ABCS OF MENTAL TRAINING: X IS FOR “X-GAMES MENTALITY”

6/26/2013

BY AIMEE C. KIMBALL, PHD, CC-AASP

I was brainstorming with colleague Lenny Wiersma about what my “X’ article was going to be. I was leaning towards “x-pectations” but being a Californian he suggested “X-games” and noted that swimmers could learn a lot from the free-wheeling, chillaxing mentality of X-gamers. I agreed, so this article will address how swimmers can benefit from a no fear, enjoy the ride, kick-butt-and-take-names mentality.

No Fear
Many X-games events are about speed, height, and testing gravity. What you need to succeed in these events are guts; fear will certainly be your downfall (literally and figuratively). The athletes who participate in these games love the adrenaline rush and love to challenge themselves to go bigger and be bolder than everyone else. It’s mentally impressive. So what can athletes who swim in straight lines learn from this? A lot, but what I’d like you to gain is perspective in that the only consistently “scary” fear swimmers often have is losing/not swimming well. X-gamers have those same thoughts of losing but to them it’s simply a concern. They’d laugh if you said “I’m afraid to lose” and tell you that the physics of swimming is a lot more forgiving than the physics of a half-pipe. Next time you catch yourself being afraid to fail ask yourself “is this a fear or is this a concern?”

Accept the Challenge
My outside impression of most X-gamers is that they get genuinely pumped for someone who performs a new trick that they’ve never seen before. Watch a skateboarder throw something “sick” and you’ll see his competitors jump out of their seats in excitement, knowing they just witnessed something cool. I love this about the X-games. Competitors enjoy seeing the bar raised. They see this as a new challenge and then they work hard to top it. They are constantly trying to up their game and go beyond what others thought was possible. In swimming terms, instead of being hard on yourself because someone beat you or broke your record, see this as a new challenge. Embrace this as an opportunity to assess your habits and see what you can do better. Get excited to see a competitor’s hard work pay off, but in your head throw down the gauntlet and say “I’ll beat you next time” or “I’ll break your record soon.”

Have Fun and Get Lost in the Moment
X-gamers compete because they love it. In the 2006 Olympics Lindsey Jacobellis, a snowboardcross rider, had a big lead on her opponent and was about to win her race but decided to do a trick over a jump rather than just hitting the jump cleanly. She fell and it cost her the gold medal. When asked why she did the trick she responded, “I was caught up in the moment…I was having fun and that's what snowboarding is. I was ahead. I wanted to share with the crowd my enthusiasm.” Sure, she had a little too much fun and in hindsight she admits she messed up. However, she knows she was the fastest that day, the outcome just doesn’t show it. What this example demonstrates is that the number one priority of a lot of X-gamers is to enjoy what they are doing. Winning helps make the sport more enjoyable, but ultimately, they just want to compete their best and have fun doing it. This translates to all sports—the more you love it, the harder you’ll work. The harder you work, the better you’ll do. Ultimately, have fun and everything else follows. Even if you don’t win, you’ll likely swim faster if you enjoy the process.

Roll Like I Roll
In the last Winter Olympics they interviewed a snowboarder who was admittedly nervous before he competed. They asked him how he calmed himself down. He said something to the effect of, “I reminded myself I knew what I was doing. I told myself to go put on a show and just roll like I roll.” I loved this phrase because I think it’s something important for all athletes to remember-that you just have to go out and do your thing. Whatever the sport, it’s what you do every day. You know what you’re doing; you know how to swim fast. Simply put, go swim how you swim.
Make it Great!

Dr. Aimee

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD, CC-AASP
Dr. Kimball is the Director of Mental Training for the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine. She is an Association of Applied Sport Psychology Certified Consultant, and is a member of the American Psychological Association, the United States Olympic Committee’s Sport Psychology Registry, and the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network. She works with athletes, coaches, and parents to help them achieve success in sport and life.
For more information contact: kimballac@upmc.edu, 412-432-3777,http://tinyurl.com/UPMCmentaltraining

Taken from usaswimming.org

Sharpen Your Axe

Once upon a time there were two men who lived in the same forest and decided to have a contest chopping wood.  The first man was in good physical shape and very muscular.  The second man was in good shape but smaller in stature and wiry.  They would chop wood all day and at the end of the day compare to see who had chopped the most wood.  The first man laughed to himself, there was no way this wiry little man would beat him and so they began the contest.  Every 45 minutes the second smaller man would take a break and seems to just wonder off somewhere.  The first man laughed again to himself and said "Yep there's no way this wiry little man is going to beat me."  This happens several times during the day.  At the end of the day the two men compare their piles of chopped wood and unbelievably enough the wiry little man has chopped twice as much wood as the bigger man.  He says "I don't understand.  First I'm twice your size and twice your strength!  On top of that every 45 minutes you rolled off and took a break or a nap or something.  You must have cheated!"  The smaller man says "I don't cheat.  It was easy to beat you because every 45 minutes when you thought I was taking a break, I was out back sharpening my ax."

There is a famous saying, “time will teach you about the life”, and probably every one of us has heard the above sentence. I think time won’t teach you until we realize, accept, or meet an incident. There is another saying "If you’re not getting better you’re getting worse".  To continue to be successful you need to remember to sharpen our ax by reading books, that are related to your passions, go to seminars or surf the web for blogs/videos and content related to your passion, consult experts, etc...  One of the greatest obstacles to sharpening our axe is our own knowledge and our own ego. “I already know what I know and you can’t tell me anything else!” Make sure to keep an open mind even on things that you think you know well. You should be constantly striving to learn and improve because if you’re not getting better you are getting worse.

Most leaders are too busy doing and trying to achieve, that they never take time to learn and grow. Most of us don’t have the time or patience to update skills, knowledge, and beliefs about what we do, or to take time to think and reflect. Many assume that learning ends at school and so sharpening our axe is not a priority.

So, what exactly is sharpening the axe? Dr. Steven Covey, who popularized the term, believes that it means “increasing your personal production capacity by daily self-care and self-maintenance”.

Most people fail to understand what it means and mistake it for taking a break or vacation. If you’re overworking yourself and your productivity drops, take a break. However, that isn’t sharpening the axe – that’s putting the axe down.

When you put down a dull blade and rest, the blade will still be dull when you pick it up. The woodcutter does need downtime to rest, but it is not “sharpening the axe”. The woodcutter only becomes more productive by sharpening his blade, analyzing new woodcutting techniques, exercising to become stronger, and learning from other woodcutters.

A human’s natural inclination is to be mindless. Mindlessness is our human tendency to operate on auto pilot, whether by stereotyping, performing mechanically or simply not paying attention. We are all victims of being mindless at times. By sharpening our axe, we move from a mindless state to a mindful state, from “blindly going with the flow” to thinking and “breaking boundaries”.

Why then do so many people fail to sharpen their axe? Well, axe sharpening isn’t as fun as whacking away at the trees. And it is painful and tedious work.       

David McKay adds that, “the greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent chambers of the soul”. Sharpening the axe is a daily inner internal battle. Research reveals that self-educated presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln sharpened their axe daily by cultivating the discipline of reading.

Of course, too much axe or aimless sharpening can become another form of procrastination. Many like to attend trainings and classes but never end up using the axe. After sharpening the axe, use it or all is in vain.

How are your various blades doing? Your skills, knowledge, mind, physical body, relationships, motivation, commitment to succeed, capacity for growth, emotions – are all of them still sharp? If not, which ones are dull, and what can you do to sharpen them?

Lincoln once said “give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening my axe”. What are you doing to sharpen your axe? Take a step back and start sharpening your axe.

Sharpen your axe: Daily personal growth critical for leadership success

Sharpen your Axe

Sharpen Your Ax

Squad Speeches From 2013 Awards Banquet

BLUE Crest Squad

By: Katie and Heather Herbstritt

1. Team work is the cohesive bond that holds our team together no matter what group or level we are in, we are all connected by our love for swimming. Team work means sticking together and never letting your friends give up. It means when you feel as if you can’t go any farther you know that you have someone there to push you.
2. One time during dry land we were running around the lake and some of us were starting to get worn down, until one of us started singing Don’t Stop Believing and the rest of the group joined in. We finished running together. The point is that we helped our fellow teammates go on instead of letting them give up, we worked together.
3. Practice is hard, however, there are some fun moments. For instance, when we do the penguin drill, or when Coach Gabe tells funny stories and gives inspirational speeches. But the best part of practice is when you get out of the water and your muscles are sore, you are still catching your breath and you find yourself chugging the last bit of water from your water bottle. And you are proud of yourself for going on even when Coach Gabe pushes you past your limit, knowing that you improved is the most rewarding part of practice.
4. We are athletes and we are team mates but most importantly we are family, we are a team that cares about one another and helps each other out. We are a team that works hard together and train together. Through this team we have made friends, set goals and improved not only as swimmers but as people as well. Blue Waves is a team that we can all believe in because Blue Waves is our Family.
5. “Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten” -Lilo and Stitch

GREEN Tide Squad

“H₂O, two parts heart and one part obsession.” ~Unknown

Hi everyone we are Green Tide. Before we say anything, we want to thank all the coaches at Blue Waves, especially Coach Mike and Coach Gabe. Without their hard work and dedication to our team, we wouldn’t be the swimmers and people we are today. They’ve taught us many lessons throughout our long, hard, and tiring practices. They’ve taught us to never doubt ourselves, to always put forward your best effort in everything you do, and how to tie your shoes correctly. And without our great coaches, we wouldn’t be able to reach the many accomplishments we’ve achieved today. Lizzie Mandrgoc, Rachel Mihalic, Holly Williams, Trang Dinh, Elise Nguyen, Taylor Harper in our group made the 2013 14 & Under PV Junior Olympic Championships. Elise also made Zones for the 100 butterfly during the long course season. In our group, 12 individual and 4 relay records were broken over the course of the short course season. We’ve been inspired by many of the quotes that Coach Mike takes the time to put on the Window of Wisdom every day. “The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now.” ~Zig Ziglar. When we first came to Green Tide, we were afraid the practices were going to be too hard, but now we have learned to appreciate the hard practices because we know they will make us better. “Pain is now, glory is forever.” Green Tide isn’t just a group we swim with; it’s a family we live with.

Speech written by: Taylor Harper, Cassie Holstein, Elise Nguyen & Kaitlyn Pollock

BLUE Tide Squad

Hello everyone! My name is Kayla Snider and I have been a member of Blue Tide for two years now. This past swim season has a been a very different experience for me, mostly because of what I was able to accomplish with my squad. This year we have trained harder than ever before and our hard work paid of in the end. As a squad we have broken 16 records so far this year. We broke 12 records during short course season, two of which were joint efforts with girls from rip tide because we don’t have enough girls in our own squad to form a relay. The other four were broken during our past two long course meets. As a squad we hope that as this long course season advances we can break even more records! Another major accomplishment for us was an improvement in our sense of team. We used to be focused more on ourselves than our team/squad as a whole. We soon realized that there truly is no “I” in team and over the course of this year we have been able to overcome the many differences we have, therefore enabling us to bond and become more supportive of each other. With this new support of each other we saw our work ethic and dedication increase leading to our many accomplishments this season. Blue Tide is very excited to welcome the many swimmers moving up to join us this summer. We strongly hope that they can feel welcomed and are able to train harder with us, so that they may see much improvement. On behalf of my squad I want to wish the very best of luck to the two seniors on the team, Nick Kost and Justin Allen. We hope that you guys have fun exploring the adventures of college life and we will be looking forward to when you visit! I hope that as the years pass and swimmers come and go that the friendships we have made here, on Blue Wave, remain constant and never changing, I hope the lessons that we have learned and the values that have been taught to us never fade from our minds, I hope our bonds grow stronger and that we may never forget this dear old team, because to most of us, Blue Wave isn’t just a swim team, it’s a family, our second home.

RIP Tide Squad

RIP Tide Squad Speech by Justin Allen