Keys to Success with 2008 Olympian Caroline Burckle

Five Keys to Success with 2008 Olympian Caroline Burckle

BELIEVE: I know this sounds cliché, but if you do not believe in yourself and what your mind and body are capable of, then there is no chance you will be successful. You have to buy into what you are doing and believe that the instruments you are given to work with – in this case, your body and mind – are exceptional and will be trained in a positive way, to believe. Believing in myself really and truly turned my swimming around a few years ago, and ever since, I don't doubt my capabilities, or think that I am not good enough.

DON'T OVERTHINK IT: So often, swimmers think their races through so much that they do more thinking than they do swimming. What will the outcome be? Will it hurt? What if I let myself and others down, or if I don’t do well? You can play the "what if" game forever, but it is not going to get you anywhere. Before I race, the last thing I do is think. Thinking is for practice. The best swims come when you have nothing going on in your head at all. You are in autopilot mode. It should come naturally at this point, and over-thinking shouldn't even be an option.

LOVE WHAT YOU DO: It is easy to get into a rut with swimming, especially when you train a lot for a long period of time and get broken down. But you have to remember why you are doing it in the first place – because you love it. You love the competition, the feeling you get when you win that race, or make that time. You will be successful in anything you do in life if you love it. Passion is a huge aspect of my swimming, and I make sure that I don't let swimming define who I am as a person. Rather, I define swimming by how much passion I have for it and how much I give back to it.

FAILURE: You are probably asking me why I chose failure as a key to success. Without failure, you cannot succeed. I have failed more times than I can count, and after each and every time, I have picked myself up and realized how much better I want to do and how I cannot take failure as an answer. Some times are going to be harder than others to pick yourself back up, but it is all a learning experience. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier to fix your mistakes and move on in a positive manner.

SET GOALS, quietly: Obviously, setting goals is a key to success. But how often have you heard everyone's goals over and over again, and verbalized so much and then maybe the outcome isn't as planned? I strongly believe in setting goals, but knowing them for you, not telling everyone else about them. I do not think I have told a single soul any of my goals. Maybe my coach once or twice. But I set them for me, and I do them for me, not for anyone else. It helps keep me motivated to do what I want for myself, and not worry about everyone else’s expectations because that can be stressful.

Garrett's Blog: You Can't Always Be At Your Best

By Garrett Weber-Gale // Swimnetwork Olympian Blogger
“Experiencing some hardship in life along the way is good so that when we really achieve success it will be that much sweeter.” - My Grandpa

I try to keep this quote in mind when I’m not swimming as well as I may like. We all are aware that life is full of ups and downs, success and some struggle. What I think is most important during these times is that we maintain our composure and poise. Look at the big picture. Realize what the facts are and analyze the situation with them.

This past weekend I competed at the Short Course Nationals in Seattle. I’d say 'swam' might be a better word than 'compete'... I hardly competed. My swimming was not anywhere near what I would consider competitive. Simply put, I swam slow. I failed to qualify for the finals of either the 100 or 200 freestyle - I watched from the deck. As I observed the heats I was so accustomed to racing in, I made sure to keep the smile on my face and the positive air in my lungs. I knew going into this meet where I was in my training: I was tired. I had lifted like a mad-man for two hours only five days earlier and lifted twice the previous week, not to mention hard swim workouts.

So maybe I was in a bit of a different place than I was used to. For a change I actually got to watch people race in the big heats. It was exciting and I fully enjoyed it. Some time in there I realized: 'Maybe this is just a little fuel to fire me up. Maybe this is the opportunity to have a first person look at my main competition.' In the end, I was ok with it all. This is a very important thing to remember: Realize where you are in your training and think if you really need to be at your best in right now. The answer for me was a resounding no. I understand what y’all are going through when you don’t swim well at times. We’ve all been there. The exciting part is that we will all be better. This is the worst of it (well, hopefully) and it is only uphill from now on.

Right now I’m getting ready for Duel in the Pool in a couple weeks. My excitement level for this competition is on the rise. There is no question in my mind I’ll be better in Manchester.

ABCs of Mental Training: J is for Juggling Everything

BY AIMEE KIMBALL, PhD//Sport Psychologist
Athletes are dedicated. They are committed. They are willing to make sacrifices in their lives to help their sport performance. However, when you take this commitment to their sport and add a similar level of commitment to their academics, social lives, work and family, it can lead to a very difficult juggling act.

Take “Christina” for example. She is an athlete whom I work with that did not play well partly because she had done poorly on a paper and was stressed about it and partly because she didn’t get a chance to eat before her game and instead had taken a nap.

She was so tired because she was up until 1 a.m. finishing a paper. She was up so late because she had procrastinated and did not manage her time well. She had known about the paper for a week, but said that it wasn’t really that long or difficult of an assignment. She even admitted she could have done a better job managing her time because she probably didn’t have to watch “Grey’s Anatomy” (which took longer for her to watch than it did to actually complete the paper).

She also said her friend had a bad day, so she spent almost an hour on the phone talking to her. Because she waited until the last minute, waited until she was totally exhausted, and did not prioritize well, she not only did poorly on her paper she also did poorly in her game. Juggling her fun time, with her friend time, with her sport and academics proved to be too overwhelming. However, if she had thought it through and worked to manage her time and energy better, she could have been more successful in both her academic and athletic performance.

Unfortunately, I’m sure many of you can relate to Christina and are wondering how committed athletes who look for success in all areas of their lives juggle everything. Here are some suggestions to help you juggle your many demands successfully:

Recognize it’s hard to give 100% to everything all the time

You’re not a superhero. At some point something has to give, and that’s OKAY. It’s fantastic to strive to be perfect, but it’s unrealistic to expect it all the time in everything you do. Do what you can, the best you can, with what you have at that moment.

Know your true priorities and think long term

Make sure if you choose to sacrifice one area of your life for the benefit of another that you are not just focused on the here-and-now, that you are thinking about how prioritizing one area of your life will affect you 1, 5 and 10 years from now. For example, if you choose to put your social life first and go out with friends all night rather than working on a project or getting a good night sleep before your 6 a.m. practice, recognize that one year from now your grades might not be good enough to get you the job or get you into college, or, five years from now when your swimming career has ended you may regret not doing the little things necessary to help you to reach your fullest potential. However, when choosing your priorities, keep in mind that the odds of competing at the collegiate or Olympic level are against you. So, before you prioritize swimming over all else, make sure you don’t totally neglect the areas of your life that you have to rely on if/when competitive swimming ends. Again, think about the long-term effects of your decisions.

Know who else your decisions affect

As you are juggling the various aspects of your life, make sure you know what relationships might suffer. Whether it’s your relationship with teammates, coaches, friends, or family, when you are spending a good deal of time with one group your connection to others may begin to fade. It’s just something to consider as you try to balance your life.

Decisions don’t have to be totally wrong or totally right, they just have to be the best you can make at that time

Many people stress out because they don’t want to make the wrong decision. When several things are important to you, you are likely to feel that you are doing something wrong if you have to make a choice between two things you enjoy. When you struggle with such a decision, weigh the pros and cons, the long term effects, the people involved (including yourself), and make the best choice you can with the options available.

Balance the time and energy required for tasks

When you have lots of demands for your time, it is hard to get everything done. You can feel overwhelmed, stressed, and think that it is impossible to be you and be everywhere at once. When you have stress because of significant time demands, the best way to get control of it is to plan it out and learn to manage your time and your energy. First, get out a piece of paper and divide it into five sections. This is going to be your “to do” list. In the first column write down everything you have coming up. In the second column estimate how much time the task will take. In the third column, decide on a scale of 1-5 (1 being a little bit, 5 being a lot) how much energy the task is going to take. Then look at your list and prioritize-your fourth column is the order in which you are going to complete each task. The final column is the date or time you want to complete the task by.

To Do	Time Required	Energy Required (1-5)	Priority	Completion Date/Time

I suggest doing the tasks that require the most energy first, the ones that require the most time next, then, with the remaining tasks, decide which are most important. The reason you want to do the tasks that use your energy first is because you want to do them while you still have energy and you don’t want to have them hanging over your head all day. You might have to call a coach and tell him that you are going to miss practice, something you dread and know it takes a lot of your energy to do but not necessarily a lot of time. If you wait until the end of the day, you’ll have been stressing over this “energy-draining” task all day, which can distract you from all of your other tasks (causing them to take longer than needed and possibly decreasing their quality). Also, once the “energy-drainers” are completed, that sense of relief of having it done can actually bring you an energy boost.

Juggling the various aspects of your life is a skill. If you can create good time management habits, set goals to help you choose your priorities, and learn how to deal with the stress of it all, you will develop the ability to be successful in multiple areas without having to sacrifice too much in others. Sometimes, there is a lot going on and a lot being demanded of you, but the more you work at it, the more things you can juggle at once.

Make it great!

Dr. Aimee

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD:

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, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau. 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://sportsmedicine.upmc.com/MentalTrainingProgram.htm

Day 121: I Wanna Be Like Mike

By Paul Tenorio

If you can even touch the work ethic the great ones, like Michael Phelps, use to be the best, then, even if you're as slow as Paul Tenorio, you can maximize your potential. (Photo by Gero Breloer/AP)

Diving Back In Archive

Follow Paul Tenorio on Twitter

In order to truly be successful, in my opinion — and this extends beyond sports — you can never be satisfied.

What makes someone great — the Jordans, the Tigers, the Hamms, the Phelps’ — is the drive. The never-gonna-quit mentality. The idea that I can always get better.

So every day when I swim, no matter how far I’ve come or how hard I work or whatever workout I do that I feel good about, I know how much more I can do, how much farther I can go.

In journalism, I constantly work to get to the level of the writers around me that I admire, some of whom I grew up reading. In swimming, where I am approaching four months in the pool, the vast potential for improvement ahead can hardly even be articulated.

There is so much to learn.

Every day I watch film of myself taken from that day’s practice, every day I think about what I did in the workout and I try to figure out how I can get better. Sure, I am able to swim longer distances…but am I doing it the right way? What is my technique like when I’m tired? How hard am I going in and out of turns? What can I do to be more efficient?

The biggest challenge of all this, of course, isn’t to write about it after the fact, but rather to analyze and realize it during the workout.

Today’s workout was an awesome example. The point of the whole set was to get you dogged tired and say, ‘Okay, now keep sprinting.’ This was a challenge to every swimmer to make sure that not only were you working hard and going fast, but that you were doing it the right way.

The set broke down like this:

Warm-up:
200 swim, 100 kick, 200 pull, 100 kick; 300 swim, 100 kick, 300 pull, 100 kick.

50 all-out sprint
200 kick
Two 50s all-out sprint
200 kick, two 25s zero breath
Three 50s all-out sprint
200 kick, four 25s zero breath
Four 50s all-out sprint
200 kick, six 25s zero breath
Five 50s all-out sprint

This set, in my opinion, is designed just as much to test your mental fortitude as it is to test your physical ability. If you do it right, you should be barely able to finish that 15th 50.

I used to get so frustrated during soccer practices back in the day when I saw people absolutely kicking butt in the the last sprints of a long sprint workout. It seems counter-intuitive to be mad at that. I should be happy my teammates are doing well. But that wasn’t the point. To me I always felt like, if you aren’t bent over sucking air and dying during those last sprints, you haven’t been doing it right. It doesn’t matter if you’re the fastest guy running (or in the pool) or the slowest. If everyone is going all out then everyone should by gassed after each sprint.

Thus, when you heard the set this morning you could easily think to yourself, ‘Okay, I’ll go a bit more toned down on the three 50s sprint,’ or ‘I’ll pace myself on the first and second of those final five sprints.’ But then you’re losing the whole entire point of the workout. This is about learning how to push through exhaustion. This is about creating a reference point to the third wall of a 100 or the final wall of a 200. When your arms feel like they each weigh 150 pounds, can you still push yourself?

I admit, I wasn’t perfect today. I was really, really tired and my form stunk as a result. It’s not that I wasn’t trying. In fact I would propose that it was the opposite. Because I was so tired and still desperately trying to go fast, my body was finding ways to feel like it was doing work without hurting.

But, as I said above, this was about going hard and fast — and doing it the right way.

So as I worked through the set and tried to catch my breath amid cramps and exhaustion, I was lucky to have Zack Wise next to me coaching me up, even ducking under water to see where my stroke was failing.

I wasn’t anchoring and pulling enough, my arms were sliding out before pulling down (super inefficient) and in the final 50 I was almost bobbing up out of the water instead of rotating through the hips and shoulder and keeping my stroke long, powerful and efficient.

I could have looked at the advice as a negative. That I was lazy and figured out a way to get around the hard work…while still working hard — that I lost the full effect of the workout. Instead, I’m choosing to look at it as what I talked about in the opening of this blog — I still have so much to learn and so many ways to get better.

As much as I took away the physical and mental aspects of today’s workout — getting tired and still going as hard as I could — what I learned most was that I have a million things I can do better with my stroke, a million ways to get better every day.

Jeff King has emphasized to me everything Zack pointed out today, but when someone separately watches you and takes time out of his day and workout to talk to you about it, you start to really wrap your mind around the improvements that need to happen.

Most importantly it provides the motivation to wake up and — no matter how sore you might be (and trust me I’ll be sore) — get back into the pool and maintain that focus to get better.

If you want to be great, if you want to do something the right way, that’s the drive it’s going to take.

I’ll never be a Michael Phelps or Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. But if I can just hit a little on that mentality of greatness, if I can aspire to work my hardest the way they work their hardest, at least I can get as much out of it as I’m putting in.

Washington Post reporter Paul Tenorio will train with a swim club over the next few months and chronicle his journey as he attempts to transform from regular guy/sports reporter to competitive swimmer — everything from his waistline to his best times.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Diving Back In. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Keys to Success: Nathan Adrian

Nathan Adrian won gold this summer in the 400m free relay at the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome. Here are the keys to his success:

1. Do your best to stay focused in practice. Many times practices turn into two or three hours of swimming back and forth with your favorite song stuck in your head. While this is a great way to pass the time, it may not be the most conducive to swimming your best. Instead, try focusing on one thing per practice that you want to improve. Mondays could be a day to focus on turns while Tuesday could be used to work on head position.

2. Don’t underestimate the importance of persistence. Everybody has a bad race or season. The best way to approach these disappointments is to learn from them and move on. A bad season could be used as motivation to work harder next season.

3. Communicate with your coach. Your coach is doing his or her best to make you the best swimmer possible. There is a reason you are doing what you are doing in and out of the pool. It is important to talk to your coach, and if you don’t understand why you are doing something, just ask.

4. Don’t be afraid of being great. Never become intimidated by anything when you swim. Most great swimmers all have one thing in common: they were never afraid to go out and race their heart out to try and do something special. Most recently, we all saw Jason Lezak prove that he knew he was great. Setting limitations on yourself is the worst thing you could do as a swimmer.

5. Enjoy the process. Most importantly, swimming should be fun. Although I have had to wake up at 5:20 a.m., five days a week for the last two months, I still look forward to the next time I get to hang out with my teammates at practice. Find something that makes swimming enjoyable for you and cherish the time that you get to spend doing it.

ABCs of Mental Training: I is for Injuries

BY AIMEE C. KIMBALL, PhD//Sport Psychologist

When you work hard, push yourself to your limits and engage in physical activity, you are not only competing with other swimmers, you are also competing with your body.

If you have ever been injured, you know how stressful and life-altering it can be. Whether it’s the disappointment of having trained so hard and no longer being able to compete or the feeling of being an outsider rather than a part of the team, there are many sources of injury stress.

It is important to know how to cope with this stress and what mental skills you can use to help throughout the recovery process. This article is about how to cope with injuries so you can get back in a pool ASAP.

Relax!

When you have physical tension or mental stress, your body uses its resources to fight the stress rather than to heal your injury. Also, if you go to physical therapy, and your muscles are tense (which occurs because you are stressed) you won’t be as flexible as you do your rehab exercises. This limits the progress you can make. If you are stressed about the injury or about other things in your life and you bring this to your physical therapy sessions, your focus will be on the stressors rather than the exercises. Because of this, you may not be pushing yourself and you may not be doing the exercise correctly, both of which can keep you from progressing as quickly as possible. Thus, it is important to know how to relax and to take the time to de-stress periodically throughout the day, especially before rehab.

Social Support

Make sure you have people you can talk to about the injury. You might find it helpful to talk to someone who has experienced a similar situation and is now back competing again. You may find just being around the team helps you, even if you are unable to swim. There are also mental training consultants and sport psychologists who understand what you are going through and who can be a “neutral” source for you to get out your thoughts and emotions and who can teach you how to refocus more positively.

Set Goals

Make sure you have goals for rehab. Most athletes set goals for improving their times or winning events. However, when injuries strike, all of those goals you were striving for change. As an athlete, you are used to working towards accomplishing something, so it’s important to channel that drive into your rehab and into goals you have in school or other areas of your life. For example, if you had shoulder surgery, make sure you talk to your surgeon and physical therapist about what the rehabilitation process is like. Have them educate you on milestones you are likely to experience throughout the recovery as well as obstacles you might face. If you can, at least once a week (if not every day) talk to your physical therapist or athletic trainer about what muscles or ligaments you are strengthening and write down goals that you want to achieve for each exercise. It’s important to recognize that with injury, small changes are big deals. Don’t just emphasize major accomplishments like the day you can swim at full speed, acknowledge range of motion improvements or increases in the number of reps you do while lifting. These goals provide you with motivation by letting you know you are getting closer to your ultimate goal and can provide that extra push on the days when you are mentally and/or physically struggling. Goals also can also help to diminish fear of reinjury when you return. Comparing what little you were able to do when you were first injured with the day you are fully cleared will give you greater confidence that you are well on your way to returning to full speed.

Keep an Injury Notebook

Some athletes find it very helpful to keep a notebook throughout their injury as a way to get their thoughts out of their heads. In this notebook, you can keep track of your goals each week. Chart what you are working on and what is improving. Make note of how your mood might be improving, what helps you to deal with pain, fatigue and stress. Take notes about what the coaches are teaching other swimmers so you can learn new things and recognize what the coaches want from their swimmers. The reason for doing this is: a) writing things down can serve as a stress reliever, b) setting goals can keep you focused during rehab and c) keeping track of improvement is a great motivator and confidence booster. This injury book can also provide encouragement after you have returned from injury. If you ever start to feel burned out you can always look at this notebook and remind yourself that you didn’t go through all of this to give up now.

Do Imagery

There is a lot of research within sport and other domains that shows how effective imagery can be in speeding up the recovery process. Some studies show that imagining yourself healing influences blood flow, optimism and sense of control, which can all help you to get back in the pool sooner. Additionally, by having vivid images in your head and essentially “feeling” yourself swimming, you keep your muscle memory in tact and your skills won’t decrease as much as if you sit around and don’t think of swimming at all.

The above suggestions are just a few ways to address the mental aspects of injury. While no one wants to get injured, it is unfortunately a part of sport. By choosing to view the injury as another challenge to overcome, you will develop a very valuable life skill-the ability to succeed in the face obstacles. You can also learn a lot about yourself and about your sport while injured. Thus, while dealing with an injury can be a very stressful experience, you can return a stronger competitor and a more mentally tough individual once you’re back in the water.

Make it great!

Dr. Aimee

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD

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, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau. 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://sportsmedicine.upmc.com/MentalTrainingProgram.htm

Become Legendary!

What are you doing today to guarantee greatness tomorrow?

BY DR. ALAN GOLDBERG//Sport Psychologist

What if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you did today, in this set, how hard you pushed yourself and how precise you were with your strokes and turns would guarantee a “meet-of-your-life” performance in your events come taper time? How motivated would you be? Would you concentrate more? Would it bother you that you went into practice a little tired? Would you allow yourself just to go through the motions the way you sometimes do or cut as many corners? Would you complain to yourself or a teammate about how you hated this set?

Chances are pretty good that if you knew that today’s practice would guarantee you great swims at the big meet, then you’d be totally psyched and willing to work your butt off. In fact, you’d probably go into practice with a seriousness of purpose that would instantly raise the quality of your training.

It’s this mental approach to practice that you need to adopt right now to help get you through the grind and drudgery of this, the toughest part of the training cycle.

Come December and January of the short course season, the intensity of your practices has increased, your body is more broken down and your motivation may be at an all-time low. The taper meet seems months away, and it’s easy to lose sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing. This is the time when swimmers are most vulnerable to wasting valuable practices by giving in to their mental and physical fatigue. Take note: If you want to become a winner, then you can’t allow yourself to do this.

You have to approach today’s training as if this is championship time! You have to mentally connect what you are doing right now in the pool with what you want to be doing at the taper meet. You have to create a sense of inner importance for today’s practice by directly linking it with your end-of-season goals. You do this by asking yourself the question, “How is what I’m doing today and right now going to help me get to where I want to go?”

By continuously connecting your big goals with what you are doing right now, you will out-work the competition, and in the process, distinguish yourself as a champion.

Peter Vanderkaay’s Keys to Success

Set Goals: Know what you want to do before you start doing it. Set goals at the beginning of each season so you have something to work toward.

Work hard: Commit yourself to working hard each day. To beat the competition, you must work harder than them.

Focus: Remember to look at the big picture and don't be distracted by the little things. Also, continue to learn new techniques for success.

Confidence: Know that you are sticking to the plan and that it’s going to work. Be confident and have faith in yourself.

Have fun: Enjoy the journey and don't get too caught up in it. Make sure you have a balance in your life and people you care about.

Keeping a Training Journal

BY DR. LENNY WIERSMA//Correspondent

The beginning of a swimming season is a great time to start a training journal, which is a written record of your performance and a consistent, positive and concrete reminder to keep you focused. Use the journal to make observations about how you feel physically or mentally, and describe your level of motivation, mood and confidence. By recognizing these things, you have taken the first step in gaining control over them and using them to your advantage. Personalize it however you want, but I recommend the following:

1. Buy a writer’s journal or spiral-bound notebook. On the first page, write out the following in big, bold print: What are your specific goals for this year? What are the major improvements you want to make during the season?

2. After each practice, date your entry, then list your practice goal, how you felt during practice (physically and mentally), and how you dealt with distractions or fatigue. End each entry with one positive note about practice, then with a powerful statement, such as, “I am strong,” or “Nothing can stop me.”

3. After each meet, write down your goals for the meet and the times you swam. Briefly describe how you felt physically and mentally, then what you learned from your performance. List any stressors you faced as well as how you attempted to deal with them. End each entry with a very positive, powerful statement, such as “I love the battle” or “London, here I come.”

Keep the journal simple so it doesn’t feel like homework, and make it as positive and motivating as possible. If nothing else, it will be quite a gift to yourself to look back over your swimming career and keep cherished memories of your experience.

Nick Brunelli's Keys to Success

This week’s Speedo Tip of the week comes from National Teamer Nick Brunelli. Brunelli offers his five keys to success.

Focus on now, but remember the future. You know that workout that slammed you yesterday? It's not only going to help you at your next meet, but also in 15 years when you have a big business meeting your boss puts you in charge of, and you have to work 20 hours in a day to get things going. You'll know what it means to work when you are tired. You won't be fazed by what others would consider an unreachable summit.

Assemble the moments. Every moment during the day there are choices to be made and throughout the day, they add up to create a feeling of how the day went. It’s up to you to choose correctly and match the goals you set in life with the choices you make in a day. Day after day, these choices add up to make that goal more attainable. If you want to go to the Olympics, it’s going to take many right choices throughout the day, every day, leading to that final moment at Olympic Trials. In the weight room doing that extra set, or during the last round of a set, force yourself to do everything right from your stroke to what you say to encourage others.

Be passionate and proud. Many people don't realize how much time and energy swimming takes up when done all-out. Be proud of the work you do in practice, and take that pride to become the best you can in anything you do. The best moments in many swimmers lives are right after the hardest sets or practices. Those moments are filled with feelings of achievement, success and absolute exhaustion.
Swim with meaning. Swim every stroke like you would want to swim when you achieve your goal time. The more times you swim with that perfect stroke, the sooner you will be swimming faster. When you decide to do something, fully commit to it. Commit mind, body and soul to your dreams and desires. This means on a daily basis making sacrifices that in the moment may not seem appealing but in the long run will matter the most.

When you fall, get back up. My favorite saying in recent years is, "Adversity causes some men to break; but others to break records." When you fall and get back up, use that as motivation to never fall again. Challenges that set you back and are later conquered can be some of the strongest motivation out there.

ABCs of Mental Training: H is for Having Fun

BY AIMEE C. KIMBALL, PhD

I agree with Abraham Lincoln, who said, “People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
I think that having fun is, in fact, a mental skill. Most people believe having fun is as easy as getting involved in something you enjoy, which is true. However, what happens when what you enjoy also becomes a source of pressure, anxiety, fatigue and pain?

Most athletes start swimming because they love being in the water and enjoy being with their friends. When they decide to turn their “hobby” into a competitive activity is when some of the “fun” can be taken away.

That is, when you now have to practice for two hours after school and you are being asked to push your physical limits, you may start to focus on the aspects of competitive swimming that you don’t enjoy.

Focusing on your dislikes is what can make the fun disappear. Then, when you start to get good, develop high expectations for yourself, and feel pressure to drop time every meet or win every race, you may find even more things you don’t like about a sport you used to enjoy.

If you take it to the next level and start swimming to possibly get or keep a college scholarship and your whole reason for swimming is based on the belief that you HAVE to swim well or you will lose this opportunity, then even more anxiety occurs.

Basically, the higher the level at which you compete, the more potential there is for you to find things you don’t like about swimming, and thus, swimming becomes less fun.

Don’t worry though, just because you are now competing doesn’t mean swimming has to cease being fun. As I said before, you control your own happiness.

Here are some things you can do to make sure you can still have fun while swimming competitively:

Focus on the positive
Like anything else in life, the more you focus on what you enjoy, the happier you will be. It is easy to go to practice focusing on how much you don’t want to be there, how tired you are going to be, or how much you hate when your coach yells at you. However, if you accept that all of those things are part of your reality and instead change your focus to what you are going to get out of the day, you’ll find it a lot more enjoyable. So, before heading to meets or practice, remind yourself what you are looking forward to while you are there, rather than what you’re dreading.

Remember the good stuff
If you are ever struggling and feel like some of the fun of the sport has been lost, pull out a picture of yourself from when you were really young. Maybe it’s from the first race you ever entered or from a day where you were just with your friends practicing your cannonballs. The picture should put a smile on your face and remind you that you chose to swim because of how happy being in the water makes you.

Embrace the pressure
The pressure you feel and the anxiety you experience don’t have to be detrimental. Instead of perceiving your expectations for yourself as a negative, recognize that it means you have confidence in your ability. If you didn’t know you were good, you wouldn’t have such high standards for yourself. Experiencing pressure just means you’ve created an opportunity for yourself to reach a higher level of success. That you’ve proven you are good enough to be in this situation should bring satisfaction rather than worry. Also, choose to view meets and difficult practices as small challenges that you are going to work through to overcome. A sense of pride should come from knowing you are working your hardest to achieve something meaningful to you.

Swim for the sake of swimming
While it’s easy to get caught up in external rewards such as medals, records and scholarships, you must keep in mind these are not the reasons why you swim. First and foremost you swim because it’s a sport you enjoy. The accolades are just a by-product of your hard work. We lose the fun when we think we are swimming to get something out of it. Make sure you remind yourself that you swim for enjoyment, for improvement and to be with friends. Then, by being involved in something you find inherently fun and putting forth the effort to see how good you can be at that activity, you are setting yourself up to enjoy the process of achieving success – not just for success itself.

Remember, having fun is up to you. No matter how hard practice is, no matter how “serious” the meet is, you can enjoy competition and all that it brings with it. It’s up to you to decide that your passion for the sport and everything you love about swimming are much more important than the aspects you don’t like. So next time you head to the pool, jump right in and have some fun!

Make it great!

Dr. Aimee

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD

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, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau. 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://sportsmedicine.upmc.com/MentalTrainingProgram.htm

Swimming Fast When It Counts Most

Once you get to that big meet, your physical work and preparation are over. You’ve done everything to insure that your body has the physical capability to go fast. Now what you need is to keep your mind in a “gold medal place.” Swimming fast when it counts the most is all mental. The following three strategies will help you maximize your training and go fast:

1. KEEP YOUR RACE FOCUS ON PROCESS, NOT OUTCOME – One of the biggest mistakes that a swimmer can make is getting too caught up in the importance of the race, by focusing on their time or place. This “outcome” focus will make you nervous, tighten your muscles and slow you down. To go fast, your concentration must be on the “process.” Focus on what YOU are doing in your lane, in the NOW.
2. TRY SOFTER, NOT HARDER – When you place too much importance on a race, you will tend to try too hard. Trying too hard tightens muscles and shortens your stroke. It’s the game of diminishing returns: The harder you try, the slower you’ll go! Instead, try to relax and focus on lengthening your stroke by “trying softer.” Remember, your body already knows how to swim fast. Trust your training and let the fast swim come to you!
3. STAY CALM PRE-RACE – Many swimmers unknowingly “lose” their races before the start because they get too nervous. Swimming fast is all about staying relaxed pre-race. To do this, try any of the following: stretch, listen to music, talk to friends, slow and deepen your breathing, joke around and most importantly, have fun!

What is Swimming About...?

This is a quote I took directly from the comments section from an article entitled "After Olympic Struggles, Ziegler Is Back in the Pool". The comment was written by Claire . I couldn't have said this any better myself!

"As former world record holder and Olympic gold medalist, Jeff Rouse, once said…swimming is about the journey, not the outcome. Swimming builds strong bodies, disciplined minds, and compassion for people who face the same competitive challenges on a regular basis. It’s the love of the sport that keeps swimmers going. When looking at any athlete, it’s the totality of his or her work that really matters…the personal bests, the work ethic, the love of the sport that each swimmer instills in others. Whether a swimmer receives an Olympic gold medal or simply advances to A meets in summer competition, each day in the pool is a victory. It teaches swimmers how to work hard without the promise of success, how to advance or even win with humility, and how to grapple with defeat without dishonor. Swimming is a tremendous sport. It teaches valuable lessons that are applicable to all life’s endeavors."

ABCs of Mental Training: G is for Goal Setting

Every athlete has a goal. Whether it’s to win races, achieve a personal best, or simply make it through a grueling practice, the goals we set undoubtedly exert influence on our performance.

However, there’s a lot more to goal setting than just stating what it is you ultimately want to achieve. To get the motivational support and performance boost that goals can provide, athletes must set goals systematically and have various types of goals.

This article will lead you through steps to setting goals so that your performance, satisfaction and quality of practice can all be enhanced. While this article is geared to your sport-related goals, the same steps can and should be used to set goals for all areas of your life.

Step 1: Know where you are headed

Five years from now, what do you want to be doing? One year from now? At the end of this season, what do you want to have achieved? All of these long-term goals are important to sit and write down because they give you something to commit to. It is also important to identify why you want to achieve these goals. This “why” should be something that is valuable to you more than it is to others. Once you identify your goals, close your eyes and picture yourself achieving them. Try to experience the feelings you expect to have when you achieve these goals.

On a weekly basis, reexamine your end-of-season goal. It is okay if you need to adjust it and make it more challenging or more realistic based on your circumstance. Make sure you keep your season goal in mind as you practice so you are aware that what you do today connects you to what you want to achieve in the future. At the end of each season, re-visit your yearly goal and at least once a month imagine yourself achieving your 5-year goal.

Step 2: Know how to get there

Ever get lost on the way to a meet? If you have, typically you knew where you were supposed to end up, you just didn’t have a very accurate map of how to get there. Having a path towards your long-term goals is extremely important because what you want to achieve weeks, months, or years from now can only happen if you take the opportunity each day to make progress towards your longer-term goals. Each day ask yourself, “What can I do today to get myself one step closer to where I want to be?” Make sure you always have a short-term, specific goal you are working on. Whether it’s a technique goal, a mental goal, or a nutritional goal, keep focused on your daily and weekly objectives so you can give yourself the best chance to reach your ultimate goals.

Step 3: Identify milestones of success

Having intermediate markers of success can help enhance motivation (ex., swimming a PR, qualifying for a specific meet, mastering a fundamental skill). These markers serve as points on your goal route that are important to you and are achievements you will be proud of. These milestones provide set standards so you know you are progressing along your goal path. They let you know that your hard work is paying off and give you confidence, encouragement, and enhance your commitment.

Step 4: Identify obstacles

Reaching long term goals is a very challenging process and there are a lot of uncontrollable factors that may keep you from reaching these goals. Look at your long term and short term goals and identify obstacles that may prevent you from reaching these goals. Injury, strength of the competition, and burnout are common obstacles swimmers face when trying to win meets, improve time, or work their hardest. If you list an obstacle you can’t control, cross it off your list (if you don’t control it, don’t worry about it). If it is something you do control, make a plan for dealing with it when it comes up. By identifying obstacles and being prepared to overcome them, you are helping to ensure obstacles do not become excuses.

Step 5: Create a system

Everyone is a little bit different in how they set goals. Some set daily goals while others focus on what they want to accomplish on a monthly basis. Create a system that you can stick to that allows you to: a) Set specific, challenging goals, b) Measure progress towards these goals, c) Gain motivation and encouragement from your goals, and d) Focus on these goals every practice.

I suggest setting, at minimum, weekly goals. Maybe every Sunday write three specific areas you want to improve on. Share these goals with coaches, parents, and/or teammates so you have someone to hold you accountable to working on these goals and who can recognize when you achieve your goals. Each day before practice review your goals and remind yourself what you are working on and how this week’s goals connect to your goals for the season. At the end of the week, assess whether or not you achieved your goals. If you didn’t accomplish what you set out to do, make sure you honestly figure out why you fell short and try to control what you can in the future. If you did achieve even some of your goals, take a moment to reward yourself and feel proud that your hard work paid off.

Step 6: Set different types of goals

One of the biggest mistakes athletes make is setting goals focused only on the results of meets. While these outcome-oriented goals are important, they are often out of your control. Therefore, it is essential to set process and performance goals as well.

• Process goals-fundamentals totally under your control (stroke, turns, attitude)
• Performance goals-“statistics” based on individual improvement (drop time, increase in sets)
• Outcome goals-focus is on comparisons to others (winning races, being the best)

Ultimately, you want to focus on your process goals since the more of the fundamentals you master, the more likely you are to reach your performance goals (good technique + good mentality=better time). When you reach your performance goals, you give yourself a better chance of achieving your outcome goals (you don’t control if you win, you only control if you swim your best). By focusing on the process and what you control, you are trusting that the way you swim will lead to the performance you want.

Process è Performance è Outcome

Summary

Whether you are 14 or 41, goals are vital in providing direction, creating motivation, and enhancing commitment. Some people shy away from setting goals because they are afraid of being disappointed if they fall short. Other swimmers only set goals for meets or for their careers. It is important not to see goals as the ultimate indication of success or failure; rather they provide you with guidance so that you can stretch your abilities as far as possible. Very few people achieve every goal they set; therefore it is the progress you make towards these goals and the effort you exert in their pursuit that is the determinant of your success. If every day you get a little bit closer to where you want to be, consider that to be a successful day.

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD

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, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau. 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://sportsmedicine.upmc.com/MentalTrainingProgram.htm

GOAL SETTING EXERCISE

My strengths are:

Ø My plan for using and building upon these strengths:

Areas I can improve (mental, technique, fitness, nutritional…):

Ø Actions I will take to improve on these areas:

My goal for the season/week/month is:

Ø What will I do to achieve this?

Ø What obstacles might I face and how will I overcome them?

Ø What will result when I achieve this goal?

Attitude is Everything!

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Spre

Keys to Success: Whitney Myers

This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week comes from 2005 and 2007 U.S. World Championships Team member Whitney Myers. Myers was also the 2007 NCAA champion in the 200 IM and NCAA Woman of the Year. Here are the keys to her success.

 

Have fun. Everybody says this, but it’s true. If you are not having fun, choose a different sport or hobby, or find a way to make it fun. When people are growing up, there are so many sacrifices you have to make to be an elite athlete.”

 

Set little goals for yourself along the way. This point relates to my first one, because it keeps it fun for me. Accomplishing goals helps you enjoy what you are doing. Goals go from times in practice to how many pull-ups in dryland, or having positive self talks, making social goals like, ‘I’m going to make at least one new friend at this meet.’”

 

Have a life outside your sport. That could mean applying yourself in school or having a hobby on the side, maybe arts and crafts, singing or riding a bike. It’s important to experience the world around you. There are days when swimming isn’t going so well, so if you don’t have other things going on, it can bring you down.

 

Be involved in whatever you are doing. Really immerse yourself. Get to know the people in your circle, and outside of it. Get involved with your team, your school, your family and your friends. Don’t just sit and let things happen to you. Go out and make things happen. Swimming takes up a lot of my time, but I still have a lot of balance. I love going to a meet and making new friends.

 

Make good decisions for yourself. That might be about food, about your sleep, about what you do on Friday and Saturday nights, or in school. Making the right decision time after time ends up giving you reward after reward, which add up and make you feel good. Plus, making smart decisions gets you respect. You want to earn respect for all you accomplish, not be one of those people who just wins all the time and isn’t respected.

Keys to Success: David Walters

In this week’s Speedo Tip of the Week, Olympian David Walters offers some advice on what you need to do to become the best swimmer you can be.

Practice: We do it all the time without thinking, but we should always think about it. You have to do the work in the pool, and do the work in the weight room. You can cut corners, but it comes back to you, and maybe you’ll get away with it in practice or a small meet, but when you get up on the blocks for that big race, you won’t stick the last turn. You won’t have that last burst of energy. You won’t have the technique you should’ve been honing. You have to make practice count. I lost a relay for our team against Cal, so I can tell you first-hand that if you cut corners, it will nip you down the road.

Maintain a positive attitude: You have to keep your head up. You can’t take things in this world personally and be in a constant state of stress, or compete with a bad attitude. Not having a positive attitude does not help. It makes things harder on yourself. I’ve learned that from Aaron Peirsol, seeing how great his attitude is even when times are harsh, like when it’s Thursday and we’re ready for the weekend. Aaron will say, “Let’s go, two more days of practice, and we’re to the weekend. Get it done!”

Understand how everything fits together: I feel like everything is a building block that needs to fit with the others. It can be overwhelming at times trying to focus on so many little things. So the best way to play the game is to take one thing at a time, get it right, move on to the next time and learn how it all fits together. If you do make a mistake, that’s okay. Learn from it, and don’t do it again.

Adversity: You might not realize it, but this is a building block unto itself, too, and how we deal with it defines us as people and can boost us as competitors. Dealing improperly with adversity is probably the No. 1 career destroyer – letting something bad get to you and not getting over it. You can’t be afraid to try again. You have to jump back in and nail that relay start, or make up that extra tenth of a second on that competitor you are chasing down. Don’t let mistakes slow you. Use them to propel you to be better.

ABCs of Mental Training: F is for Fear

BY AIMEE KIMBALL, PhD//Special Correspondent

One of the worst four-letter words in an athletes’ everyday vocabulary is “fear.” It is an emotion that most athletes don’t admit to, yet when experienced, is constantly influencing their behaviors. This article will focus on rational and irrational fears, how to accept them and keep them from influencing your performance.

Slaying the Big Bad Wolf

I have yet to meet an athlete who isn’t afraid of something. While a fear of spiders isn’t going to keep most athletes from performing their best, a fear of failure may. If you have a fear that is hindering you from performing your best, you have to examine the source of this fear.

Common sport-related fears are:

• Letting down/disappointing others
• Making a mistake
• Having a bad race
• Getting yelled at
• Not living up to your potential
• Getting hurt
• Not being as good as you/others thought
• Pain

If you can relate to any of these, take a deep breath, because it’s OK. It’s not all bad when you are afraid of something. It’s how you deal with it that counts.

First, write down the fears that you have and determine whether or not they are realistic. If you have an unrealistic fear, it’s important to remind yourself that it’s not likely to happen. Be logical with yourself, “Come on. I’m being silly. My parents will not be disappointed in me if I have a bad race.”

Second, if there is a level of honest concern (i.e., your coach will never put you in the event again if you mess up) then you have to accept this reality. Nine times out of 10, the more you focus on NOT messing up to avoid the reality, the more likely you are to mess up. If there is a realistic reason you are afraid to swim poorly, then focus on what you need to do to swim well, rather than what you are trying to avoid.

For example, the conversation you’d have with yourself would go something like this:

Negative You: The relay is counting on me. I can’t have a bad race or we’ll lose.

Positive You: Yes, the team does count on me, but I’m pretty good, so I’m more likely to swim well than to have a bad race. I just need to get a good start, have smooth turns, and really kick strong. I’ve done it in practice. I can do it now.

Third, have a routine. When athletes don’t have something they do consistently, there is a greater chance that something is going to feel off or that uncertainty will creep in. By having a routine that you do before every competition — a routine that does not change depending on how your last meet went — you provide yourself with a level of comfort. That is, when youalways put your goggles on first or you listen to “Eye of the Tiger” right before you take the block, you feel more in control of your mind and body, the experience feels more familiar, and you will be calmer—all things necessary in keeping those worries at bay.

Swim Your Best Race

When favored to win, athletes who are not mentally tough fear losing and compete that way. They are tentative and don’t do their best. When expected to lose, athletes often do better because they are focusing on causing an upset or because they are more relaxed since they have nothing to lose. If you find you fit into either category, remember who you swim should not determine how you swim. When you swim well against good opponents, you can swim well against lesser opponents. The mindset you have when you swim your best should be the mindset you have against every opponent.

Swim to Win

Fear of the unknown comes because we’re thinking ahead. Stay in the moment and don’t worry so much about negative outcomes. You are out there to do your best, so swim like it. If you swim to win, your focus is on swimming your best and making the most of each stroke. If you’re swimming not to lose, you’re thinking of swimming poorly and the “what-ifs” often get the better of you. Thoughts of losing lead to anxiety, thoughts of swimming well lead to confidence. Which mindset would you rather have?

Choose to be a warrior, not a worrier.

Make it Great!

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD:

Dr. Aimee C. Kimball is the Director of Mental Training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Sports Medicine. She received a PhD from the University of Tennessee where she specialized in sport psychology. 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, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau. As a Mental Training Consultant, Dr. Kimball has worked with professional, collegiate, high school, recreational, and youth athletes in a variety of sports, including assisting the Pittsburgh Steelers in analyzing potential draft picks and the Pittsburgh Penguins in developing their players. She has been a featured speaker at conferences across the nation and has appeared in numerous media outlets across the country. Currently, Dr. Kimball works with athletes, coaches, corporate leaders, and other performers to assist them in achieving success in sport and life. (412-432-3777; kimballac@upmc.edu)

Pre-Race Routines

BY JENNY SUSSER, PhD//Special Correspondent

Pre-race routines are valuable tools for swimmers that can help with pre-race jitters. A pre-race routine is what you do once you’ve arrived behind the blocks and before the gun goes off. Think about your favorite swimmer right now and try to remember what they do behind the blocks before a race. You might realize that it’s the same each time, race after race. Even Tiger Woods has a “pre-shot” routine!

Pre-race routines are important for several reasons. One is consistency. When you go to a meet, certain things will always vary: the pool, the blocks, the lane lines, the bathrooms, the officials and your competitors. Your pre-race routine will not vary, and that you can count on.

A second reason pre-race routines are important is that they can help “ground” you and make you feel more comfortable. Whether you are at home or away, it can help manage distractions by always giving you something to focus on. As you know, focus is key to swimming fast and when you get nervous, your focus unfortunately tends to go to how nervous you are and not your race or technical strategies.

To create a pre-race routine, think about the best race you’ve ever had and try to remember what you did behind the blocks. If you can’t remember exactly, it doesn’t matter, you just want to get the feel of it. Come up with a short pattern that you like, write it down, rehearse it for a few days until it feels natural, and voila!

Now, the most important part of the routine is not what you are doing physically, but what you are doing mentally during your pre-race routine. Come up with 2-3 positive thoughts to repeat in your mind and combine them with the physical pattern. That way you have a “job” for your body (something to do with the nervous energy) and a “plan” for you mind (something positive and supportive to focus on).

Jenny Susser is a sport psychologist with a PhD in Clinical Health Psychology. She works at the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for special Surgery in Manhattan.

ABCs of Mental Training: E is for Emotional Control

BY AIMEE KIMBALL, PhD//Special Correspondent
Whether it’s yelling at a parent, kicking a bleacher, or letting an expletive fly, most people have lost their “cool” at some point. Emotions are a part of every sporting event, and if we don’t recognize how they are influencing us, emotions can impact our performances. This article will focus on how to control your emotions by recognizing them, addressing them, and using them to your benefit.

Are Emotions Bad?

Most athletes perform their best when they keep their emotions to themselves. It is often the case that becoming too emotional creates an improper focus on the initial cause of the emotions (e.g., a bad start, an important event, a competitor from the other team). Emotions become most detrimental when they cause athletes to lose focus on what they need to do to swim well and instead create a focus on a past event, a negative occurrence, or a future unwanted action.

Even positive emotions can elicit poor performance. When a football player becomes elated because he just ran back a kick-off only to start celebrating two yards short of the end zone, you can say his emotions got the best of him. You’ve seen swimmers, a few strokes away from winning the race, let the opponent make a comeback. Often this happens because the swimmer in the lead was so caught up in the positive emotions of winning that their thoughts were no longer on the event. Thus, overconfidence is an emotion that can negatively impact individuals because it can make their focus less than ideal. Therefore, it’s not just negative emotions that we need to be aware of.

That said, emotions are not necessarily bad. Some people perform their best when they are emotional and claim their emotions help them to “get into” the event. I have worked with many athletes who tell me they play better angry, but I find the reason for this is because they consequently become more intensely focused on what they need to do in the competition. Essentially, certain emotions help them to create the focus that allows them to compete at their best.

While emotions can help people to focus better, the problem with swimming “emotionally” is that emotions can be physically manifested. Emotions often tighten athletes’ muscles, which changes their mechanics and decreases reactions, ultimately hindering their performance.

Having emotions isn’t bad. The key is in controlling the emotions you do have and not letting them cross the line from beneficial to detrimental.

Controlling Your Emotions

To make sure your emotions don’t hurt your performance, you need to know how to control them.

• First, take deep breaths as often as possible. A deep breath will slow down your heart rate and slow down your thoughts, both of which give you better control over your emotions.
• Have a pre-planned way to stop your emotions and refocus your energy more positively. If you are really excited, turn this excitement into a desire to swim well and focus on what you need to do. If you’re often angry after a race, have a post-race routine that you do after all races (good or bad). This may include listening to three songs before talking to anyone and then logically assessing your swim by thinking about what you did well and what you will work on for next time.
• Be creative and come up with other ways to physically and/or mentally release the emotion. Pull on your cap and say “Pull it together” or as you get out of the water after a poor race think about leaving it behind.

Watch Your Body Language

Your mind will react to what your body does. If you put your head down, throw a water bottle or slump your shoulders, you are essentially telling your mind that you’re mentally checking out. If you keep your head up, your eyes focused ahead, and your comments positive, your mind will know you have already let go of the bad race and are ready to keep going. This helps to control your emotions by treating bad races (or other negative occurrences) as nonevents—just part of the sport—and showing your mind that you are in control of your body and your emotions.

Practice Emotional Control

Outside of sport, there are many situations that test our emotional fortitude. By practicing staying calm when you are sitting in traffic, in the slowest line in the grocery store, or fighting with a sibling, you are training yourself to be in control of your emotions. Just like practicing your physical skills is essential for peak performance, so is practicing your emotional skills. So start taking control of your mind, your body, and emotions in every situation.

Make it Great!

About Aimee C. Kimball, PhD:

Dr. Aimee C. Kimball is the Director of Mental Training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Sports Medicine. She received a PhD from the University of Tennessee where she specialized in sport psychology. 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, the USA Swimming Sports Medicine Network, and the NCAA Speakers Bureau. As a Mental Training Consultant, Dr. Kimball has worked with professional, collegiate, high school, recreational, and youth athletes in a variety of sports, including assisting the Pittsburgh Steelers in analyzing potential draft picks and the Pittsburgh Penguins in developing their players. She has been a featured speaker at conferences across the nation and has appeared in numerous media outlets across the country. Currently, Dr. Kimball works with athletes, coaches, corporate leaders, and other performers to assist them in achieving success in sport and life. (412-432-3777; kimballac@upmc.edu)

Five Simple Things to get Faster

Kelton Graham, a senior coach with Club Wolverine, in Ann Arbor, Mich., offers a few simple suggestions to help you swim faster right now:

• Swim deliberate laps. There is always something to work on, whether it is proper hand entry or tight turns. Focus on those things and avoid swimming mindless laps.
• Streamline. This may seem trivial, but streamlining, along with the underwater dolphin kicks can be quite a weapon. Some refer to the dolphin kick as the "fifth stroke."
• Develop effective race strategies. Sometimes swimmers can improve the very next race if they change something in the way the race paces. Analyze your race. Did you go out too fast or too slow? Did you bring in your kick too early or too late?
• Relax before you swim. Enjoy the meet. Don't worry about the things you can't control. Focus on the things you can control in your lane.
• Warm up before and cool down after each event.
• Make sure to discuss your race with your coach before and after each swim.
• Don't be afraid to change things. If your coach makes a suggestion about how to get better, don't keep swimming the same way just because it worked in the past. Try something different.
• Make your weakness your strength. If breaststroke is killing your IM, hop in the breaststroke lane at practice. Or, spend time with your coach after practice and work on it.
• See what the best are doing and see if there is anything you can apply to your own race. Sometimes just watching others who are better than you can help you find things that you are missing in your own race. Talk it over with your coach and see if it fits you.