That's One

by Glenn Mills

Always at the end of a season, you'll have athletes who are completely satisfied with what they've done, and others who wish things had gone a little differently.

That's the great thing about this sport. There's not as much to it as you'd think.  After 10 years of posting drills, and doing our part to create material that can be used to help swimmers visualize what they can, and sometimes should, be doing, the sport itself remains pretty easy.  I had a great opportunity to hang out with Gregg Troy last week while at the Indy Grand Prix swim meet.  As we talked about philosophy of training, technique, and communications with athletes, we both agreed... sometimes it's an over-thought process.

Work, and you win.  Don't work, don't worry... you won't win.  Work, and you'll succeed.  Don't work, don't worry... you won't succeed.  While coaches can make changes to technique, it's much more difficult to make changes to cultures.  If people are used to, and allowed to, show up late or pull on lane lines or do one-handed turns... then it's never a surprise when little things go wrong during competition.

There's one athlete in particular that I'm thinking about right now.  The swimmer is talented, hard working, and wants to be faster... but there are chinks in the armor.  There is a habit of being late, not doing the entire warm-up, slacking off a bit in kick sets, and focusing only on sets that excite the swimmer... but not enough on the things that don't.

While this particular swimmer had a few life-time best times at the meet, the swimmer left the meet fully unsatisfied with the experience.  Coaches and mentors can use these situations as either a time to yell... or an opportunity to teach.  If the swimmer really wants to be better, then it's a great time to teach.  I was fortunate that while at the meet, I saw the swimmer's unhappiness, and happened to have a good friend walking by.  I asked this friend if he'd take a minute to talk to the swimmer.  Through the course of the conversation, the question was asked... what would you change?  The first response was, "I'd show up on time."  My friend was amazed.  "You don't show up on time?"  I won't go into detail about the talk, it's between these two, but my friend was Nelson Diebel... Olympic Champion in the 100 Breaststroke.

Whatever the course of the conversation, when I went to the pool this morning (typically, my wife and I walk in alone and wait for the swimmers), this particular swimmer was on deck, stretching, getting ready.  Neither of us said anything.

The swimmer did a great job during practice and, I felt, continued to seek approval... looking to see if we noticed. 

After practice we were talking, and I was asked... "did I do good?"  I said that it was all I could do to stop myself from coming over and high-fiving this swimmer when I got there... but that I had to maintain composure.  You see, it's not a question of whether the swimmer can be reformed on a single day.  The ultimate question is whether the swimmer can do this for the next 100 practices.  My response was, "That's one." 

There's an old story about John Naber's preparation/quest to set a world record in the 100 Backstroke. To fuel his training, John gave himself credit for 1/100th of a second toward that WR time every time he did something great at practice.    Over the course of the final year leading up to the Olympics, John had accumulated just enough 100ths of a second to break the World Record... which he did in Montreal.

Greatness, or reaching your goal, never comes from one practice.  It comes from the result of hundreds of practices.  Sometimes thousands.

With that said, every journey starts with one small step, and you have to take it to get there.  So even though it was "just one"... it was the most important one.  Don't be afraid to take it... just take it.

I encouraged the swimmer to start a visual calendar, or journal, where they could mark each day that they did something great... in which NOTHING is allowed be great unless the first step is taken... showing up on time.

I'll end this with my standard saying, "You know how to eat an elephant don't you?  One bite at a time."

Taken from GoSwim

HANDLING LAST-MINUTE NEGATIVE THINKING AND SELF-DOUBTS

7/9/2013

BY ALAN GOLDBERG, PHD//COMPETITIVEDGE.COM

The problem...
You're behind the blocks feeling pretty good about your BIG meet. Your best race starts in just a few minutes and everything has gone OK for you leading up to this meet. Your practices have been good and your taper felt right. But when you get behind the blocks, the “noise upstairs” starts. “Oh my gosh! What if I false start?” “This is my last chance to qualify, and if I don't, my entire season has been a waste!” “What if I die on the last 75 again?” “I don't think I got enough sleep last night!” “Maybe I ate too much… or not enough…” As you listen to this stream of negativity, it seems to build in intensity. Soon, your confidence and all those good feelings rapidly do a disappearing act! You try to “be positive,” but it's as if that negative part of you isn't listening...

Did you know that you can still swim your best under pressure even if you are flooded with last minute negative thoughts and self-doubts?
That's right! You can still have the race of your life even if all of those old familiar negatives are loudly playing in the back of your mind. The trick here is learning how to effectively manage them, and the very first step in doing this is to understand some of the myths that swimmers believe about these last minute negatives and doubts.

Key myths about last-minute negative thinking and your racing:

• You have to “be positive” in order to swim fast
• Negative thinking always lead to poor swims
• You can control your negative thinking so that you stay positive
• When last minute negatives pop up, you must immediately push them away
• Negative thinking and doubts are very bad and mean you're not ready

What's really true here?
First off, you need to understand that all of this last-minute negative stuff is absolutely and totally NORMAL! Even the very best swimmers in the world entertain last-minute negative thoughts because it's simply part of being human. Just because you may be flooded with last minutes doubts, doesn't mean that you're not ready or you'll swim poorly. These unexpected negatives are simply a reflection of your nervous system amping up and getting you ready for the upcoming race.

The problem here is not the negative thinking or doubts by themselves. The REAL problem is how YOU respond to them!

That which you resist, persists!
When you get freaked out behind the blocks because your mind has suddenly turned negative, and then you try to push the negatives away with things like, “I have to stay positive!” and “Don't think that,” what ends up happening is that your negative thoughts and doubts get even stronger and louder. Why is this? Because you can't really control your thinking! Don't worry! NO ONE CAN! And the good news here is that you don't need to! What you need to do is train yourself to have a calmer, more accepting stance whenever the negatives start clamoring for your attention.

How do you calmly handle the negatives?

• Avoid fighting with your negatives and trying to turn them into positives
• Remind yourself that last minute negative thoughts and doubts ARE NORMAL
• Reassure yourself that you can still swim YOUR VERY BEST with them
• Understand that your response to the negatives is what's important here
• Immediately refocus your concentration on your pre-race ritual behind the blocks

Focus on DOING and FEEL, not on THINKING
Swimming fast when it counts the most is all about keeping your concentration on what you're DOING both before and during the race. This means that both your pre-race and during-race focus should be on FEEL! So rather than engaging the negative thoughts with more thinking by trying to “be positive” or pushing them away when you're behind the blocks, switch your focus to the feel of your stretching, taking slow, relaxed breaths or whatever else you typically do in your pre-race ritual. If the negatives pop up while you're racing, let them be and immediately refocus your concentration on staying long and smooth, on how much water you're pulling, your breathing pattern or what you need to be doing in order to swim fast.

Keep in mind that I have worked with Olympic medalists who have taught me this very important lesson. Last minutes doubts and negativity DO NOT predict the kind of race you're about to have unless you engage them by fighting with or trying to change them. When your thoughts turn negative, relax, let them be and refocus your concentration on the task at hand.

As a sports psychology consultant, Dr. Alan Goldberg works with swimmers at every level. A presenter at the Olympic Training Center, swim coaches clinics and clubs around the country, Dr. G specializes in helping swimmers struggling with performance problems, get unstuck and swim fast when it counts the most. He works over Skype, providing one-on-one consultation with swimmers and other athletes around the world. Dr. G has written over 35 mental toughness training programs and books. In addition, he is a regular contributor to Splash Magazine.
For more FREE mental toughness tips and swim articles, go to Dr. Goldberg's website, www.competitivedge.com and click on “choose your sport” and then “swimming.” You can also visit him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and sign up for his free, monthly mental toughness newsletter.
Want to get a head start on your mental toughness training? Dr. Goldberg's BRAND NEW 7 CD Swim Program with track-by-track Training Guide now available! All products in his store at a 10% discount for USASwimming.org. readers. Coupon Code at check-out: USASwimming. FREE SHIPPING NOW AVAILABLE.
Questions? I hope you'll feel free to contact Dr. Goldberg at Goldberg@competitivedge.com or call directly (413) 549-1085.

Taken from usaswimming.org

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

6/26/2013

BY AIMEE C. KIMBALL, PHD, CC-AASP

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Aimee

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

Taken from usaswimming.org