ABC’s Of Mental Training: O is for Overtraining

By Dr. Aimee Kimball//Sport Psychologist

Physical exhaustion, sore muscles, mental fatigue, moodiness – what swimmer hasn’t experienced this before? While most swimmers are accustomed to wearing themselves out, too much exertion with not enough rest can lead to what’s often referred to as “overtraining.” This is a very common problem with swimmers and the physical and mental aspects need to be understood in order to prevent overtraining and ultimately to avoid burning out from your sport.

What is overtraining?
Basically, overtraining occurs when athletes train to their maximum without getting the physical and mental rest their body and mind need to recover. While athletes should be training to their utmost capacity, the importance of appropriate rest cannot be stressed enough. Overtraining is often more about the amount rest/recovery than about the training itself. If you’re going full speed ahead for weeks (or in some cases just days) and you don’t train at lower levels, eventually you are going to run out of energy. Overtraining can technically be both positive (when athletes are able to adapt and increase their training threshold) and negative. For the purposes of this article, I am going to focus more on the negative aspects.

How do I know if I’m overtraining?
There’s a fine line between working hard and pushing it too much. The symptoms of overtraining are similar to what you would experience after a long, exhausting practice. However, overtraining tends to occur after a period of time where you consistently have symptoms such as physical exhaustion, moodiness, apathy and trouble sleeping. If you start experiencing excessive weight loss, a higher than normal resting heart rate, consistent illness or injury, or chronically sore muscles, you may be experiencing what is called “overtraining syndrome.” If you hit this phase, it’s likely time to take a day off or have a very light training day because your body is telling you it’s time to slow down or it’s going to have to shut off. If you continue at the current training level and don’t give yourself adequate rest, you’re susceptible to burnout. Athletes who hit the burnout phase usually have to take more time off from their sport because they end up lacking motivation and just don’t want to be near a pool for awhile.

How is overtraining related to tapering?
Before big meets, many coaches will push their swimmers to their limits with the intention of giving them significant rest before the competition. In this case, “overloading” the athletes is intentional and is often a planned part of training so they can peak at the right time. Coaches who use periodization strategies often consider a variety of physiological factors to ensure their athletes are maxing out but also able to recover.

How is overtraining related to mental training?
Just like every athlete has a different capacity to endure physical challenges, individuals’ mentality can also impact their likelihood of experiencing overtraining or burnout. Your ability to cope with stress and to handle the pressure you place on yourself (or that others place on you) can affect how you interpret the difficult training you are going through. Constantly focusing on how hard training is, doubting the training is going to make a difference, worrying about what the coach will have you do in practice, and even experiencing stress unrelated to swimming can all increase the likelihood that you will burnout.

Mental Tips for Hard Training

• Have a positive attitude and take time to manage your sport and life stress.
• Ask the coaches for their rationale behind the training. This will allow you to be more confident in their plan and help you to trust that the fatigue will be worth it.
• If you have some life stressors going on outside of swimming, talk to your coaches. Individual stress is something they need to consider to make sure they are training you hard but not overtraining you.
• Do some relaxation exercises before practice. You’ll find that by starting out in a more relaxed state you’ll be able to endure higher levels of training.
• Set goals for training. It’s easy to focus on pain and just surviving tough practices, but if you focus more on what you’re working to accomplish you’ll find the training much less exhausting.

Make it Great!
Dr. Aimee

Dear Former Self

Pieces of advice, tidbits of knowledge, even just awkward running-dialogue

by: Mike Gustafson, Senior Analyst

Getty Images

Reflect back and write a letter to yourself. Who knows what you will learn!

07/15/10

On NPR last week, I heard a story that piqued my interest. Americans are writing themselves letters. They sit down at their computer, type in, "Dear Former Self," and begin to type. Pieces of advice, tidbits of knowledge, even just awkward running-dialogue:

Self: So...

Former Self: Yes?

Self: Um, so, um, how are you?

Former Self: (Pause). Don't talk to me.

The point of the exercise is cheap therapy. By bestowing advice and/or regret onto your imaginary (or not-so-imaginary) Former Self, you see your present situation perhaps a little differently.

For instance, if you write, "You shouldn't have left her," then the next time a beautiful woman comes your way, well, maybe you won't leave her.

When it comes to swimming advice, I can’t offer much to my Former Self. My experience was more a trial-and-error situation (similar to my life in general). But for the purposes of this column, here goes:

***

Dear Former Self:

-If you skip practice, blame your bowels. Yeah, it’s disgusting. But hurt shoulders, broken alarm clocks, looming midterms, and forgotten directions will only get you into more trouble. That is, unless you pull the food poisoning/gastric infection card. Crowded pools and M.S.L.’s (Mysterious Speedo Leakings) are veritable get-out-of-practice free cards.

-The above scenario does not work on training trips.

-Go to Northwestern. But on your application to Yale, when they ask you to write 500 words about something they don’t know about you, don’t write in as your entire response, “I’m lazy.”

-Also don’t write about M.S.L. theories for said application.

-Use conditioner. Ripping your hair on account of mismanagement is disgusting, and impresses no woman of respectable quality.

-Cheer your teammates. When you’re 45, you will only remember teammates jumping up and down for you. Cheering is like karma; it will come back. No one will ever -- ever -- cheer for you in the professional world. When you’re 45, your coworkers will never hover outside your cubicle screaming your name, “LET’S GO BILL! LET’S CRANK IT UP!” as you prepare your expense report. Embrace it while it lasts.

-Swim after college. Work out. Move around. Do this as soon as you retire. Don’t wait until you’re 25 and girls confuse you with Biggest Loser cliental. That 4ish-pack jiggle-less abdomen you have? It’s not from eating 5 pizzas a week. Soon it will be a one-pack.

-If you shadow box behind the blocks, learn how to box. You look mildly confused, at best. No one wants to watch an awkward, skinny white boy gyrate behind the blocks a la a Middle School Fun Night Dance. Gary Hall Jr. shadow boxed because he won an Olympic Gold Medal. You have not.

-Skip class during taper. Skip your lectures, your tests, your quizzes, your obligations. You won’t miss the lecture, and you can make up your quizzes. Come up with an excuse. Because if it’s your senior year in the last season of your life – and you have one week before your big meet -- take a vacation from work and school and other goings-on unrelated to swimming. Unless your future job involves the market economy in the early colonies, you’re not missing anything.

-Practice will be tough. You might cry. If your coach sees you crying, it will be tougher. So don’t cry.

-Never ask what a “blivet” is.

-Forget winning. Forget about being like Kobe or Jordan. Most of the legendary winners would slit a throat to get to the top. There’s more to life than winning, just as there’s more to swimming than the top podium.

-You should never let another man shave your back. There is no excuse for this, especially in a co-ed campus. (Unless you enjoy men shaving your back, then hey, more power to you (I’m looking at you, West Hollywood Aquatics.))

-Compliment people after good practices; encourage them after bad ones. Hit them with paddles if they don’t do the same for you.

-Swimming is like food. Only eating cookie dough (50 breast) might be great today, but you would get better with balance. Swim the mile (uncooked potatoes), sprint the 50 (Pop Rocks), swim the 200 fly (McRib) for a healthy, balanced swim experience.

-You’ll learn your heroes aren’t that heroic. Your enemies aren’t that evil. So just worry about yourself, and your misshaped head.

-That moment behind the blocks? In the big championship meet? After a full season’s hardship, after taper, after everything you’ve went through? In that moment, look around. Take it all in. Remember the damp smell, the electric atmosphere, the way the water forms glass beneath your toes. Remember the way you look at yourself in the mirror in the bathroom, nervous, shaking, that look in your eyes like you’re going to put it all on the line this time. Remember seeing your parents in the stands, smiling at you, cheering for you. Remember your coaches high-fiving you, your teammates slapping your back as you walk to the blocks with the invincible leap of youth in your step. Remember, remember, remember.

Swimmer-Parent-Coach Roles

SPEEDO TIP OF THE WEEK
BY Dr. Alan Goldberg, Phd, Sport Psychologist

“I'm so nervous. Oh my god, I can't wait for this event to be over! If I don't get a good time, I'm going to hear about it all the way home! Every time I swim slow, I have to go through the ringer with my dad (mom) and listen to everything I did wrong. According to them I don't work hard enough, my turns suck, and I fool around too much. They always make me feel awful after bad races, like they're disappointed in me. It makes me hate swimming.”

A lot of swimmers get a bad case of performance anxiety pre-race which saps their confidence, tightens their muscles and drains the fun right out of the sport. Oftentimes, underlying these pre-race jitters is the powerful worry that unless they produce, mom and dad will be very angry and disappointed.

When a parent responds to your bad swims with their anger, disapproval and criticism, we can assume that most of the time, their heart is in the right place. They're simply trying to be helpful and want you to do well. Unfortunately, this is not their role on the team, and they need to know that their trying to be helpful in this way may actually be causing you to swim slower.

Why?

In order to swim your best, you must be loose, relaxed, excited and having fun pre-race. If you're worried about disappointing your parents, then you'll be too nervous, distracted and physically tight to swim well. Your parents need to understand that if they really want you to go fast, then their role on the team must be to help you stay calm and have fun.

They can do this in two ways:

• First, by being your “best fan.” Parents need to be emotionally supportive and positive with you, to pick you up when you're down, to help you feel happier and better about yourself, especially after a bad swim.
  
• Second, by not coaching. Coaching is the one parent mistake that will cause serious unhappiness in your house and performance problems in the pool. Coaching involves critiquing your practices and races, pushing you to work harder, trying to motivate you, focusing you on beating other swimmers or achieving certain times, offering pre-race strategy and technique advice, etc.

Have a conversation with your parents today and tell them that when they act like your coach and get angry and frustrated when you go slowly, they aren't being supportive, and this will never help you relax, have fun and swim faster. Instead, coach them as to exactly what you need from them before and after your races. Help them understand what, if anything, they could say pre-meet that would help you relax and have fun. Tell them what you most need from them after a disappointing swim or meet. Remind them that they have to play the right role on the team for you to be successful.

Is it possible to beat a swimmer who is faster than you?

Yes! In fact, it happens all the time. Let me explain how this is possible. Many times I have worked with swimmers who have been technically better and faster than another competitor, yet they were consistently beaten by these competitors at meets. Even more frustrating, they quite often put in better training times than their competitors, only to find themselves battling to catch them in the meets.

What these swimmers lacked was the mental edge over these swimmers. This mental edge simply creates opportunities which may not otherwise be there for you in that race on that particular day. This mental edge often includes many different factors, one of which I will mention one today. This is a subject has won many races for swimmers who simply weren’t as fast as their competitors, but they managed to score a psychological win. The subject is body language.

Every single moment you are at the pool, without even knowing it, you are unconsciously showing your competitors your level of self-confidence. Simple aspects in your body language often gives away valuable information to other swimmers, and so it is essential to only send out signals which say "I feel great, I'm relaxed, and I’m ready to go!". Your body language plainly shows your competitors whether you are feeling confident, relaxed and self-assured, or whether you are lacking in confidence and feeling nervous about the race to come.

When you demonstrate confidence to your competitors (whether you actually feel that way or not) it can affect them in two ways. Firstly it often makes them wonder where you got that sort of confidence from, which often triggers negative thoughts in their mind before the race. Secondly, it often forces them to examine themselves and question their own confidence, asking themselves such questions as "Am I as confident as they are?" As soon as they begin thinking these thoughts, they have handed you the mental edge for that race! This means that they will assume that you have the edge on them, and their mind will program their body accordingly for that race.

This is a fabulous effect on your competitors when you have not even said a word to them! The funny part about this is that you may not actually be feeling confident at all, all you’ve done is just make them think that you feel confident! And the added payback is that when you begin to act confident, you very soon begin to feel that way anyway.

So what unconscious signals do you give out to other swimmers? Are you exuding confidence and relaxation, or stress and nerves? Here are some things to watch for in your body language when you are at a meet; firstly, always keep your head up, never allow your head to drop towards the ground, as this always gives the appearance of a person who doesn’t feel confident enough to make eye contact.

Secondly, smile and laugh a lot, rather than having a tense look for the world to see. Remember, winners are grinners! This very often unsettles competitors, when they see how relaxed you appear! Additionally, smiling has also been scientifically shown to relax the body through a variety of relaxing chemicals it releases into your system.

Yet another aspect is to walk around confidently, as if you are already the champion of the pool, not as if the weight of the world is on your shoulders. If you do feel nervous, don’t let anyone detect it from your behavior, act relaxed and in control at all times, as this will not only fool your competitors, but quite often improve your own emotional state as well. If you want to feel relaxed, begin acting relaxed, and miraculously you may begin to experience feelings of tranquility beginning to wash over you.

Most importantly, never, ever show feelings of negativity, nervousness or any other ‘vulnerability’ to your competitors, until you are away from their view. Act positively no matter what, as if you don't have a worry in the world, and eventually word will get around that absolutely nothing ever seems to bother you!

They may start thinking of you as a machine, who is totally unaffected by setbacks - a bit like the Terminator in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, or the ‘Iceman’ in Top Gun. Eventually no-one will ever bother trying to unsettle or intimidate you before races again, in fact they may become quite psyched out by swimming against you. Absolutely no-one wants to swim against a machine!

So be aware of the subconscious signals your body language is giving out to other swimmers, they can be either a huge psychological weapon or a major disadvantage, the choice is yours. It has often been said, to become a champion, firstly begin acting like one. This saying may be even truer than it sounds. Many champions copied the mannerisms and behavior of their idols when they were young, and this may well have been their key to their success. Think of a champion you admire, and begin copying their most impressive habits. You may be surprised at the results.

Swimmer's Mental Edge - Mind Training Tips for Swimmers

From Craig Townsend

“I Went To The Results Board To See How I Did…”

By John Leonard

It was a great teachable moment. Out of the mouths of young people come things that “set up” the coach for an opportunity to do some great education. When an athlete came over to me and started with the sentence at the top of the page, here was my response.

“Really? You didn’t already know how you did?”

“Well, I was sixth the 100 fly and 5^th in the 100 back and….”

“ No, really , you didn’t already know how you did?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, what did you do incorrectly in the 100 fly and what do you need to do to improve?”

“You said I have to keep my hips up on the back 50 and make sure I keep breathing every second stroke…”

“and so….??”

“Huh?”

“and so, THAT is “how you did”. Not the place. The place means nothing. I can take you to plenty of swim meets where you can finish first….and can take you to even more where you’ll finish dead last……where you finish depends on what others have done, not on how you have done…..You need to measure two things…your time versus your best time (which is you against the previous best you) and how you did compared to the assignment I gave you before you headed for the starting blocks. How was your time?”

“Well, I don’t know, I never swam long course before.”

“Of course you haven’t, so now you have a time to measure yourself against…congratulations. And do you need a results board to tell you how you did?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Don’t guess. Know that you don’t. If you go to the blocks with clear goals, you know how you did without anyone else needing to tell you. You can evaluate the race for yourself, and “know how you did”.

“So what is the race for?”

“Two things…first, it’s always easier (and more fun) to swim fast when you are racing someone next to you. And second, as you mature, there is a purpose to “winning races”, but in the developmental stage, it’s a terrible way to evaluate yourself…….racing is stimulation, not measurement of you as an athlete, a learner, a person….anything…..Enjoy the race, but measure against your own best self.”

Please everyone take that lesson to heart and mind.

All the Best, Coach John

News For SWIM PARENTS Published by The American Swimming Coaches Association