early bloomer.
Thus, it’s important to pinpoint WHY you’re underperforming. If you swim certain times in practice but it’s not translating to meets, then there is likely a psychological component, which is what I’ll be assuming for the rest of the article.
Pride vs. Ego
I have worked with a lot of talented athletes who underperform because they get in their own way. For many, it’s an unconscious process where they “self-handicap” before the race even begins. In essence, they try to protect their ego rather than summon their pride. An athlete who protects his/her ego often finishes a race thinking, “I’m not that tired. I could have gone faster.” Within a race they often, a) think they are going as fast as they can, b) overfocus on what their competitors are doing and worry about losing, or c) don’t feel like they are going fast at all and write off the race before it’s even finished. While during a race they tend to have different thoughts, the “ego protectors” often focus on the same thing before a race—the fear of underperforming (either in the time or place they may finish).
To help them perform to their potential, they need to swim for pride instead of protecting their egos. Essentially, before a race they should focus on putting it all out there so when they touch the wall they can say, “I couldn’t have given anything more.” The problem for ego protectors is that they fear their best won’t be good enough, and it’s easier/less psychologically stressful to say, “I could’ve done better if I tried” than “I did everything I could, and I still lost.” Remember, competition isn’t about winning so you don’t feel bad (ego) it’s about swimming your hardest so you will feel satisfied (pride). The negative emotions resulting from “I coulda, shoulda, woulda” last a lot longer than the disappointment of “I did, I just fell short.”
Stress Less, Enjoy More
Most of the underperformers I see have found a way to stop enjoying something they once loved. Often, the better they were the more stress they have to get back to that level. More stress equals less fun. Less fun equals worse performance. In other sports it’s called a slump. As any slumping athlete knows, it’s a lot easier to get into a slump than out of a slump. As the wise Dr. Seuss wrote, “When you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.” My advice for “un-slumping” is focus less on what you’re not doing and more on what you are. If you swim four events and three of them are fine, stop putting so much emphasis on the one in which you’re underperforming. Even if it’s every race you don’t reach your potential but in practice you are excellent, focus on your practices more than your races. By focusing on the good, the bad doesn’t seem so awful. Essentially, you need to recognize your talent, regardless of when it decides to show up. Remind yourself, “I am a good swimmer,” and physically keep track of the good swims (you swim a lot more in practice than you do in meets). You’ll quickly see the good swims outweigh the bad.
Let Go
I once took a windsurfing lesson and the only thing I remember is asking the instructor what to do if the wind picked up and I couldn’t control the sail. His response? “Let go with your back hand.” My advice to you if the stress, the anxiety, and the negative thoughts related to underperforming get to be too much for you to handle is, “Let go.” Just because you haven’t succeeded recently doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Starting today, just tell yourself, “I’m letting go of what has happened. It’s a new day and it’s going to be a good one.” No one says you have to hang on to the past, sometimes it’s just as easy to let go, mentally drop what’s uncontrollable, and start over.
Make it great!
Dr. Aimee
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