Goals that Motivate

Feature by Tonya Nascimento, Swimming World intern 
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, September 10.

CHLORINE runs in your veins; it's your perfume. You are a competitive swimmer, and perhaps you have been as long as you can remember. Perhaps your friends make jokes about how you were born in the pool, already knowing how to swim. If you are honest with yourself, perhaps sometimes you are still just doing it because it's what you have always done. Or maybe you still genuinely have the passion and drive for it, but the seasons are just so long and grueling that your motivation wanes. It is natural in a lifelong sport as challenging as swimming to sometimes feel a bit lackadaisical about practice. 

The best way to get going again is to invigorate your goals. You have probably heard about goal-setting as long as you have been swimming. The thing is, you set goals every day without thinking about it. When you write to-do lists, you are setting goals. When you decide on a time to get your homework done so you can watch your favorite television show, you are setting a goal. When you visualize yourself doing something different from the way it just happened, you are setting a goal for the next time that situation occurs. The key to increasing your motivation is to be purposeful, methodical, and have a plan about your goals, and to set goals that really mean something to you.  

Getting Started 
What do you want to get out of your swimming? This is the distant outcome you hope comes of your swimming. It might be getting a scholarship to swim in college. It might be making Junior Nationals or Senior Nationals. Whatever it is, it feels a long way off at this point. This is your long-term goal, and although it can provide sporadic motivation during months and years of training, it can also fail to motivate due to our tendency to believe we can "work hard tomorrow." 

However, your long-term goal is a good place to start when setting your goals. Write down 2-3 long-term goals. Now take a look at these goals. Are they based on winning or improving your times? Goals based on winning are outcome goals. Goals based on improving your times are performance goals. Because winning depends on how others perform, and improving your time depends only on you, it is better to set performance goals. These goals are under your control. 

Now pick a goal and think about the steps needed to get there. If you want to make a certain meet, you will need to know the qualifying time, or if qualifying is based on your performance, it will help to know the average times that made it for the last few years. Using this number, you can ascertain how much you will need to drop from your current time. 

This is where many swimmers who set goals stop. The problem is that if dropping time is the only indicator of improvement, then it is very easy to get discouraged. No swimmer drops time every meet, and there are likely seasons when you might not drop at all in certain events. This is why progress goals are important. 

Progress goals are the steps it takes to get to your performance and outcome goals. They are markers of your progress toward these goals. They include nutrition, sleep, technique, race strategy, attitude, practice test sets, practice habits, and a myriad of other factors that affect your swimming. Improving in these areas will increase your chances of dropping time, and give you a much clearer indication of what you can be doing day to day. Having a clear plan and focus for what to work on each practice helps alleviate repetitiveness and infuses your practice with enthusiasm and meaning. 

Imagine and Commit 
Goals are most motivating if you are very clear about what you want to accomplish. Your goals should be clear enough to visualize, to imagine
yourself achieving them. Vague goals do not give you direction. For example, perhaps your goal is to get faster in breaststroke. As you are about to start on a breaststroke set in practice, does this motivate you? It is not clear enough to combat fatigue or help you conquer those unwanted thoughts to slow down and take it easy. 

Effective goals fit the SMART criteria. They are Specific, Measurable, Adjustable, Realistic, and Time-oriented. 

Specific: To be specific, there needs to be a distance and a goal-time. Progress goals should include goal times for practice, for mid-season meets, and also specific plans for pacing, strategy, and changes in technique. 

Measurable: When goals are measurable you can easily answer the question, "Did you achieve your goal?" If your goal is simply to "work harder" or "swim faster" it becomes difficult to answer that question. Event times are easy to measure, but they are not the only marker of improvement. Timing the breakout or the first 50 split might be needed. Perhaps the goal is fewer strokes per length or a longer breakout, coming up at a measurable distance from the wall. Your goal may be to hold your breath into and out of turns on freestyle or to breathe every other on butterfly.

Adjustable: There will be days when things just are not going well. Perhaps you are sick, overwhelmed, under-rested, or just plain "off." Some athletes do not like to set goals because goals actually discourage them when they don't make it. Goals need to be flexible. Understand that not every day is a steady progression forward toward the destination. The journey is full of obstacles, but each one makes you a mentally tougher swimmer, one who can overcome in order to succeed. You might try setting three goals: one that would be "awesome," one that is "good," and one that is "acceptable" should unforeseen things happen. 

Realistic: We would all like to make the Olympic team, but it is realistic for only a few. Your goal needs to be within reach according to your ability. It is a good idea to communicate with your coach about this. If your goals are unrealistic, you will not believe you can reach them, or be needlessly discouraged when you inevitably fall short. On the other hand, if your goals are too easily attainable, then they will also not motivate you to reach within yourself for that something more. Realistic goals should be challenging enough to require extra effort but close enough within range that you can imagine yourself already there. 

Time-bound: This is the deadline. By when are you going to reach this goal? Each progress goal needs its own deadline leading up to the
performance goal deadline at the end of the season. Although this deadline is adjustable, it is important to keep you on track and motivated daily. 

If you set effective, SMART goals, you will be able to imagine yourself reaching them. In fact, just before every practice, you might spend a few minutes imagining yourself swimming the stroke with correct technique, hitting the wall, and looking up to see your goal time on the clock. 

Once you are clear on what you want, write it down. Post these goals where you will see them: on your swim locker, in your swim bag, on the mirror in your bathroom, or on the wall above your bed. You could even have the goals you want to work on that day on the pool deck where you can see them. Just write them on index cards and laminate them or put them in Ziploc bags. Writing it down helps solidify your quest. As you write, commit to putting in the effort needed to achieve these goals. Posting them gives you visual reminders of your commitment. 

Affirm and Act 
One trick to helping yourself achieve these goals is to repeat positive affirmations to yourself as if you have already achieved them. For example, if your goal time is 23.87 in the 50 freestyle, you might say, "I swim the 50 free in 23.87." You might also say to yourself, "I speed up into turns," "I hold my breath off walls and into finishes," and "I have an extremely fast start" or "I get off the blocks very quickly." These affirmations, repeated in the present tense, trick your mind into believing it is true, thereby whisking away mental limitations and allowing your body to perform in congruence with your beliefs. 

Imagining clearly the outcome, committing in writing, and affirming your ability leads to goals that better motivate your actions. To reach your goals, you need to show up to practice with a clear idea of what you will work on that day and physically put in the work. 

At the close of the season or whenever a deadline for reaching a goal passes, take some time to evaluate how you did. What did you do well? What can be improved? Make sure you pay attention to the outstanding parts as well as the areas to work on. Try not to singularly focus on the "bad" parts. However it turns out, it is important to feel the emotions first and let them go, and then evaluate your meet and your season. If you did well or you did not, then you need to know the exact reasons why. These reasons help you shape your goals for the next season. If you are not sure what you did well or where you need to improve, talk to your coach. However it turns out, use the outcome to set new goals and re-motivate yourself. Every practice and every meet is one step closer to the next championships! It will be here before you know it. 

FOCUS: BEING IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

BY DR. LENNY WEIRSMA//SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST

One of the greatest mental skills an athlete needs to learn is to focus. The ability to focus—to be in the right place at the right time, mentally—is such a critical aspect of swimming success. Whether it be to focus on your goals, on a specific part of your stroke, on certain parts of your body during warm-up, focusing is a skill that that is probably as important to your success as any other mental skill. To illustrate this, I want you to take a few moments to imagine yourself doing the activities below.

First, imagine that you are standing about 10 feet away from a group of your friends. Each friend is holding a ball of a different size, color or shape. You ask each of your friends to hold up a ball, and you choose which one is your favorite. Choose only one. Now, on the count of 3, all of your friends—at the exact same time—throws his ball in your direction so that you may catch it. To only catch your ball, you have to be in the right place at the right time, mentally. In this case, you need to focus on the one ball that you want to catch, while ignoring all the others. Most of the time, you are able to do so because your focus allowed you to catch the ball as if it was the only one being thrown to you.

Now, imagine if I asked you to identify two balls you wanted to catch, both at the same time. Your friends all throw the balls at the same time, and you attempt to catch two. More often than not, not only would you not catch two, you wouldn’t even catch one. Why? Because trying to focus on more than one thing at the same time limits your ability to focus on anything.

Now, imagine that you are at a swim meet. At the meet are a variety of things that may catch your attention, some of which would be helpful for a proper mindset and some of which would not help your performance. Teammates. Competitors. Parents. The weather. The pool. The crowd. Your sore arm. The song that is going through your head. Your doubts. Your goals. Your swim bag. The snack bar. Qualifying times. Your coaches. Your race plan. Expectations. The amount of information – and potential distractions – at swim meets can be overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be if you have a plan.

Now, imagine that each of those things mentioned above – expectations, goal times, your parents, etc. – are represented as a different color ball that was held by your friends. Imagine, as you did in the first exercise, that you were to choose something very specific to focus on at a meet – during warm-up, behind the blocks, or during a race. It would be as easy to direct your mental energy at that as it would be to catch just one ball out of many coming at you. It would be easy because you have chosen very carefully ahead of time what you wanted to focus on, and in the process that would allow you to ignore, or block out, all of the other potential sources of stress or distractions around you.

The key here is that you want to create a mindset so that YOU are in control of your focus, no matter what is going on around you. You certainly don’t want your environment, or what happens in it, to control your mindset.

Before your next meet, write out one very specific thing you want to focus on in the car on the way to the meet, during warm-up, when you are standing behind the blocks and during your race. Just one specific thing for each of those four settings. Talk to your coach if you need help with this. Then, practice this most important mental skill – being in the right place, at the right time.

USA Swimming – Speedo Tip of the Week

Goal Setting at the Beginning of a New Season

Goal Setting Process

This is not the only way to work when setting your goals. It is, however, a proved process and we suggest you consider the steps before moving forward. You will need a paper and pencil and a little time. You can begin whenever you want, take a pause in the steps, and then return as time allows. We do know this for certain, no one in history has ever made a significant improvement – and retained it – without writing a goal down. Please, at the very least do that much.

Step One: Take Responsibility.

If you are not responsible for something you cannot change it so this is the first and most important step. For instance, if you want to break 2:00 in the 200 and to do so you will need to get into really good shape and have excellent technique, then you need to be responsible for that part of the process. No one is keeping you from doing that.

Step Two: Investigate and Eliminate.

You are going to ask yourself a few questions so here is where the paper and pencil come in handy.

1. Ask yourself what it is you want. Write it down…sub 2 minutes for the 200.
2. Ask, why I want this. Write it down…I want this because it will qualify me for the next big meet; it will improve my chances for being on the A relay; it will help my college prospects.
3. This one may seem counterintuitive but it is very important. Ask yourself why you do NOT want this to happen. Now you may wonder about this one…but of course I want this, why wouldn’t I? Well, let’s consider this for a minute…Now the coaches will expect more from me; to really get this I will have to miss some social functions and those may actually be more fun; I’m not sure I want the pressure of competing at this faster level…

The point here is that there are going to be ramifications in your current life if you actually dig in and make a change – said another way, if you set a goal, work toward it and then achieve it your life will be different and you need to be ready for that difference.

The main purpose of this second step is to find what you want and to eliminate those things that will stand in your way.

Keep in mind that the number one thing people resist is change; even if it is for the better! This is not rocket science.The way to change anything in your life: 1 – eliminate what isn’t working for you and 2 – replace it with what you want.

If you know your stroke needs tuning up then simply do it…that is, work on the things you know need fixing. Ask one of us to help you. And then do it. Stop “trying” and start “doing”. Even if you are only able to do it correctly for a lap or two before you get tired. Start now and work forward from this point. Think about this sentence: It takes preparation and work to make a change, large or small, but it does not take time. It may take time for anyone to notice the change but it doesn’t take time to make the change.

So, get your pencil and paper out and start the process. Think about what you would like to have happen – short, mid and long term, as we.

Sooner than later we need you to turn in your goal sheets so we can look them over and share our feedback with you. This doesn’t need to happen today but it does need to happen. Spend some time thinking about why you want what you want and then some time why you may not want it. In the end, we need you to come up with a few goals that you are willing to work toward.

This season is going to be a very special one for our team, and that means for you. To capture the full opportunity we all need focus. Goals give us that focus; goals give each day meaning and purpose. Very few things match the satisfaction of a person who knows what she/he wants and is “willing and able” to execute the plan. We will help provide the “able”; you let us know about the “willing”.

ABCs OF MENTAL TRAINING: U IS FOR UNDERPERFORMING

BY DR. AIMEE KIMBALL//SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST

I had a coach one time who told me, “Potential means you haven’t done it yet.” I’m not sure if he stole the line from someone else, but for whatever reason this always stuck in my head. I never wanted to be someone who had a lot of potential. I wanted to be a person who consistently performed at her peak.

However, it’s hard to be that type of athlete all the time and there are going to be days when you underperform. This article focuses on why athletes underperform and how to get out of a performance slump.

It’s not always mental
First, recognize that underperforming isn’t always a mental thing. Especially with a sport like swimming, you have to take into consideration nutrition, tapering, conditioning, as well as physical development. The key to performing to your potential is to make sure you are committed to total training in all areas, including having positive habits in and out of the pool. You also have to be realistic about your talent level. Some swimmers think they are better than they actually are, and others might be better than they give themselves credit for. To find out where you stand, ask coaches to be brutally honest with you as to what times they think you should swim and at what point in the season you should be swimming those times. You don’t need to panic if it’s several weeks before a big race and you aren’t dropping time. It might just be a function of your training schedule. If you were a standout earlier in your teen years and it seems that others are catching up, don’t panic. That’s likely more due to them than you, especially if you were an early bloomer.

Thus, it’s important to pinpoint WHY you’re underperforming. If you swim certain times in practice but it’s not translating to meets, then there is likely a psychological component, which is what I’ll be assuming for the rest of the article.

Pride vs. Ego
I have worked with a lot of talented athletes who underperform because they get in their own way. For many, it’s an unconscious process where they “self-handicap” before the race even begins. In essence, they try to protect their ego rather than summon their pride. An athlete who protects his/her ego often finishes a race thinking, “I’m not that tired. I could have gone faster.” Within a race they often, a) think they are going as fast as they can, b) overfocus on what their competitors are doing and worry about losing, or c) don’t feel like they are going fast at all and write off the race before it’s even finished. While during a race they tend to have different thoughts, the “ego protectors” often focus on the same thing before a race—the fear of underperforming (either in the time or place they may finish).

To help them perform to their potential, they need to swim for pride instead of protecting their egos. Essentially, before a race they should focus on putting it all out there so when they touch the wall they can say, “I couldn’t have given anything more.” The problem for ego protectors is that they fear their best won’t be good enough, and it’s easier/less psychologically stressful to say, “I could’ve done better if I tried” than “I did everything I could, and I still lost.” Remember, competition isn’t about winning so you don’t feel bad (ego) it’s about swimming your hardest so you will feel satisfied (pride). The negative emotions resulting from “I coulda, shoulda, woulda” last a lot longer than the disappointment of “I did, I just fell short.”

Stress Less, Enjoy More
Most of the underperformers I see have found a way to stop enjoying something they once loved. Often, the better they were the more stress they have to get back to that level. More stress equals less fun. Less fun equals worse performance. In other sports it’s called a slump. As any slumping athlete knows, it’s a lot easier to get into a slump than out of a slump. As the wise Dr. Seuss wrote, “When you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.” My advice for “un-slumping” is focus less on what you’re not doing and more on what you are. If you swim four events and three of them are fine, stop putting so much emphasis on the one in which you’re underperforming. Even if it’s every race you don’t reach your potential but in practice you are excellent, focus on your practices more than your races. By focusing on the good, the bad doesn’t seem so awful. Essentially, you need to recognize your talent, regardless of when it decides to show up. Remind yourself, “I am a good swimmer,” and physically keep track of the good swims (you swim a lot more in practice than you do in meets). You’ll quickly see the good swims outweigh the bad.

Let Go
I once took a windsurfing lesson and the only thing I remember is asking the instructor what to do if the wind picked up and I couldn’t control the sail. His response? “Let go with your back hand.” My advice to you if the stress, the anxiety, and the negative thoughts related to underperforming get to be too much for you to handle is, “Let go.” Just because you haven’t succeeded recently doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Starting today, just tell yourself, “I’m letting go of what has happened. It’s a new day and it’s going to be a good one.” No one says you have to hang on to the past, sometimes it’s just as easy to let go, mentally drop what’s uncontrollable, and start over.

Make it great!
Dr. Aimee

ABCs OF MENTAL TRAINING: T IS FOR TEAM BUILDING

BY AIMEE KIMBALL, PHD//MENTAL TRAINING CONSULTANT

You may think it’s odd to find an article about team building for swimming, a supposedly "individual" sport. However, many swimmers perform better when they feel a sense of team and believe that the individuals with whom they train are there to support them and wish them well. As such, team building is a very important topic for swimmers and their coaches to understand.

What’s a team?
At its core, a team is a group of individuals who work together to accomplish a shared goal. Sharing a goal creates a sense of mutual respect since teammates know everyone in the pool is working their hardest to do exactly the same thing. For some teams, the goal might be to win a national or state title, for others it may be to have everyone drop their time by 5% from the year before. As long as they work with each other and assist each other in accomplishing this goal, then they are a team.

Why a swim "team"?
Because the result of a team swimming competition is really determined by individual performances rather than an interaction between team members, many people overlook the importance the concept of “team” has in this setting. What also complicates matters is the idea that you are often competing against rather than with team members, as is customary in many other sports. So, other than needing a team winner in meets, what is the purpose of a sense of team in swimming?

First, teams are important because athletes do their best when they are comfortable, when they feel supported, and when they are confident. Having teammates who will continue to like you as a person regardless of your performance and who you know are rooting for you can help you to have this sense of comfort and confidence. Members of a "team" should cultivate these feelings in their teammates and feel this security in return.

Second, a team is important because it creates a culture when athletes both learn how to excel and are pushed by others to do their best every day. When team members have a shared identity (this is who we are, how we train, and what we are known for) swimmers buy into this culture, embrace it, and become it. Thus, the culture of team (assuming it's a good one) can help athletes to excel.

There are many other reasons why teams are important, but when the culture of the group fosters encouragement, a desire for teammates to succeed, and everyone feels responsible for and accountable to others, then a “team” truly exists.

How to create a positive team culture
There are many ways to foster a positive team culture. First, team building activities should be done regularly and can include pasta dinners, laser tag, or games at the end of practice.

Other than “fun” activities, the following suggestions can help to develop a foundation where a supportive and encouraging team atmosphere can thrive:

1) Captains/team leaders can have an open team discussion without coaches present about the goals for the team and expectations of team members.
    a) What are 3 characteristics every member of this team will have?
    b) How do we define success?
    c) How do we encourage each other?

2) Have a “compete but cooperate” motto. A good team member wants others to do their best, they just want to be better.
    a) A true team member pushes you and competes with you to see who can swim their best time. It's not about beating a specific individual, it's about every member of the team swimming their best.
    b) It can backfire when coaches constantly pit team members against each other in a negative way. Teammates can (and should) race, but constant comparisons and punishing the "loser" can have negative side effects:

• creates anxiety
• friends become enemies
• swimmers may hold back because they don't want to hurt their teammates' feelings

3) Remove classifications based on ability, age, year in school, etc. Often the "good" swimmers stick together and the rest become outsiders.
    a) Do what you can to make sure all team members interact regardless of their demographics

• Create families (group of about 4 swimmers from different grades/events/ability levels)
• Secret supports
• Goal buddies/big brother-big sister

There's an M and an E
You’ve all heard the saying, “There is no ‘I’ in team”, but there is an M and an E (me!). To be a team, every team member needs to look at themselves and ask what they contribute to the team and what they can do to make their teammates better. A team is created when individuals who train together know they are accountable to others and work to be a positive influence on those around them.

Make it great!

Athletes "Do you have Winning Parents?"

Reprinted from Competitive Advantage – Sports Psychology Services and Resources http://www.competitivedge.com/questionnaire_athletes2.htm

If your parents are too involved in your sport, they can make your life miserable, kill your enjoyment and absolutely ruin your athletic performance. Pushy parents can cause choking and other performance problems, and turn you into a sports dropout statistic. While many over-involved parents mean well and may tell you that they are doing all this for you, the fact of the matter is that they have lost perspective on your sport and are responding to their own needs and feelings. While you need your parents’ love and support to become successful, it will be almost impossible for you to reach your athletic dreams with parents who are over-involved. A parent’s major role on your “team”, (parent, athlete, coach) is to be unconditionally supportive. That is, to love and support you regardless of how you perform. Winning parents are their kids “best fans.” They are there for you no matter what the outcome. Take the following questionnaire to find out whether you have winning parents:

Answer each question with a 1, 2, 3, or 4: 1 = never true; 2 = occasionally true; 3 = mostly true; 4 = always true.

1. My parents make it easy for me to really enjoy my sport.

2. I love having my parents come to my competitions.

3. I don’t feel any pressure from my parents when I compete.

4. My parent(s) doesn’t tell me what I did wrong after I perform.

5. I never worry about disappointing my mom/dad.

6. My parent(s) spends time with me before I compete getting me ready.

7. My parent(s) pushes me to practice and train.

8. I fight with my parent(s) about my sport.

9. My parent(s) comes to all my practices.

10. When I work with my coach my parents make sure to tell me what I’m doing wrong.

11. My parents get upset with me when I lose or play badly.

12. When it comes to my sport, my parents just want me to be happy.

13. After my games my parents won’t leave me alone and insist on going over and over what happened.

14. I think about quitting my sport.

15. My parents criticize the coach and his/her decisions.

16. After I mess up I worry about what my parents are thinking.

17. My parents are my very best fans.

18. My parents let me take full responsibility for my sport.

19. My parent(s) compares me to my teammates and opponents.

20. I am embarrassed by what my parents say to me, the coaches and/or refs.

21. My parents think it’s their job to motivate me.

22. When I fail my parents are supportive and don’t criticize me.

23. As far as my sport goes, my parents need to get their own life.

24. Even though I don’t ask them to, my parent(s) keeps statistics/log book of my performances and outcomes.

25. I feel nervous when my parents watch me.

SCORING

Subtract the scores for questions 1 - 5, 12, 17, 18 & 22: (if you answered question #1 with an “always true”, the point total you’d subtract would be a 4.) Add the scores for the remaining questions: (If you answered mostly true for question #14, the point total you’d add would be a 3.)

INTERPRETATION

The lower the score, the more supportive are your parents. If you scored your parents between a:

55 - 46 = VERY non-supportive, destructive-to-your-sport (Parents who have a significant problem and are totally living out their own life through your sports.)

45 - 30 = Generally Non-supportive and pushy parents. Will not help you reach your athletic dreams because of their misguided efforts to “help.”

29 - 14 = Educable, well meaning, although somewhat inconsistent in their support. Sometimes can be helpful, but more often aren’t.

13 - 0 = VERY supportive, positive parents. Doing almost everything right for you. Have your sport in perspective. Be grateful to them!

1 - 20 = WINNING PARENTS, Clone them! The best. Olympic caliber parents!

Training With Imagination

Coach Paul Yetter of T2 Aquatics and former coach of swimming great Katie Hoff wrote this and I wanted to share this with all of you. He has a very active blog called “Developing the Champion Within”, check it out!

To train well takes imagination. Simply showing up to practice and “working hard” does not accomplish preparation for high level performances in meets. Why? The answer is simple: there are MANY people in the world of athletics who show up to practice and “work hard”; most of them feel as if they ‘deserve’ to go fast in meets or athletic competitions of any sort. This type of thinking will get you fast at first (as an age grouper or young athlete)….but there comes a point in time where the hard work you put in is just the same old hard work you’ve BEEN putting in for years. The body and mind adapt to this work. You get into a rhythm. You perform about the same, maybe a second or so slower or faster per 100 meters…but more or less the same performances happen because the same work happens.

Yet, in today’s world, for a myriad of reasons that all have to do with easy answers and instant gratification – we feel like we should access some superior results just because we’ve “sacrificed” and gone to practice….or “sacrificed” to wake up early before school….or “sacrificed” by getting our heart rate up during some repeat 100s in practice. This attitude is a disease that will attack us our entire lives, unless we stop it.

What is sacrifice? Is sacrifice REALLY giving up some sleep? Are we sacrificing when we choose to come home at 11pm instead of staying out until 2? Are we sacrificing when we expand our practice schedule from one season to another? Are we sacrificing when we sweat more at practice, and go faster than our best times in practice? These things are not what I consider sacrifice. These things are called TRAINING.

I believe 90% of teams out there have trouble with the concept of “How to Train”. I believe this because my standards are high, and I don’t feel like it’s a tremendous accomplishment to go to Nationals with three people just like I don’t feel like it’s a tremendous accomplishment to stay in the same job, without promotion, your entire life.

I was extremely lucky to have the opportunity to apprentice with Coach Bob Bowman in 2001-2002, during the time Michael Phelps was developing into the most accomplished swimmer the world has ever seen. Routinely during that season I would watch Michael swim under National Time Standards (cuts for Nationals) in practice. Once Michael started doing these things, others followed. During that year I watched no less than a half dozen OTHER SWIMMERS (not Michael) swim under the National Cuts in practice. Would those other swimmers have accomplished those practice swims without Michael having done it first? Probably, but not in WAVES like it happened that year. Soon, there were 10+ Olympic Trials qualifiers in the group, up from 1 two years prior to that time.

Since that time, I have been fortunate to coach athletes who have thought big enough to shoot for huge goals in practice. Some of these thoughts were implanted by me as the coach, and some of those thoughts came directly from the athletes each day in practice. At T2, we are beginning to think in this way, but we are not there yet. And if we are simply focused on being the best swimmer in the practice group, or the best High School swimmer in the county, then we are stunting our growth in a serious way. If you want to be the athlete who takes our team to the next level – than you have to take our team to the next level in practice. You can’t just swim a little bit ahead of the next guy and pat yourself on the back because of it.

You have to redefine “what is fast” in practice every day. If you go your best times in practice you will go to the meets with the unbelievable confidence that you’ve basically already made it happen, you just have to do what you’ve done before again in a meet. If you want to get a National cut, or a Junior National cut, or a Sectional cut you can either wait for the meets we have once per month to test yourself out, or you can simply go for it every day. Why not? The only reason why we don’t do this type of thing is because we lack the IMAGINATION to make it happen. Not many people consider actually going their cuts in practice. You have to think it’s possible (because it is and it happens ALL THE TIME) – and then you have to intend to make it happen. You are already taking the time to train, you might as well make your training unbelievable – ridiculously good – while you’re at it.

You really only have one choice if you want to be more successful than you currently are. Raising your level of expectation within yourself and for yourself -- and using your imagination for the ENTIRE practice, EVERY practice -- is going to be the key for you to take your swimming to the next level.

You are in charge of this. It won’t be me, your parents, or your teachers at school. It’s all in YOUR MIND and YOUR IMAGINATION.

Winners vs. Losers

Reprinted from poweressence.com.

If you have issues with labels, such as winners and losers, then you probably already believe that you are a loser and you hate it and you hate it even more when others put you into that category. You are responsible for how you see yourself. Learn to take any criticism constructively and to use it to your advantage.

So what if you think you’re a loser? Do you want to change? There may be some things at which you’ll always fail, but hopefully there are areas in your life in which you can win and excel to your full potential. If you’ve tried repeatedly at something and getting no where, then in some cases it is better to drop that goal and use your focus and time to try something else. Only you can determine if you should continue or not, and ending a goal isn’t necessarily being a loser if you’ve tried everything you know of and you still can’t achieve what you want. Giving up too early can be considered a losing strategy, while a winning strategy depends on patience and determination if you are actually making progress toward your goal.

 

Winning vs. Losing

A golfer says, "I sure hope I don't land in the sand trap." A swimmer says, "I hope I don't go out too hard and die," a runner says, "I don't want my legs to cramp up at the end of my race," the list is endless..."I sure hope I don't botch this interview".

Next time you are lining up for your "shot", check your self-talk. Make sure you see what you want rather than what you want to avoid.

Use the following list of comparisons to determine if you are a winner or not. Remember, sometimes it takes losing at things to determine how to achieve successful results. Winners know how to assess current reality relative to their goals, and how to adjust their actions to take winning steps to those goals.  

Winners	Losers
Winners see solutions.	Losers see problems.
Winners take responsibility.	Losers blame others.
Winners find opportunity in crisis.	Losers complain about circumstances.
Winners take action consistently.	Losers avoid taking action and lack consistency.
Winners have dreams.	Losers have schemes.
Winners learn from the past, but live in the present.	Losers live in the past.
Winners make commitment and keep them.	Losers make promises that they always break.
Winners see the gain.	Losers see the pain.
Winners follow the philosophy: “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”	Losers follow the philosophy, “Do it to others before they do it to you.”
Winners think about how they can achieve.	Losers give excuses.
Winners make personal development a priority.	Losers neglect personal development.
Winners face their fear, accept it and take the leap.	Losers dwell in their fear.
Winners constantly expand their comfort zone.	Losers stay in their comfort zone.
The Winner says,” It may be difficult but it is possible.”	The Loser says,” It may be possible but is too difficult.”
Winners see an answer for every problem.	Losers see a problem in every answer.
Winners take failure in their stride and learn from it.	Losers fear failure and avoid it at all cost.
Winners try different strategies when they are not getting the results they want.	Losers do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
Winners set goals.	Losers lack goals.
Winners plan.	Losers fail to plan.
Winners believe there are always things to learn.	Losers believe they know everything they need to know.
Winners are humble.	Losers are egoistic.
Winners continue to hone their skills every day without fail.	Losers make little effort in honing their skill.
Winners work hard.	Losers avoid work.
Winners give their best for the things that they decide to do.	Losers give up when obstacles pop up.
Winners manage their time well.	Losers indulge in time wasting activities.
Winners dream in the day.	Losers dream in bed.
Winners think about possibilities.	Losers focus on obstacles.
Winners are certain.	Losers doubt.
Winners control their own destiny.	Losers leave everything to fate.
Winners give more than they take.	Losers take more than they give.
Winners think whether the crowd is going in the right direction. If not, he will walk the other direction.	Losers follow the crowd.
Winners think and lead.	Losers react and follow.
Winners listen.	Losers fight for every chance to talk.
Winners always find a better way to do things.	Losers stick to one way of doing things.
Winners help others to win.	Losers refuse to help and think only about their own benefit.
Winners find like minded people like themselves that can bring them to greater height.	Losers find like minded people like themselves that will drag them to failure.
Winners make it happen.	Losers let it happen.

You Decide

So which are you? Whatever social status in which you were born, or what you were given by others doesn’t have any relevance to whether you are a winner or loser. How you use what you currently have in current situations determines if you are winning and gaining benefits or losing. If you make the best of your situation, then you are a winner. No matter how bad the situation, you can still feel like a winner if you truly are winning and gaining experience and proverbial ground by taking actions to win. Learn to motivate yourself to take actions toward your goals. Decide to take action NOW!

Sure, that sounds simple to do — just make the most of your life and you will be a winner. But if it were that simple, then why isn’t everyone a winner? Why are so many people unsatisfied with their lives? The answer is that becoming a winner in your life takes energy and action and it usually never happens randomly or by accident. It is something you must do consciously and by choice. Plus, many people don’t have the knowledge and practical skills necessary to develop into winners. They are basically confused or misinformed about how life works. They tend to rely on others to pull them through or provide necessary answers. However, everyone has the potential to be a self-sufficient winner.

 

Take Responsibility

To be a winner, you need to take responsibility for your successes and failures. Many people have decided that success depends on external factors — such as luck, connections, the financial market, fate, other people, God, to name a few. These people do not rely on themselves for success and success rarely manifests for people in this frame of mind. These types of people lack direction and motivation. They believe that they are just along for the ride in life, and they hope for the best, which is usually a handout or better situation provide by other people.

Responsibility and self-direction go hand in hand. You decide where you want to go, and then you take the responsibility for getting yourself there. If required, then educate yourself on how to get where you want to be. Read books and talk to people, but always make up your own mind about it all. Be your own authority and the final decider on what you need to do to be a winner.

Winners usually experience happiness continually. They utilize their available time wisely and can remain in positive mental states while creating values, such as products and services that people want, and thus are rewarded with opportunities, purchases or exchanges of items or services.

Losers are usually trapped in negative-attitude ruts and they use their abilities and efforts in negative and unproductive ways. They spend time trying to find ways to avoid responsibility and avoid taking action toward the things they really want. Most of the time, they end up not getting what they want, and at the same time they have confirmed and reinforced their losing attitude. If you choose to evolve your winning skills, you will start to notice your own thoughts and attitude change for the better. Becoming aware of your attitude is important. If your attitude is negative, then you’re probably not getting what you want or you’re moving in the wrong direction. The path toward winning and success is both an internal and an external one — internally it takes attitude, education, focus, and planning, and externally it takes active steps to achieve your goals, adjusting your steps if necessary, and then taking more steps.

Almost everyone has both some losing and winning qualities to various degrees, so no one is 100% winner or loser. We all have our strong qualities and then there are the areas in which we need to work at it more. Hopefully you now have a better understanding of how to proceed in your personal journey of success and how to live your life like a winner. Find something you’re interested in doing and go for it!

"Winners see what they want; losers see what they want to avoid."

Having a Bad Day? Bummer for you.

Posted by Glenn Mills on May 30, 2011 12:51PM (0 views)

I've written and re-written this a few times.  I'm not really sure the right tack to take to get this point across, so I'll make it short.

There is a harsh reality of athletics: There is a direct relationship between work and reward.  With that said, and don't just read these next words, understand them - your competition and the clock don't care about your excuses.

The next time you sit back and feel sorry for yourself because you have too much work, or you're too tired, or you're sore from practice the day before... thank God that you have such problems and not real ones.

The athletic life is short lived.  Before you know it, you'll have a real job and be wishing your biggest problems were if you were going to get your math homework done.  I've adopted a new motto this year when talking to swimmers:  You have two choices in your career.  You can start working on your excuses, or you can start working on your solutions.

Now, sit back for 10 minutes and watch the following video (if it's not showing up, hit refresh).  The next time you feel sorry for yourself, think about people who would LOVE to be in your shoes, with such simple problems.

Visit Sean's Website and follow him on twitter.  Keep reminding yourself that most of us have choices.  Typically the best ones, are the hardest ones.

Go Swim

SWIMMMING FAST WHEN IT COUNTS: TOP 10 MENTAL TOUGHNESS TIPS

BY DR. ALAN GOLDBERG//SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST

There's no question that success in the pool on race day is 95% mental and 5% physical. By the time that big race rolls around, all the hard work has been done. That lifetime best swim is already inside of you, just waiting for you to release it. Make use of these ten mental toughness tips to help you get that fast swim out when it counts the most:

1.  STAY CALM & LOOSE PRE-RACE – Staying loose and relaxed the hours and minutes before you swim is the secret to going fast under pressure. Tight muscles wreck your stroke mechanics and kill your endurance, making it impossible for you to swim to your potential. Loose muscles allow your body to perform as trained. Listen to relaxing music, talk with friends, keep yourself distracted from thinking about the race, keep your breathing slow and deep and have fun pre-race to help yourself remain calm and loose.

2.  LEAVE YOUR GOALS AT HOME ON RACE DAY – Your goals are a motivational tool that helps drive you to work hard each and every day in practice. They should NEVER be brought on deck with you on race day because they will weigh you down. Swimmers who think about or dwell on their goal times right before and/or during their races, make themselves too nervous and physically tight to swim fast. Remember, you don't have to think about your goal times at meets in order to reach them. 

3.  STAY IN YOUR OWN LANE – Keep your pre and during race focus of concentration in between your two lane lines on what YOU are doing and NOT on the competition. The more you concentrate on what you are doing, the more relaxed you'll stay, the faster you'll go and the better chance you'll have of actually beating the competition. Conversely, the more you think about and focus on what other swimmers are doing, the more nervous you'll get, the slower you'll go and the less likely you'll be to beat them.

4. STAY IN THE “NOW” BEFORE AND DURING YOUR RACES -  One of the more costly mental mistakes swimmers make is to allow their pre- and durin- race focus of concentration to “time travel.” When you mentally leave the now and jump ahead to the future or fall back to the past, you'll make yourself uptight and sabotage all of your hard work. Discipline yourself to keep your focus in the “now,” both before and especially during your races. At the meet, focus on one race at a time and during your races, focus on one stroke or turn at a time.

5. BE AWARE WHENEVER YOUR CONCENTRATION DRIFTS AND IMMEDIATELY BRING IT BACK -  It's perfectly normal for you to lose your focus before and during your races because there are usually tons of things that can distract you. Understand that losing your concentration won't really hurt you. What will cause you to consistently swim slowly is losing your focus and not quickly returning it back to the right focus. Discipline yourself to recognize the instant your concentration leaves what YOU are doing in the NOW and quickly bring yourself back.     

6. KEEP YOUR RACE FOCUS ON FEEL, NOT ON THOUGHTS – Swimming fast happens when you are focusing on the feel of what you are doing without thinking about it. For example, this could be how much water you're pulling, feeling a stretch under your arm each stroke or feeling your body move forward rather than up and down. Thinking thoughts like “I've got to go faster,” “She's pulling ahead of me,” or “My arms and legs feel like lead,” is a major distraction that will always slow you down. Focus on feel when you race and when thoughts intrude, quickly return your concentration back to the feel of what you're doing.

7. HAVE FUN – If you want to have the meet of your life, then you have to understand that this can only happen when you are having fun before and during the meet. Fun = speed. If you make a meet or any race too important, and you're too serious going in, then that will drain all the fun out of you and in its place will be a lot of nervous tension. When you're having fun, you're mentally and physically loose and relaxed, and as we talked about in point No. 1, staying calm and loose is the secret to swimming fast under pressure.      

8. FOCUS ONLY ON THINGS THAT YOU CAN CONTROL – There are a lot of things at meets and in races that are directly out of your control. For example, you have no direct control over how fast your competition swims, what kind of pool you're competing in, who's in your heat or the time you went in your last race or meet. When you focus on these “uncontrollables” either before or during your races, you'll get nervous and physically tight, lose your confidence and swim poorly. Instead, keep your concentration only on those things that you can control. 

9. KNOW THAT LAST MINUTE DOUBTS AND NEGATIVE THOUGHTS ARE NORMAL – It's very common to have last minute doubts and negative thoughts pop into your head right before you race. Know that you can still swim your best with this negative thinking going on just as long as you stay calm, accept the thinking for what it is – simply brainwave activity – and then quickly refocus your concentration on the task at hand. Try not to fight with the negative thoughts, replace them with positive ones, or work to keep them out of your mind. This approach only makes the negative thinking stronger. Instead, notice them, accept them as normal, and then refocus.

10. TRUST AND LET IT HAPPEN – You'll always swim your very best when you relax, trust your training and let the fast swim come out, as opposed to trying too hard and  forcing it out. When you make a race too important, there's a tendency to respond by tightening up and muscling the race. Instead, trust your training and your body, know the fast swim is inside and just let it happen. 

USA Swimming Article – SPEEDO Tip of the Week

SWIM FASTER TODAY

BY CHELSEY WALDEN SCHREINER

For this week's Speedo Tip of the Week, we bring you five little things you can do right now to help yourself swim faster right away.

Streamline. Streamline. Streamline.
Streamlining upon entering the water and off your walls may be obvious, but it is often overlooked or the first thing to go when your arms tire and muscles scream. However, it is one of the most important habits you can practice over 100 times during a workout. Streamlining reduces drag and therefore keeps your body moving faster in the water. Those hundredths of a second can mean the difference between places. Remember, Jason Lezak out-touched Alain Bernard by just eight one-hundredths of a second in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Practice head position
“If you’re head is moving, your body is moving,” says Kate Lundsten, coach of the Minnesota Team Aquajets and internationally-ranked National Teamer Rachel Bootsma. Like streamlining, your head position can affect the amount of drag on your body and the efficiency of your stroke. Strive for a neutral head position throughout your stroke.

No illegal turns
“Swim in practice how you want to swim in meets,” says the Golden Goggles Breakout Swimmer of the Year Missy Franklin. “That way you don’t have to worry about it when you’re racing, and it will just come naturally.” This includes illegal turns in practice. The last thing you want to do in your next 200 IM is miss the two-hand touch because you forgot to practice it in training.

Go into walls fast
Working to swim fast in the middle of the pool is only part of the race. The wall may seem like a good place to rest, if only for a tenth of a second, but your competition may be thinking the same thing. According to T2 Aquatics coach Tom Yetter, who has coached multiple swimmers to top age group rankings, going in to the wall fast with your head down may give you an advantage over your competitors. He encourages his swimmers to practice swimming into the walls with their heads down for at least two strokes in all strokes except breaststroke. It may just give you the edge you need to move past the heat in your next race.

Kick through your break outs
Another spot in which you can pick up speed is your breakouts. Yetter promotes a strong kick off the wall to maintain the speed you just gained from pushing off the wall. Do a full pull-out for breaststroke. Keep in mind, a strong kick and a good breaststroke pull-out also need a tight streamline!

Dolphin kick underwater
If you’re streamlining with a powerful kick already, one way to take it up a notch is to dolphin kick off the wall. Lundsten incorporates dolphin kicking into practice as a drill. Swimmers will dolphin kick underwater to various marks throughout the set, especially working on awareness of the 15-meter-mark. Franklin also integrates underwater kicking in her practice by completing underwater 25s. By practicing a strong underwater kick, you’ll be sure to have the lung capacity and kicking power to leverage this asset in a meet.

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
All of the techniques mentioned above can help you shave time in your races, but just thinking about them at meets isn’t enough. “You have to use it in practice to use it in a meet,” says Lundsten. Practice makes perfect in that your muscle memory will be developed and ready so you can focus on racing.

Goal Setting – What’s the Big Deal?

Well, we are going out on a limb here…all of us already know what the big deal is about goal setting. If you don’t know where you are going two things will happen for certain: 1) you will not get there, 2) you will get lost. As we approach our first LC meet of the season we have stressed the importance of writing goals down. It helps focus. Practices become livelier. Stroke technique is being worked on.  We are always encouraging you to push into unfamiliar territory – to get comfortable with the uncomfortable, in terms of physical discomfort caused by exertion.

USA Swimming puts out a weekly newsletter for all members and the article below was in a recent one. We thought it hit the nail on the head in several ways. We hope you will enjoy it!

SEVEN REASONS PEOPLE DON’T SET GOALS AND HOW TO OVERCOME EACH OF THEM

by Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer, The Kevin Eikenberry Group

Talk to ten people and nine of them will tell you they believe in goal-setting. These nine people will tell you that goals are important, that they can help you be happier and healthier, and that they are the best and fastest way to achieve more in life.

I would agree with those nine people. Unfortunately eight of the nine, when pressed, will tell you they don’t set many (or any) goals; that they really want to, but….Actually, I’m being a bit optimistic here. I’ve read several times (through I can’t corroborate it with specific research right now) that only about 3% of people ever set and write down any goals. If most everyone thinks goals are important, and most everyone would like to be happier, healthier, achieve more, etc., etc., etc., why don’t they set goals?

There are seven reasons that I have observed.

1. People don’t know how to set goals.
2. People are searching for the perfect way to set goals.
3. People are afraid to set goals.
4. People are afraid to succeed.
5. People are afraid they won’t succeed.
6. People don’t want to set the goal too high.
7. People don’t want to set the goal too low.

After looking at and thinking more about this list, I believe they really are excuses for not setting goals, not reasons. Let’s look at each excuse, and then explore how to solve the problem and erase the excuse.

As you read the list this time, read them all with a whine in your voice, and look for which on the list is your personal excuse (there may be none—good for you; there may be more than one—good for you for being honest—now you have the opportunity to change your habit).

EXCUSE #1 “BUT I DON’’T KNOW HOW…..”
This makes sense in a way. How can we do anything if we don’t know how to do it? Maybe you really don’t know how, but to be honest the resources to help you learn are plentiful, and we aren’t talking rocket science here. There are thousands of books about goal-setting and hundreds of free resources on the internet. (Actually an Amazon.com search on goal setting nets more than 30,000 results, and a Google search on the same phrase yields more than 23 million results. Solution #1—Find a resource, read it and get started.

EXCUSE #2 “BUT I WANT TO SET THEM THE RIGHT WAY….”
This excuse is the opposite of Excuse #1. There are some people that collect goal-setting books, tools and techniques like others collect baseball cards. Yes, there are many approaches; and yes, some may be better than others or work better for you. But none of them will work until you do. Solution #2—Enough collecting! Pick an approach and get started.

EXCUSE #3 “BUT I’M AFRAID….”
Afraid of what? The unknown? There is nothing to be afraid of, except the unknown of trying. Recognizing your fear is a great first step, but setting goals isn’t like the unknown climbing Mt. Everest or swimming with sharks. There really is nothing to be afraid of (although there are two more excuses related to fear.) Solution #3—The best way to conquer a fear is to do the thing you fear. Set a goal. Start with a small, short-term one if you must, but just try it!

EXCUSE #4 “BUT I’M AFRAID I’LL SUCCEED….”
Actually, this excuse falls into a special category because people typically won’t really say it and might not even think it. But in reality, it may be the biggest and most powerful excuse of all. If you set a goal, you might achieve it, and in a paradoxical way, some people are afraid of the change that might come with that achievement. Or, in some other cases they don’t feel worthy of achieving it. Solution #4—Start with a small goal, one that will help you build your confidence and show you some success that you can manage. (If you have significant self-esteem issues that are preventing you from feeling worthy, I encourage you to get help.)

EXCUSE #5 “BUT I’M AFRAID I’LL FAIL…”
OK, so you may fail. If you set a goal to lose 20 pounds and you only lose 10 is that so bad? How many pounds would you have lost if you hadn’t set a goal at all? Repeat after me: “There is nothing wrong with failing. Failing is just a chance to make corrections before trying again.” Solution #5—Let go of your fear; just a little bit, just this once. Just set a goal.

EXCUSE #6 “BUT IF I SET THE GOAL TOO HIGH, I MIGHT NOT REACH IT…”
You hopefully can see that this is a combo-pack of Excuses 3 and 5 (and maybe a bit of #2 as well). If the goal is motivating to you, you will make progress. Maybe the goal is massive, and maybe you won’t reach it; but if you set it you will move in the right direction. Plus, imagine the big satisfaction of meeting-or even exceeding-that big goal. Solution #6—Set a big goal, and go for it!

EXCUSE #7 “BUT IF I SET THE GOAL TOO LOW, IT MIGHT NOT BE WORTH THE EFFORT.”
How can this be? If you set a goal and reach it, great! Then you can set another one, big or small. Just like anything else, with practice comes greater skill. Some of your goals may be easy to reach, and that is OK. Over time you will learn to calibrate the goals you set to be just right for you. Solution #7—Set a small goal and get started.

Have you noticed a theme in these solutions? Since you know goals can make your life better, set some. Set one or set fifty, but just get started. The best way to get to where you want to go is to decide what that destination is. The best way to start setting goals is to set one. (Yes, it is just that simple.)

Get started. Set a goal, even if it isn’t perfect. Set a goal, even if it’s too big or too small. Set a goal, and I’m guessing you already will have achieved one of your biggest goals

—”You know, I really ought to set some goals this year….”

ABCs OF MENTAL TRAINING: S IS FOR STRESS MANAGEMENT

BY AIMEE KIMBALL, PHD//MENTAL TRAINING CONSULTANT

Stress is something that everyone will experience at some point in their lives. However, some stress is unavoidable or, at the very least, manageable. What I find is that many athletes have high levels of stress because they have never been taught ways to cope with or manage the events causing stress in their lives. This article will provide some quick tips to alleviating and avoid with stress.

Stress Isn’t Always Bad
It’s true. Stress can be a good thing. Think of a time when you were up all night working on a paper and were totally stressed out about whether you were going to complete it by class the next day. While you may have had the assignment for weeks, you procrastinated until the last minute. Thus, the stress of it being due tomorrow got you moving. Without that stress, you’d have put it off another day. Additionally, stress can help us to focus better. If you have a really important meet or test coming up, in the days preceding it, you probably do everything you can to make sure you are prepared. So while the event might cause some stress, this stress in turn enables you to be fully prepared. Ultimately, stress can be both positive and negative. It all depends on how you view it.

So What Is Stress?
We all can feel when we are stressed, but what causes those feelings is actually a result of our thinking. At its core, stress is basically the result of having a lot demanded of you yet you don’t think you have what it takes to meet those demands. (Demands > Resources = Stress)

For example, if you have an away meet, mid-term exams, and a family function all on the same day, you realize you have a lot of time demands on your shoulders. If you perceive there is no way you can accomplish everything you need to in 24 hours, you will perceive that you don’t have the resources (time) to do all of the things you need to, resulting in you being stressed. However, someone else with the same demands may acknowledge that they have time to study on the bus and that going to dinner with their family will provide a much needed study break. Because the second person believes they have the resources to handle the time demands, they experience less stress over the situation. Therefore, stress is a result of perceived demands and perceived resources.

Preventing and Managing Stress
Because stress is caused from our perception of demands and our perception of available resources, the first step in managing stress is to reexamine your resources (time, money, support, etc.) and the perceived demands. Whenever you perceive a demand as stressful, think about your most relaxed friend and ask yourself, “Would she/he be stressed over this?” If not, ask yourself why. If you still think the “demands” (which can really be anything) are potentially stressful, ask yourself what all you have available to help you cope. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and make sure your give yourself credit for being able to handle more than you think you can.

“To do” lists are also a necessary stress management technique, but there is a bit more to it than just listing everything you have to do. I suggest making note of both the time and energy required to get each of your tasks completed and doing the hardest ones first. Many people put off what they don’t want to do, but then it’s hanging over their head all week and creating stress just thinking about it. If you get the dreaded ones out of the way early, you may actually gain energy in knowing it’s completed. Additionally, some of your tasks may be good “floaters” and can be done at anytime. If you have 10 math problems to do, try to get two done before each class so you will have less homework that night.

One thing that causes people a lot of stress is unrealistic expectations, both of themselves as well as others. For example, if you don’t really get along with your coach and on a personality scale he’s a 3 out of 10 yet you expect him to interact with you like he’s an 8 or 9, you’re going to be stressed because you’ll always be disappointed, angry and frustrated. However, if he’s being hard on you and you realize that’s just who he is, it causes a lot less stress because you know what you’re in for and don’t expect much more from him. Therefore, if you align your expectations with reality you’ll be preventing stress.

Uncontrollable situations are also a major source of stress for many student-athletes. The stress prevention technique I like to help deal with these situations comes from the military. At West Point and other Army bases they teach their soldiers how to quickly assess stressful situations so they can act effectively and efficiently. Basically, they believe that a situation is either important or not and is either in your control or not. If it’s an important situation, you either need to fix it (if it’s in your control) or accept it (uncontrollable). If it’s not important, you either need to get rid of it (controllable) or ignore it (uncontrollable). So take a minute to list your stressors. If you don’t control it or it’s not important, cross it off your list. There’s no sense in worrying if you can’t do anything about it.

Finally, when it comes to preventing and managing your stress, make sure you have balance in your life. Think of all the things you do that drain energy from you on a daily basis. If you never stop to recharge yourself and replenish your energy, you will burnout. So every day make sure you take time to unwind and do something enjoyable to balance out any stressors you may have experienced.

Stress is a State of Mind
While there are things that will undoubtedly cause us stress, we can cope with the emotions by doing things like seeking out social support, keeping a journal, crying, laughing and exercising. However, the best way to manage stress is to prevent it by using some of the techniques mentioned above. Ultimately, we all experience stress in different ways but, one thing that stays constant is that most people are about as happy as they choose to be.

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 for the Advancement 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, and assists the Pittsburgh Steelers in analyzing potential draft picks.

She has been a featured speaker at conferences across the nation and has appeared in Men’s Health Magazine, Runner’s World, Athletic Management Magazine, various local and national newspapers, and has appeared on ESPN, NPR, and news broadcasts across the country.

She is a Clinical Faculty member in the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Orthopaedics and an adjunct faulty member in the Sports Marketing Department at Duquesne University. Currently, Dr. Kimball works with athletes and other performers to assist them in achieving success in sport and life. For more information contact: 412-432-3777; kimballac@upmc.edu

Are You the One?

Posted by Glenn Mills on Mar 25, 2011 07:22AM (0 views)

Obviously, this article isn't for everyone, but the ideals can be applied BY anyone.  I'm writing this to remind those individuals who talk about being the best, or reaching their potential, but who don't really get it.

In each heading listed below, there is someone who IS... and the rest who AREN'T.  Can you be the ONE?  Chances are slim, and that's understandable, but the question is... how close are you to being the one?

Hard Worker

Somewhere in your city, your state, country, or planet, is there someone working harder than you?  Think about it... If you're goal is to be the best at anything, then you better start realizing that there is a very real relationship between work and reward and there is probably somebody out there working harder.  Do you do dry land training, and if so, do you use that as an opportunity to joke around with your friends or do you try to figure out how THAT particular exercise is going to make you a better swimmer?  The next time you watch Ryan Lochte win a race, and you wish... boy, I wish I was that good... remember the video posted below.

Desire

Do you have more desire to win than anyone?  Are you willing to set your alarm 10 minutes earlier so you can get to practice on time because you're nervous about missing a chance to do as much as possible?  The way you train should be the way you want to perform.  Be honest with yourself about this one, if you don't have the desire to train, then you really don't have the desire to be the best.  You can NOT have one without the other.  You may day dream about being the best, but without the effort that matches the dream... then it is what it is... fantasy.

Talent

Are you the most talented swimmer in the water?  In your event, are there people, or a person that you'll eventually have to race who simply has more talent than you?  If you're the one, and you don't apply the first two aspects of this article, it won't matter if you ARE the most talented.  While talent is important, talent in itself is worthless without polish.  Is Michael Phelps talented?  I know, stupid question,  he would be a good swimmer without doing anything at all, he was one of the lucky ones to be born with the feeling, but without years of what you see in the following video, he would have never rewritten the history of the sport.

Attitude

No matter how nice someone appears, the ONE has a killer attitude inside, and won't give up when things don't go their way, or when the road gets tough.  You don't have to be a jerk outwardly to maintain the attitude that creates greatness, and the question is, do you have the attitude geared to greatness.  Attitude is more than about smiles, thinking positively, and trying hard.  Attitude is about talking yourself into doing what you need to do when you don't feel like doing it.  When it would be far easier to stop, skip, take a few strokes with your arms during a kick set when your legs hurt a bit.  Attitude is about doing just a little bit more than you wanted to.  Want to know why Amanda Beard keeps making Olympic and World Championships teams when after getting married, having a beautiful son that she wants to spend time with... It's because when she gets the opportunity to train, she trains like the video below.  Can you beat that attitude of not giving up?

Honesty

Are you the ONE that's the most honest about all of the above, about how much you really commit to your sport?  While you may not want to be the best, or may not believe you have the ability to be the best, since there can be only ONE, are you honest about being your own ONE?  Are you honestly doing all you can to maximize your performance?  Are the choices you make about how you spend your time productive ones, or are you failing in your time management?  Reaching your potential means keeping up with your studies so you don't have to cram for your exams.  It means deciding to not go to parties when you know you have a competition approaching, or morning practice that you know you shouldn't miss.  Honesty is about not making up excuses that you think your coach will "buy", but rather, about making sure you put in as much effort to be at practice on time as your coach does.

This last video is obviously very special to me, as it served as much motivation when it happened.  It's both hard to watch, and completely exciting to watch.  This 2 minute video doesn't show the complete dedication and effort that went into this team becoming the ONE.  It was ultimately a spec in time in these athlete's lives now that they're older... but that moment will last forever.  

The last question for this is... can you become you own ONE, or are you simply day dreaming?

Are You the One? - GoSwim!

KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH CHLOE SUTTON

Speedo Tip of the Week

Olympian and 2010 Pan Pac gold medalist Chloe Sutton’s Keys to Success:

Be there! Don’t miss practice. You have to make it a priority. We all have lots of things going on in our lives. We have school, friends, family and hobbies, on top of trying to become a champion swimmer. Juggling it all can be hard at times, but if you make swimming a top priority, then getting there should never be a problem. For me, going to practice is automatically a set-in-stone appointment in my agenda and everything else works around swimming. There have been a few times where I have been sick or unable to get to practice and I have had to miss. In my mind, on that rare occasion that I cannot make it to workout, all I can think about is how every yard that I am missing my competitor is in the pool making progress and getting faster, while I am doing nothing.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. This is another way of saying that you need to work hard. If you want to reach your goals, you’re going to be uncomfortable at times, and you have to be comfortable with that. You have to be willing to pay the price if you want to receive results in return. You can’t just float through each practice and expect to break any records at the end of the season. Becoming a champion isn’t going to be easy, but that’s what makes the rewards so satisfying. No pain, no gain.

Be good to your body. Listen to it. When you’re eating, sleeping and swimming are the times when you should be listening the most. You need to put the right fuel in your body so that it functions properly. You need to get enough rest so that your body can recover from your challenging workouts, and you need to communicate how you’re feeling with your coach so that you push yourself, but not so hard that you get injured.

Have short term goals as well as long term goals. Have things that you can accomplish each day in practice and throughout the season so that you always have something to lock your eyes onto. Staying motivated can be hard if you only have one end goal in mind, especially mid-season when your big meet seems so far away. Having a few small goals at each practice can help bridge the gap and make getting to your end-of-season goal a lot easier.

Keep it positive. Stay away from negativity. I am a big believer in positive thinking. If your mind is in the right place then your body will follow. If you’re thinking about how hard a set is or how much you dislike what you’re doing, chances are it is going to get even harder and less fun because that’s what you’re dwelling on. Directing your thoughts so that you are thinking about the benefits that you are getting out of a particular practice or set can help make everything so much easier. At competitions, sometimes people can talk themselves out of swimming fast by making excuses for themselves. When you do this, you are simply setting yourself up for disaster. Prepare for races and step on the blocks knowing for a fact that you are going to swim your very best. Put your heart into each race and go for it.

THE MAGIC OF AN OPPORTUNITY

3/14/2011

 

BY MIKE GUSTAFSON//CORRESPONDENT

Imagine Doc Brown from Back to the Future came up to you and said, "Today you're going to set a world record. The only thing you have to do is race."

You'd swim that day, right? You'd be the first person in the pool, warming-up, excited and ready to swim?
World records aren't broken every day. The opportunity is rare. You'd take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, time travel and Doc Brown do not (yet) exist. Swimmers don't know what the future holds. Sometimes, we don't feel like swimming.

Instead of swimming that looming, ominous 1500m this afternoon, we'd rather go to the beach. Or go shopping. Or take a nap. There will be another day, another race, right?

But you never know. Sometimes the difference between breaking a world record or not is simply showing up to swim.

Take Kate Ziegler.  At the Indianapolis Grand Prix, Ziegler told me that on the day she broke Janet Evans' hallowed 1500m world record, she didn't want to swim that evening. She wanted to go to the beach. She wasn’t really feeling it. Fortunately, her coach convinced her to swim that afternoon. The rest, as they say, is history.

But what if she had gone to the beach? What if she never swam that day? For whatever reason, the nuts and bolts were zooming in perfect harmony that day. Would they realign? Could she repeat that same performance the next day? Next week?

What if she didn't swim that day?

I was once told from the creator of "Friends" that the hardest thing to do in the entertainment industry isn't getting your foot in the door; it's being prepared when you're already in.

People always get their foot in the door, but they rarely take advantage of it.

It’s that old “elevator pitch” theory. You should always be prepared when you live in Hollywood, because you never know who could be stuck in an elevator with. Some of my friends went from assistants to executive producers in 24 hours because they were stuck in an elevator with someone like Rosie O’Donnell, pitched her an idea they had rehearsed, and made the most of their opportunity. No joke.

Swimming is similar. Any given lane at any given time is an opportunity. "Give me a lane, anywhere, anytime," one famous swimmer used to say, "and I'll aim for perfection."

Sometimes, swimming is viewed in a linear path. You’d think, “Times will get faster. Races will get easier. I’ll eventually get here, do this, swim that, and by this year I’ll be where I want to be.” Swimmers sometimes circle on the calendar, "This is when I'll swim my fastest. This is the plan."

But swimming is rarely predictable. It’s not this linear, easily-planned calendar of time progression. It's more a chaotic fun house. It’s opposite than what you’d expect. You swim fast when you expect to swim slow. You swim slow when you expect to swim fast. One day, you could be planning a trip to the beach, while your body secretly knows, “I could be breaking a world record right now, this very second.”

You never know when the swim of your life will happen.

You can’t plot out the future. And unless Doc Brown swings by your house and points out the highs and lows of your future swimming career, it’s best to say to yourself, “Give me a lane, anywhere, anytime – and it could be magic.” 

Punctuality

Posted by Glenn Mills on Mar 07, 2011 08:36AM (0 views)

I have to imagine it's going to be tough to put down my thoughts on this subject without sounding like an angry old man who talks about how it used to be.

With that said... what's the deal these days with swimmers, people, not showing up to practice on time?  Have we got to a point in society in which we're so important, so egocentric, that those we work with are only there to serve us?  I'm sure people have a word for people like me, who is habitually early or on time.  I panic if I think I'm going to be late for a train, plane, meeting, lesson, or practice.  I'm not really sure where that all started, but I can certainly pinpoint exactly where it was reinforced.

My Dad was a business professional with the same trait that I have... so I'm thinking he was the initiator of the habit.  He always spoke of respecting other people's time, and if you had a time set up to meet, to be on time for that... no matter what.  He was a usually over prepared for things, and promptness was one of those things.  My Mother certainly added to this being a music teacher, her entire passion involved time.  She sang in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for 25+ years and was forced to respect time, sure in a bit different way than I'm trying to point out here, but imagine the exactness of time she had to respect.  Come into a phrase too early.... STOP the conductor would yell.  Come into a phrase too late... STOP he'd yell again.  She had to be precise with her time, and we, as children were also taught that in all that we did.

Pinpointing the reinforcing of this is also very easy.  I can remember moving to Cincinnati to train under then coach, Skip Kenny (Stanford legend).  I lived with a family (eventual Olympic Silver Medalist, Dave Wilson) and he drove to practice.  We had to drive nearly 45 minutes one way to practice and we were never late.  It simply wasn't allowed.  We had people who drove nearly 90 minutes TO practice, and no matter what time practice was, they were never late.  If practice started at 3:00 pm, the deck was filling for stretching and pre-practice ab work at 2:40.  When the clock hit the 60 at 3:00... we were either IN the water, or had to complete the entire practice butterfly.  We didn't get kicked out, we were tortured more.  The coaches didn't see much use in kicking out someone who obviously didn't want to be there... so they would just make them work harder.

My next coach was Denny Pursley (former US National Team Coach and now UK National Team Director), and I remember morning practice starting at 5:15.  We were required to be on deck and stretching at 5:00.  My Mom and I lived about 3 miles from the pool, but it still took about 8 minutes with the lights (yes, I had it timed down to the minute).  Every night before I went to bed, I'd have all my gear put together in my bag.  I'd set the alarm for 4:45 and there was never a SNOOZE tap.  On rough nights, I'd go to bed fully dressed just to make sure I didn't have to waste time dressing... who was going to see me anyway.  While I had the time as close as possible, there would always be that 1-2 minutes of leeway just in case, but I can't remember anyone who was ever late for practice, and certainly no one was habitually late.

It basically got to the point where there was simply NO ACCEPTABLE excuse for showing up late to practice.  Now, I'm sure there were a few, I could just never think any up.

OK, I have to admit, I remember one day when my training partner, Glynde Mangum and I were stuck in traffic heading to afternoon practice with then coach Jay Fitzgerald (now of Pine Crest).  We knew were going to be in HUGE trouble, so to diffuse the reaction in any way we could... when we got to the pool, we proceeded to walk in and dive directly into the pool with our clothes on to show our remorse.  We spoke just last week about it, and seemed to remember a chuckle coming from Jay, just before he gave us a set of 20 x 400 breaststroke long course.  We paid the price.

What is the point of all this ancient reminders of "how it used to be"?  It's to again, put the ownness of performance on the athletes.  If you're a coach and you're habitually late, then you get what you deserve.  If you're a swimmer and you're habitually late, and you miss stretching, shaking out your arms, getting your gear together, or the proper warm-up for your practice, then... well... you get what you deserve too.

Practices are generally designed, by competent coaches, for you to perform at specific times.  Those practices can also teach you so much about when you're body is actually ready to swim fast.  I know this sounds crazy, but that can play a big role at swim meets.  Missing part of the warm-up, really means that you, and your coach really doesn't know exactly when, how much, how much stress, where the heart rate should be... when you're ready to swim FAST!  You're setting up a guessing game for performance.  If you're that talented, then good for you, but I can count people that are THAT talented on one hand... and I still have a couple fingers left over.

Even if I ONLY speak of your ability to perform, you should show up on time.  When you consider your working relationship with your coach, and your teammates.  When I speak of the respect for their time, for the fact that the coach has spent time prior to practice designing specifically something that will make you faster, or a better swimmer... and you show up when you feel like it, it simply shows very little respect for their time and preparation.

What I can tell you from age and experience, coaches are generally SO forgiving, and care about you as an athlete so much, that they tend to overlook your taking advantage of them.  They want you to perform for many reasons, and see you smile at the end of the season so that you're happy.  When you swim fast at the end of the season, you'll also be much happier.

Summary:
Punctuality = Respect
Punctuality = The Coaches Ability to create effective training
Punctuality = Forming good habits that you can carry forward into your professional life

Of course, there will be times when things come up, and when you're habitually on time, it's not an issue.  That's when communication becomes important... but that's a topic for another article. :)  

Now, set your clocks 10 minutes ahead, and see you at the pool (on time).

Punctuality – GoSwim!