ABCS OF MENTAL TRAINING: Y IS FOR YOUNG ATHLETES

BY AIMEE C. KIMBALL, PHD

Swimming is a lifelong sport. Many people learn to swim as a toddler and continue through the days when their knees can no longer handle pounding the pavement. While many people swim just for fun in the summer months or on trips to the beach, many choose to dedicate themselves to swimming competitively. This article addresses some tips for young athletes who want to be successful in competitive swimming.

Train Hard
You’ll hear it from your coaches: the harder you work, the easier competition is. Training hard not only prepares your body for “easy” success, but preparation also lays the foundation for confidence.

Don’t just go through the motions at practice. Focus on getting better, faster and stronger with every lap. It's your choice. You can just show up and exert minimum effort, or you can be physically and mentally present and train like you want to be a champion.

Be Coachable
You'll experience many coaching styles in your swimming career, some you will love and some you will not. Regardless of your personal opinion, keep an open mind. Your coach is in this role because he is passionate about the same sport as you and wants to help you improve. If you write him off because he teaches you something different than a previous coach or because he doesn't communicate the way you'd like, you may be passing up an opportunity to further develop. Over time you will learn what works for you and what doesn't. Eventually you will get to a point where you feel comfortable talking to your coach about your training. If you disagree with your coach, engage in a discussion and allow him to educate you on his philosophy and the science behind his training methods. Being open to new ways of training and alterations in technique is the only way you will improve as a swimmer.

Understand Growth and Development
During the middle school and high school years, your body will go through incredible changes. Understand that these changes will often positively impact your speed, but there are times during the growth process where you may get slower or become less efficient.

While you are in the midst of your growth spurt, you may see your times improve significantly. When this growth period is over, you may not drop time at the rate you were. Don't let this impact your confidence. You may be in a phase where improvement has more to do with your body than your training. Also, keep in mind that others may hit their growth spurts after you, so someone you used to beat easily may now be able to keep up. Don't assume your hard work isn't paying off. Others may just be catching up to you in the development process.

Find Balance
Swimming is an exhausting sport. You train before and after school and exert more energy before 7 a.m. than some athletes do all week. While it is a very time-consuming sport, it is important to have a life outside of swimming. Try other sports, be in student council, take piano lessons. Find other activities that you enjoy so swimming doesn't consume you. Because swimming is often year-round and starts at a young age, balance is key to avoiding burnout and continuing to enjoy the sport for years to come.

Address All Components
Swimming requires a commitment in and out of the pool. Mental training, healthy eating, stretching, and dry land conditioning are all important factors in long-term swimming success. When you address everything that impacts you in the water you will be more prepared, more confident, and better able to handle the rigors of swimming at a competitive level. Obviously I am biased, but I truly believe the mind has a tremendous impact on success. Your work ethic in practice, your ability to push through pain, your confidence at meets, and your ability to control anxiety are just some of the mental components of swimming. The earlier you start addressing your mental game, the more likely you are to have what it takes to transition to higher levels of competition and to make the most of your physical ability.

Summary
There are lots of things to consider when choosing to be a competitive swimmer. Overall, if you love the sport, are willing to work hard at it, and focus on continuing to improve, you can have a long and successful swimming career.

Make it great!
Dr. Aimee

Dr. Kimball is a Mental Training consultant in Pittsburgh, PA. 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: AimeeKimball@aol.com.

Taken from usaswimming.org

Note To Swimmers... We See You

Posted by Glenn Mills on Nov 04, 2013 01:26PM

Swimmers need to understand something:  When you're standing above the surface, you see SO much more than people think.

Being a coach gives you a great perspective on what's going on below.  As a swimmer, I was always amazed at how my coach was able to see someone breaking the flow of the group.  It could have been someone stopping because of a sore shoulder, or two swimmers whacking their arms in passing, or someone fighting a calf cramp.   Any number of things can break the flow, and it's easy to spot this from on deck.  

Aside from the more "legitimate" reasons for a break in the flow, there are "other" reasons.  Coaches see these, too, even though the swimmer may think otherwise, and believe they're getting away with something.   A pull on the laneline here, a one-handed turn there, throwing in a couple of armstrokes during a kick set, pushing off the bottom every once in a while, trying to disguise the fact that you're just not making the interval.   For what means?  Who are you really fooling?   Spend a couple of hours on deck or in the stands and you'll begin to understand.  Coaches (and parents, for that matter) see everything.

Sometimes it's a game that we coaches play.  We tend to watch the people out of the corner of our eye who have a known tendency toward cutting corners.  In our own mind, we need to come to grips that at the end of the season, we really have done all we can to try to help all swimmers succeed, but there is really only so much we can do when the swimmer isn't taking an equal part in the responsibility of their own season.

What are the measures we can take when we see someone cheating, cutting corners, attempting to hide that they're just not making it, or not applying the techniques, stroke changes, and adaptations that we're suggesting for them to make to improve as a swimmer?  Here's a quick list of solutions from soft to harsh.  Rest assured, however, that they can all be used to maintain a level of actual commitment to the sport.

1.  Talk to the swimmer and make sure they realize that we see these actions taking place.  Give them the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe the swimmer didn't realize she was instinctively doing something wrong.  Or maybe he didn't know that what he was doing was breaking one of the "written" rules of swimming or one of the "unwritten" rules of swim practice or swim etiquette.    It's our job to educate the swimmer, or at least make sure the swimmer understands what they were doing was wrong, and then tell them the proper actions, or what we expect from them in the future.

2.   Yell at the swimmer. Yeah... add a bit more harshness to the message.  Not all, but some athletes need that level of interaction to get a point across.  While not the preferred method, it's part of the game.  Some coaches yell, some don't, but it doesn't have to be a negative situation.  Yelling can be a way of making a point stick, and the skill of yelling constructively is an acquired act.

3.  Punish the swimmer.  There are many types of punishment, but swimmers should know that their actions have consequences.   It's not that their actions will physically harm the swimmer or another swimmer.  It's that their actions will hinder them from having the tools necessary to reach their potential.  They'll not have the training and discipline necessary to swim as fast as they can at the end of the season.  Maybe they won't be tough enough to look their competitor in the next lane in the eyes on the last lap, and win through an effort level they learned in practice.  Punishments can be everything from repeating the set, to push-ups between the set, to removal from practice.  The last having to come with a message that what they were doing during practice was simply purposeless, and there was no sense in them continuing.

4.  Removal from that training group. Not all swimmers belong in their training group just because they're old enough, or even because they're fast enough.  Training groups are set up so the athletes in that group share a common goal for end-of-season performance.  Training groups are set up so that all the athletes in that group have similar long-term goals...be it swimming in the local championships, the state championships, all the way up to the Olympic Games.  If you're the one athlete that isn't following the pattern that was set forth for that group, then maybe the group below would be more in line with the effort, focus, or attendance habits of that athlete.  A training group isn't a right bestowed by age or speed.   It's an honor.

5.  Removal from that team.  Sometimes, and thankfully rarely, swimmers are asked to leave the team because their goals, actions, or practice habits detract from those of the other swimmers on the team.  This is the sacrifice of one to better ensure the success of the many.  We as coaches absolutely dislike this final method.  We choose to coach because we love to see children succeed.  We thrive on helping them accomplish things that are hard to accomplish.  We feel pride when we watch them take the skills learned in their swimming career and transfer them to a life career...seeing them make a positive impact on society.  Removing someone from the team is a final solution, one that comes only after exhausting all other solutions.  But at some point, the coach needs to weigh the amount of time, effort, attention, and emotional energy it takes to reform someone who's cutting corners...against the amount of time lost from helping the swimmers who are doing EVERYTHING that's asked.  Finding this balance is the hardest part of coaching.   It takes a mature coach to understand when it's time to stop trying. 

Swimmers need to ask themselves:  What is my reputation on the team?  When a coach asks for something, can the coach expect that I'll do it, or will the coach have to watch, intently, to see if I'm cutting corners.  Have I turned my coach into a babysitter or even a police officer?  Do I take away from the other members of the team, or do I inspire those around me to be better?

How do you want to be known as a swimmer?    Trust me, we as coaches standing on deck KNOW who will do what we ask, and who will cheat or not do what we ask on the next set.  

Which kind of swimmer do you want to be?

Burn Your Goals To Become The Person Of Your Dreams…

A couple months ago one of my golfer’s sent me her goals in a text message, and I responded.

“I want you to burn those.”

I knew my response was harsh, but I had reached a breaking point.

EVERYONE WANTS TO WIN.

No one is sitting around at the beginning of the season saying

“our goal is to finish last place in the conference”
“we want to have the worst shooting percentage in the country”
“we want to have a mediocre season”

You never hear this!

I think goals are like wishes.

The beauty of sports is winning and losing is defined for us, therefore we need to spend ZERO time on it.

I believe 100% of our energy should be on the process, controllables, and more specifically in this case, our commitments.

So, I told my golfer, “Burn your wish list. I want to see your commitment list. I want to know what you are committed to sacrificing and doing with your 24 hours a day to close the gap between where you are at, and where you want to be.”

Remember, one of the greatest coaches ever, John Wooden, won 10 National Championships, and he NEVER talked about winning. He focused on the process. He started with the basics. The first day of practice he showed the freshmen how they should put on their socks, and tie their shoes. It worked out pretty well for him both in terms of results, and more importantly in his relationships with his players long into their lives.

Three weeks later my golfer blew out the field and won the tournament with the person in second finishing 5 strokes behind her. The next tournament she didn’t play as well, but she is starting to understand you cannot control goals, but you can control your commitments, and paradoxically by letting go of the results you can actually play better.

I know that for many of you removing goals is like taking away your training wheels or your ‘blanky’, but it’s long over due. At some point your training wheels are more of a hindrance than a help. You can’t make sharp turns around the bend, you can’t hit the brakes and power-slide, and you cannot fly off of jumps! No one has ever competed in the X-Games with training wheels. Though training wheels may give you balance and security, they strip you of the opportunity to experience the full potential of riding a bike.

Here is what I’ve found. Consistently giving your very best, every single day, is a much higher standard than arbitrary goals.

Some coaches have said, “BUT some of my players need an outcome goal to chase after!” If that is how you feel, I would encourage you to revisit your mission in coaching. Most coaches tell me their mission is something along the lines of “training and equipping their athletes for life.” If that is the case, then it is our job—I would go as far as to say it’s our responsibility—to do what we believe is best long-term for our athletes.

Kids want to have dessert before dinner. It is a parents’ responsibility, however, to make sure that doesn’t happen. Because I think we all can agree that if we equipped our kids with this type of dietary strategy, there would be some detrimental long-term effects.

So, what is a more beneficial strategy? We develop a compelling vision for our life of who we want to become as a person and a player that is 100% controllable and not results based. We then create a commitment list of what we are willing to sacrifice and do with our 86,400 seconds per day to close the gap between where we are at, and where we want to be.

This isn’t semantics.

When we were young, we didn’t know the difference between lust and love. The older we get, we start to realize these two words are worlds apart.

When we were young, we didn’t know the difference between happiness and fulfillment. The older we get, the more we start to realize the two words are leap years apart.

The difference between being goal driven and mission/vision driven is MASSIVE! I think goal driven coaches are much more likely to be transactional and mission/vision driven coaches are much more likely to be transformational.

I encourage you.

Take off the training wheels.

Put your blanky in storage.

You can’t control the results anyway.

Fall in love with the process.

Focus on your commitments.

Focus on giving your very best, treating people really well, having a great attitude, and unconditional gratitude, REGARDLESS of your circumstances. It’s a much higher standard, and much like bicycles with no training wheels, it’s not for the faint of heart.

We can enjoy the security and predictability goals provide, but I would argue you can never achieve your fullest potential with them.

Well, what do you think? Please leave your thoughts, comments and questions below.

This thought provoking  blog post was written by our friend Joshua Medcalf, Founder of Train to be Clutch. Joshua is the Mental Training Coach for renowned programs such as UCLA Women’s Basketball and University of Oregon Women’s Golf, as well as numerous elite high school, collegiate and professional athletes. He is the creator of the first mental training apps in the world for basketball, soccer and golf. You can follow his work on Twitter at @joshuamedcalf, and check out some of his free mental training videos and mp3s at www.traintobeclutch.com .