3 Reasons to Embrace the Process of Achieving Your Swimming Goals

By Olivier Leroy of yourswimbook.com

We all have things we want to do with our swimming. They are what we dream about when we should be paying attention in class and what plays in our minds as we lob off to sleep at night. For some these ambitions are to be world-class, for others they can be as modest as making a JV relay team.

The first step lies in having the big, awesome goal. Of putting words to that dream, of making it specific, measurable, and affixed with a deadline. This part is fun, relatively risk-free, and is straightforward. Where most swimmers struggle is with what comes next.

Goals are for planning, the process is for results.

The achievement of said goal, of attaining the success you want from your swimming comes not from an event, or a single swim, or a time, but rather, from the process. It’s the daily grind, the repeated 1% improvements, the habits gleaned from showing up and putting in quality effort on a daily basis.

We tend to categorize how swimmers do by the results they achieve in competition. And fair enough – swimming provides an objective manner with which to rank and sort athletes by time and place. We can look up at the scoreboard and know instantly on any given day who the fastest swimmer is.

In doing so we end up viewing our champions through the lens of their results, and imagining their path to success  was simple, straightforward and without struggle. It wasn’t easy for them, and it won’t be easy for you. It was a struggle and a grind, a path littered with setbacks, happy moments, U-turns, insecurity, successes, confusion, and doubt.

In other words, success isn’t the best time. It’s isn’t the digits on the scoreboard or the medal around their neck. It’s what you did to get there. That’s the hidden legacy that ultimately makes a champion.

1. True satisfaction and success comes in the work; the result is merely a by-product.

In a way, goal setting points to a lack in something. It points out that the you-of-right-now isn’t good enough. That you will be what you want to be, when you achieve what you set out to do. It implies there is a lack in what you are right now.

In a way, deciding on a massive goal also puts an instant  burden on you; the moment you write it down your brain whirs to action for better and for worse, figuring out how to achieve it, while also bombarding you with all the concurrent doubts and insecurities that inevitably come when we try to stretch our talents and abilities.

Instead of investing all your hopes and dreams into your hopes and dreams, devote yourself to the day-to-day. Of engaging in the feedback loop of continually making yourself better, while building better habits and consistently showing up is what will lead to true success. Mastering the process is the real win, and is where ultimate satisfaction comes from.

2. Because we can’t always control the result.

Despite our best intentions things don’t always pan out the way we hope or expect them to. No matter how much we plan and dream there are limitations to what we can control. We have no power over how the swimmer in the lane next to us performs, nor can we do much to control unforeseen events like injury (see: Lochte’s knee) or illness.

If your happiness and measure of success is directly tied to a result, than you are putting yourself in a position where you are likely to end up frustrated and disappointed. By letting go of the outcome, and putting your trust in the process – and putting forth your best effort – you can walk away from that season-ending meet with a clear conscious, no matter what the end result is.

3. Focusing on the process means working on things now.

Depending on the time frame of your goals – swimmers have notoriously long seasons – looking across the horizon at your championship meet, and the goals you have for it, can be a little bit deflating. Similarly, it encourages forms of procrastination – “I have so much time between now and then.” The distance between now and the goal removes any urgency to act on your part.

Devoting yourself to the process requires you to focus daily on your swimming, your technique, your nutrition. Sure, dreaming about that goal will give you the occasional jolt of motivation and inspiration to pound out a massive workout once in a while, but it is falling in love with the process that insures you are showing up every day, regardless of how your fleeting heart feels about your season-ending goal in that particular moment.

Reposted from swimswam.com

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 .

Make Your Future Self Happy

By Katie Coyle, Daughter of Daniel Coyle

Note: The other day my wife and I were talking with our fourteen-year-old daughter Katie about how she stays ahead of schoolwork and sports, and Katie told us about a strategy she came up with. I thought you might find it useful, so I asked her to write it up. Over to you, Katie:

Five simple words: Make your future self happy.

Choices are simply inevitable. We can choose to do our homework the minute we get home, or we can procrastinate. We can learn that new violin song tonight, or we can wait until tomorrow. We can choose to take risks, or we can shy away from new experiences. We can struggle, push, and yank ourselves out of our comfort zones, or we can put forth half the effort. I admit, I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to most of these things. I actually consider myself a Professional Procrastinator. After all, I’m in ninth grade. I also know that making our future selves happy ALL THE TIME isn’t realistic. However, it’s something we can all strive to do.

We all have those days when we are simply not motivated. You know what I’m talking about: those lifeless hours when our most fervent desire is to lie down and sleep. On those days, I want you to ask yourself a simple question: “would this make my future self happy?” Often times, we give into our present selves. And, every now and then, that’s okay. But, in the long run, will eating four bowls of ice cream really make you happy? Will going on Facebook instead of learning that new violin song help you reach ultimate prosperity?

Imagine your future self as a little man or woman, waving at you from somewhere in the distance. Each day, try doing one or two things that will please the future you.

I don’t doubt that you’ve heard most of this before. Don’t procrastinate, do your best, blah, blah, blah. My aim was simply to condense a page’s worth of information into a manageable sentence that will hopefully stick in your brain: make your future self happy.

Printed from Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code Blog

Problem-Solving Swimming

Posted by Glenn Mills on Sep 13, 2011 09:53AM
The new season is upon everyone.  How you approach how you're going to reach your goals will be an important aspect of starting your season.

Swimmers will typically start each season either excited for the training, dreading the training, or with goals so lofty that they' maybe a little bit tentative with what's upon them.  Starting the season with a plan is probably the most important thing you can do, or setting training goals that are realistic when thinking of your season goals.  However, don't focus only on "how much" you're going to train, but start the season thinking of "how" you're going to train.

When you think of swimming, are you constantly analyzing how you approach the water?  Do you think about how your hands initiate the catch, how the fingers slide against the water and the exact point in which you make that connection and start to move forward?  Or do you approach the sport with the notion that by just training harder, you'll accomplish what you set out to do.

When you think of swimming as a series of equations, or problems that have to be looked into, or solved, there are a never-ending number of problems, and solutions to help you continue to swim faster.
Identifying wasted motion is actually pretty easy.  Case in point, I went for a jog yesterday.  While not a runner, I understand there is technique in everything we do, so I started to think about why I am so slow.  Taking physiology, age, and being a breaststroker out of the equation, I started to think about littlle details in what I was doing.  How was my posture (leaning back)?   How high was I lifting my feet off the ground (barely, more like shuffling)?   How did my feet connect with the ground... heel-toe, or toe-heel (side first then rolling to flat)?  What were my hands doing (actually relaxed)?  What was the cadence of my breathing (started inhale for 3 strides, exhale for 3 strides... turned into inhale for 1 stride, exhale for 1 stride)?  What I learned from a simple 3-mile jog (other than the fact that I could listen to the entire Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon album), is that there is SO much to think about when I'm trying to do something that we're naturally supposed to do... how much is there really to think about during swimming?

It's easy to get so caught up in making intervals, or hammering sets, that we forget this is a technical sport, and it's the times that we're hammering that give us the best opportunities to solve problems.

My favorite quote over the past year has been one by Albert Einstein -

"Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results, is the definition of insanity."

If you swim the same way every day, without a doubt, going from out of shape, to IN shape... you're going to get faster, but are you really teaching yourself the skills necessary to reach the next level?  I've written on the site many times about being the hardest worker, and it's great if you are (you strive to be).  However, the people we'll be watching in London next year, are the ones who don't just work hard.  We'll be watching the swimmers who solve problems... problems that come with being human in the water.  Awkward bodies not meant to move through the water quickly, creating tremendous resistance, and lying horizontal in a substance that keeps us from getting what we need to survive... oxygen.
In looking at a very quick list, if you're in the middle of a very difficult set, having a hard time keeping up, or in the zone where you simply can't hurt enough (I remember those days... LONG ago!), then here are some ideas of ways to solve the problem of not going as fast as you want:

• Switch responsibility of the pull from your arms to your lats - all strokes.
• When are you going to air?  Early, or late in the stroke cycle? - freestyle.
• Rotate your shoulders completely out of the water on each recovery - backstroke.
• Use your hips more to help you clear the surface for your breath - butterfly.
• Where are looking? - all strokes.
• Are you pointing your toes off the push off? - all strokes.
• Where are you finishing the stroke? - all strokes.
• How fast are you recovering your hands? - breaststroke.

Rather than me just sitting and thinking of endless possibilities of things to think about, list yours below.  These are not things to think about during drill sets, but rather, when you're in the thick of training, when it's very difficult.

Most athletes, when in pain, focus on the pain.  Great athletes, when in pain, focus on how to keep shifting responsibilities of the body to keep going as fast as they have been.

Don't fall in to the trap of being a regular athlete.  Use the mental capacity you've been given, and use your brain to solve the problems that come with pain, and being tired.

On that note... I'm going for a jog.  Hopefully be back before dinner.
brain training, swim technique, swim training

Posted from GoSwim.com

The Responsibility of Leading the Lane

Posted by Glenn Mills on Sep 21, 2012 www.goswim.tv

You go first!  No way... you're always on my feet.  YOU GO!

Way too often there's an argument about who is going to lead, rather than a fight over who's going to be the leader.  In developing a culture of champions, or people who are striving to elevate themselves as athletes, developing lane leaders is much more than about who's going to go first.

There are many responsibilities when you take charge and go first, and you have to have a few key qualities to manage these responsibilities.  Here's a short list, certainly not all inclusive:

1.  ATTENTION
The lane leader must be able to hear the set as described by the coach.  He/she must listen to the details of the set and the intervals.  If nearby swimmers are talking, it's the lane leader's responsibility to get the others to be quiet so they're able to hear these details.  Since many of the other swimmers will be relegated to "followers" in the lane, the first person MUST get these details correct.

2.  MEMORY
The lane leader must REMEMBER all details of the set.  Is it descend?  Do the strokes switch?  Is the interval the same the whole way through, or does it change?  When is the drill?  What is the drill?  How far apart should we go if the lane is crowded?  This list gets longer with a more complex set, but unless the lane leader understands the MEANING and purpose of the set, the entire lane may as well swim for 30 minutes straight.  Basically that's what ends up happening anyway.

3.   ABILITY TO READ THE CLOCK
The lane leader MUST have an understanding of the 60-based math required to be an athlete.  Years ago, we had clocks with round faces, and hands sweeping around.  In my opinion those analog pace clocks made it MUCH easier to keep track of when you were supposed to go.  Today, in the digital age, you have to understand NUMBERS.  If you've read some of my other articles, I believe in testing swimmers with math, especially as fatigue sets in.  By assigning 50s on the :37 rather than on the :40, you require athletes to think, and to become engaged in the process.  The lane leader must take pride in the responsibility of leaving on time... all the time.

Here's an article about learning how to read the clock.

4.  COMMITTMENT TO THE PRACTICE
This simply means... not getting out.  If you're in practice, you stay in practice until it's over.  No getting out to go to the bathroom.  No stopping in the middle of the set to fix your goggles.  Whatever happens, the lane leader must set the example that nothing will stand in the way of completing the task at hand.  Commitment also means that the lane leader must embrace the set or sets that the coach has given, even if a particular set isn't their favorite thing to do.

5.  PRIDE
Being a leader means taking pride in being a leader.  You don't have to be loud, or yell.  This type of leader is simply organized and committed to being better.  They lead by example and by all of the traits listed above.  They'll bring their lanemates UP to a new level, rather than push that job off to the coaches.  They'll take pride in their team, in their swimming, and in the FACT that when they're in the pool, they are indeed focusing on THEIR career.

Swimmers, and all athletes, must remember that the time they spend in the pool is ALL ABOUT THEM.  When a coach asks or demands that you do something better, it's to make THE SWIMMER better.  When lanes are disorganized, when people don't know when to go, when people don't know what to do... the time spent at the pool is simply unproductive.  Nobody wins.

Also remember:  If the most important job for a coach is to yell "READY HUP" for each group of swimmers, they can't do their real job.  Swimmers / athletes need to take responsibility for what they do in practice, and since not all swimmers will... a lane leader MUST emerge to accept that responsibility.

While I'd love to be able to offer a check list of ideas on how to develop leaders, it's never that easy.  In the immortal words of Forest Gump, "life is like a box of chocolates," which is just like a group of swimmers.  You never know what you're going to get, or what it's going to take to inspire athlete "A" vs. athlete "B."   Each answer will be different, and each hot button to inspire that athlete will also be different.

For coaches, just imagine how productive a season you would have if you could develop lane leaders at the beginning of the season.  Imagine having to explain a set only once... and then telling the group when to leave.  Your job at that point would be to... well... COACH!  Sitting back with watchful eyes seeing who needs technical help, or inspiration.

Finally, from my "back in the old days" perspective on this.  I was SO lucky to be surrounded by people who cared so much about being the best.   My practices were filled with lane leaders.  Our coach would give the set, and then watch as 40-50 swimmers, in unison, progressed through it.  These were brutal sets.  But... as with every school of fish, there would always be one injured fish that stood out like a sore thumb.  Like a SHARK, the coach's eyes would immediately be drawn to the break in the rhythm and know something was wrong.  That's when the real "coaching" began.

Reprinted from www.goswim.tv

The One Extra Degree Makes All The Difference

At 211°, water is hot. At 212°, it boils. That one extra degree makes all the difference. Are you content with just being pretty good? Or are you ready to go the extra degree?

FIGHT OR FLIGHT: UNDERSTANDING ANXIETY IN SWIMMING

6/12/2012

  With the Olympic trials around the corner and hundreds of swimmers trying to make qualifying times, sometimes what separates those who make it from those who don’t is their ability to control their nerves. In this first of a three part “swimming anxiety” series, we will address the concept of anxiety and how it manifests itself both physically and psychologically. 

What is anxiety?

Whether you call it anxiety, nerves, or pre-race jitters, it’s all part of the same physiological mechanism. All animals (humans included) have what’s called the “fight-or-flight” response in which our mind and body prepare either to fight a challenge or to run away from it. This response naturally gives us the extra “umph” to battle through competition. Typically, when the mind recognizes an upcoming challenge it causes our heart rate to increase, our muscles to tighten, and our thoughts to narrow. We need a certain amount of physiological and mental energy so we can be ready to compete, but too much can be a problem. Therefore, anxiety can be just as helpful as it is harmful-it all depends on the extent to which you experience it and your ability manage the symptoms of anxiety.

To throw in a little science, there are two types of anxiety:

1. Somatic (the body)- physiological arousal

a. There are varying degrees of somatic anxiety and individuals have an ideal level of physiological activation/somatic anxiety under which they perform their best.

b. Some signs of somatic anxiety:

• Shaking Hands
• Tight muscles
• Difficulty breathing
• Rapid breathing
• Increased heart rate
• Sweating
• Need to urinate
• Sleep disruption

2. Cognitive (the mind)- detrimental changes in thoughts or emotions

a. It’s often an individual’s negative or worried thoughts which lead to performance declines.
b. Signs of cognitive anxiety include:

• Worried thoughts
• Narrowed focus
• Irrational thoughts
• Emotional instability
• Impaired attention and concentration
• Difficulty planning and making decisions

The biochemistry of these anxiety symptoms is quite complex, with adrenalin being a prime chemical involved in these reactions. Serotonin, dopamine, and nor-epinephrine are involved as well. The balance of these chemicals is a determinant of the extent of your symptoms and your control over them. Keep in mind that common behaviors can cause physiological reactions that mimic (or amplify) panic and anxiety, such as:

• Consuming high doses of caffeine
• Consuming high concentrations of sugar
• Taking recreational drugs

What’s the difference between anxiety and a panic attack?
Though they have many of the same somatic and cognitive symptoms listed above, the symptoms of a panic attack are more intense and often disproportionate to the situation. Anxiety symptoms typically are much more controllable and tend to linger longer. A panic attack comes on suddenly and consists of an overwhelming sense of fear. At its extreme, panic can be very disabling and can feel like you are having a heart attack or are unable to breathe. Because the “fight or flight” mechanism is overactive while a panic attack is happening, you can behave and think irrationally (you might suddenly “freeze up” in the water, think you are dying, or grab the person next to you for safety). 

What causes anxiety?
Anxiety can have a number of causes, including both external challenges (the upcoming race) and internal stressors (worries, what-ifs). Reactions to internal stressors can be just as strong as reactions to external challenges. That is, we can feel just as nervous worrying about a race the night before as we do when we are actually standing behind the blocks.

We create our own anxiety when we focus either on the what-ifs (ex: What if I lose? What if I swim poorly? What if I don’t make the qualifying time?) or when we lack confidence in our abilities (often causing these “what-ifs”). Think of a race you had that wasn’t important to you or where you knew you would win it easily. You probably didn’t have the same signs of anxiety because you didn’t see this event as being “pressure packed” or challenging. The perception of a challenge or of pressure can make athletes feel anxious. Therefore, a specific race or situation only produces an anxious response if we choose to interpret that situation as an important challenge.

Summary
Anxiety can be normal and, in many cases, necessary to prime your body to perform. The swimmers who consistently perform well do so by practicing controlling their physiological arousal and their thoughts so their anxiety does not become overwhelming and detrimental to performance.

Part II in this series of articles will focus on how to create the mind of a champion by alleviating the cognitive and physiological signs of anxiety.

Article from USASwimming.org

Another Level

By Head Coach Paul Yetter of T2 Aquatics from his blog, Developing the Champion Within.

What must an athlete do to “Take it to Another Level” ?

I often find myself in conversation discussing this subject. It’s discussed in the office, on the pool deck, over the phone with friends, coaches, parents – and on the deck with swimmers. It’s occurred to me that different people have their own ideas of what “Another Level” actually is, and differing opinions regarding how we go about getting there.

I have a problem accepting the idea that “Another Level” is an actual place or circumstance. To me, “Another Level” can happen anywhere, based on an individual’s mind-state – particularly in regards to swimming training and performance.

I’ve heard collegiate swimming referred to as “The Next Level”, in comparison to USS club swimming. Also, I’ve heard club swimming referred to as “The Next Level” when compared to High School swimming. I understand the idea behind these statements, but consider them to be large generalizations – generalizations which are believed by athletes, and in my opinion do them an injustice. “The Next Level” is not a fixed state, circumstance, or place – is a readily accessible mind-state, to which we have constant and ever-expanding access.

The “Next Level” is whatever we make it. The “Next Level” is OUR CREATION. Without interaction with the “Next Level” – and I mean exciting, personal interaction – the “Next Level” only exists as a fictional place in a fictional time.

We are at the Next Level as soon as we wake up and create it in the pool, on the track, on the deck, or in the office each day. As soon as we raise our standards, we are THERE – looking the next level directly in the eye. Once we are seeing that next level in daily training, we must begin to search for the next NEXT LEVEL. There is always another level! The next level is not found as you move from High School swimming to Club swimming, although the amount of practice time may increase and your coaching may change. Similarly, the next level is not reached because you take yourself from a Club swimming situation (as a High School Student) to a Collegiate swimming situation (as a College Student). The next level is reached by changing your mind – changing the way you think, changing your standards of what it means to be successful, changing your ability to think bigger than your currently are, changing your sense of creativity and what you consider possible, changing your resolve to experience physical discomfort, changing your determination to put off overloading social ‘responsibilities’, changing your ability to not only ignore – but dismiss detractors of your goal from your mind.

It takes practice and confidence to feel this way, and create your next level. You have to think about it a little bit, and decide that you are the creator of your life.

Out-training and out-working your “Old Self” is one way to create your “New Self” – and once you do it, THAT’S the next level.

Yes You Can!

The Importance of "Self Confidence" in Achieving Your Swimming Goals

Belief is the knowledge that we can do something. It’s the inner feeling that what we undertake, we can accomplish. For the most part, all of us have the ability to look at something and know whether or not we can do it. So, in belief there is power: our eyes are opened; our opportunities become plain; our visions become realities. (Unknown)

By Wayne Goldsmith
Have you said (or thought) any of the following in the past few months??? "I can’t do it," "They are much faster than me. I’ll come last," "I’m hopeless," "I’ve never been able to do that, so I know I can’t do it now," "It’s just too hard. It’s impossible."

You are not alone. Many swimmers have these thoughts and say these words from time to time. Most swimmers (and people generally) have times when they get a little negative and lack faith in their abilities.

When swimmers say "I can’t" or "it’s too hard," what are they really saying?

Swimmer says: "I can’t do it." Swimmer means: "I am not prepared to try because if people might think less of me."

Swimmer says: "They are faster than me. I’ll come last." Swimmer means: "If I can’t win there’s no point trying."

Swimmer says: "I’m hopeless." Swimmer means: "I have no faith in myself or my ability to succeed. I have no confidence."

Swimmer says: "I’ve never been able to do that, so I know I can’t do it now ." Swimmer means: "I’ve never really prepared for this or learnt how to do it correctly so the chances of me doing it now are not very good" or "I tried once and failed, so I am not going to try again."

Swimmer says: "It’s just too hard. It’s impossible." Swimmer means: "I’m not prepared to try.”

Confidence is believing in yourself to do what has to be done. To do what needs to be done, with faith in your ability to achieve it. To meet new challenges with an expectation that anything is possible. To accept failure as an opportunity to learn from the experience and try again. And try again. And try again if necessary.

Confidence is trying to achieve and if you fail knowing that it was the nature of the task or the circumstances or just plain bad luck, not your lack of character that is to blame. Confidence is learning from that failure and trying again with more energy, more commitment and greater determination than before.

What do some of Australia’s most successful people say about CONFIDENCE??

"Confidence comes from accepting a challenge and achieving it using the best of your ability. Confidence builds through training to meet your challenge". Phil Rogers (Commonwealth Games and Olympic Medalist).

"Confidence is about believing in yourself and your ability to do something -- not necessarily believing in your ability to do it perfectly or better than other people, but believing that you have as good a chance as anyone to achieve something. Confidence is having the courage to get up and try and face whatever the outcome is -- good, bad or something in between." Chloe Flutter (Australian Representative Swimmer -- now Rhodes scholar).

"In my experience, confidence is best achieved through controlled independence. If a young athlete is constantly challenged to be independent (within reasonable bounds), they will learn to rely on themselves and know how to thrive without the assistance of others in moments of greatest need. The ability to follow good decision making processes is a crucial part of this. For young athletes, teach them to take personal responsibility ( control the controllable and develop a chameleon-like ability to deal with the rest). Confidence is the ability to believe you can do something and the courage to do it - if others have made the hard decisions for you and you have never had to live with the results of your own actions, you can never be expected to know full confidence and the power of the self". Marty Roberts. (Dual Olympian, Commonwealth Games Gold medalist, University Graduate, father of two).

“Attitudes such as belief, optimism, high aspirations, and anticipation of the best possible result—all these positive states of mind add up to confidence, the keystone for success. But of course it pays for all of these to be built on the firm rock of a sound preparation". Forbes Carlile (Legendary Coach, successful business man, author, leading anti-drugs in sport campaigner).

Confidence it seems, is a skill -- a skill that can be learnt. You learnt to swim. You learnt to tumble turn. You learnt how to do butterfly. You can learn to be confident.

Leading Melbourne based Sports Psychologist, Dr Mark Andersen agrees: "Many people believe that confidence is something that comes from the inside, but we probably develop confidence from the models we have around us, that confidence really comes from the outside. If we have coaches, parents, teachers and instructors that model confidence in our abilities and let us know that they think we can do good things, slowly their confidence in us becomes internalized".

A few tips to develop confidence:
accept who you are and learn to like and respect yourself.

Nothing helps build confidence like learning the 3 P’s. Practice to the best of your ability. Develop a Positive Attitude to trying new tasks. Persevere, Persevere, Persevere.

Understand what motivates you to do well then you can harness your energy in the right directions.

Failure is a race or a meet or a task -it is not a person. Failure is not the person: it’s not you- it’s the performance. Learn to separate who you are from what you do.

Learn to talk to yourself positively. When the negative thoughts come, learn to replace them with positive ones. I can’t = I can, I won’t = I will, I will try = I did. Remember the old saying, "If you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right".

"The greatest achievement is not in never failing but in getting up every time you fall". Keep trying and it will happen.

What you believe, you can, with effort and persistence, achieve. Dream a dream, believe in that dream, work towards achieving it and live the dream.

Anything worth having is worth working to achieve. Talent is important, but there are many talented swimmers who don’t make it to the top. TOUGH, TENACIOUS TRAINING makes up for most talent limitations.

Successful people are not afraid to fail. They have the ability to accept their failures and continue on, knowing that failure is a natural consequence of trying. The law of failure is one of the most powerful of all the success laws because you only really fail when you quit trying.

Ladder of Achievement 100% I Did 90% I Will 80% I Can 70% I Think I Can 60% I Might 50% I Think I Might 40 % What is It? 30% I Wish I Could 20% I Don’t Know How 10% I Can’t 0% I Won’t This is called the Ladder of Achievement. It shows how your attitude towards a goal or task can impact your ability to achieve it. The ladder of achievement suggests that an attitude of "I can’t" has almost no chance of success whilst "I won’t" is no chance at all. Change "I can’t" and "I won’t" to I CAN - I WILL - I DID !

Swim Coaching Brain

The Question/Answer Cycle Problem

By Head Coach Paul Yetter of T2 Aquatics from his blog, Developing the Champion Within.

In the lead-up to competition, athletes who picture a positive result in performance are more likely to reach peak performance, as compared to athletes who picture a poor result. This reality of competitive sports is well-known among sport psychologists, coaches, and athletes – and must be accounted for when considering an athlete’s race preparation.

It is the athlete’s mindset that determines the deftness with which we walk a path of readiness – and make no mistake about it: readiness to succeed is essential to peak performance. The mindset of an athlete who is ready to achieve peak performance can be defined as an “answer—based” mindset. It is proper training, skill, talent, and physical gifts that separate one athlete from another in competition, but it is mindset that separates our “best selves” from the side of ourselves that is too riddled with anxiety and negative thought to perform at the peak level. There is an important distinction to be made here, because it is obvious and simple to understand that an athlete who does not train hard, often, and well, will not think her way into a win when competing against a trained, ready competitor. But to compete against yourself – “your own best self” – is really the task for all athletes because, simply put, competing against your own “best self” is the task any athlete can learn to control. You cannot control your competitors, but you can control yourself.
An athlete’s ability to control her mind and thus her environment allows her to unlock the free-flow of energy available to her at the time of peak performance!

It is near impossible for most athletes to prepare for competition without asking oneself questions like: “Am I ready?”, or “Is my training plan going to work?”, or “What is my competitor going to do”? It is this type of inner-questioning that makes an athlete, to differing degrees, anxious and insecure about their upcoming performance. To their detriment, athletes tend to dwell in this sort of “question-based” mindset more often as the competition draws closer on the calendar. This type of questioning, posed to one’s self in a habitual way, leads to the athlete’s less-than-ideal picture of what may happen in competition – a picture that readily creates its own reality through performance.

An athlete in the “question-based” mindset may think:

“What if I am unsuccessful like I was last year?”
“What will my parents think if I don’t achieve my best time?”
“Am I ready for this meet?”
“Will my taper plan work out?”

These questions have no definitive answer. One can speculate an answer, but to actually find an answer to these questions is impossible. The answers are impossible because the answers can only be found in the future. The future is uncontrollable. The only thing we can control is the present!

A positive athlete will learn to give proper weight to the answers, and give less power to the actual questions. In doing so, an athlete can learn to control their self-talk, and bring their thought process into the controllable present. It’s ok to field the questions, because let’s face it: no matter how hard we try, questions regarding one’s own personal readiness for competition will always make themselves heard. But with a proper “answer-based” mindset we can either turn a question into a positive answer, or dismiss it from our mind.

The basic question “Am I ready?”, in an “answer – based” mindset, is followed with the inner-statement: “Yes, I am ready. Today, I am stronger and faster than I’ve ever been in my life“. You can stop the cycle of questions by answering definitively.

Stopping the ‘Question/Answer” cycle at one question and one answer is essential! Concisely answered questions tend to create an optimistic picture in an athlete’s mind. The question, “What is my competitor going to do?”, in an “answer – based” mindset, is dismissed because as an athlete you are incapable of discerning what anyone else may or may not be capable of and so logically there is no way to field the question. The question, “What if I am not on my pace halfway through my 800?” can be answered definitively with the answer: “I know I can do an 8:40 in my 800, so if I’m off my pace at the 400 I probably have enough in reserve to make it up on the second 400”. By answering definitively and positively, the focus of an athlete’s internal conversation becomes the answer instead of the question. It is much easier to control the answers you give than it is to control what questions may pop up in your head!

Hard, consistent, skill-oriented training is a key ingredient to achieving peak performance, and certainly there is no substitute. We cannot “will” ourselves to a different level of performance with our minds alone! But it is the “answer-based” mindset that separates us from our previous best selves, stops an otherwise habitual cycle of questions/answers, and allows us to transcend our own peak performances.

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: 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!

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."

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….”

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!

ABCs OF MENTAL TRAINING: R IS FOR RESILIENCY

BY AIMEE KIMBALL, PHD//MENTAL TRAINING CONSULTANT

Mental toughness is as much about our reaction to an event as it is our preparation for that event. There are going to be times when your race doesn’t go exactly as planned. There are going to be times when you fail, you struggle, or you have to return from injury. This newsletter focuses on resiliency, a necessary mental skill that can help you to cope with the obstacles sport and life throw at you.

So what is resiliency?
The best way to demonstrate the concept of resiliency is by using a rubber band. Take a rubber band and stretch it as far as you can. Now release the tension. After being stretched, it returns back to the form it started in, loose and ready to be stretched again. This is what resiliency is. It’s the ability to bounce back to where you started after your limits are tested or if you’ve been stressed in some way. In golf, they have a statistic to measure a player’s ability to be resilient. They call it the “bounce back.” Basically, they look at times when a golfer shoots over par on a hole and then how often he gets par or better on the next hole. Essentially, they are looking to see whether they let a bad hole affect the next one. A good example of this in swimming is if you add time in one event how often you are able to drop time in the next event. Ask yourself, “If I swim poorly in one race, do I let this carry over to the next one, or am I able to ‘bounce back’ and reset my mentality?”

How do I become more resilient?
I have a friend we call “Teflon,” because any problem he faces never seems to stick. Something bad can happen and he acts like it never affected him. Not everyone is so impervious to stress. Resiliency is a skill that can be learned. One way to become more resilient is to be realistic rather than making everything a reality-show-caliber drama. That is, a bad race is not the end of the world. You will live to race another day. Yes, you are disappointed, as any competitive person should be. You may not have qualified for a bigger meet, or maybe you feel like your hard work didn’t pay off. Regardless of how you feel at that moment, make sure those feelings are based in reality. All that happened is you didn’t do as well as you wanted in a swim meet.

Let’s assume, though, that the event was important and you can’t just brush it off as easily as you would like to. If this is the case, it’s helpful to have an established post-race routine that allows you to assess how things went and why you succeeded/or failed, and that allows you to put that race behind you and refocus on the next one. For example, after a race, regardless of the outcome you may want to make a habit of asking yourself three questions, 1) what did I do well?, 2) what can I improve on for next time?, and 3) what is my physical and mental plan for my next event? These questions allow you to realistically assess the last race and make sure you know your plan for your upcoming event.

Another way to recover from an unsuccessful performance is to examine how you attribute success and failure. Some people may swim a great time and attribute it to luck or win a race and believe it’s because they weren’t competing against anyone good. Make sure if you have success you know that you are the cause of this success and give yourself credit for working hard and swimming well. If you have a poor race and think there is never going to be anything you can do to get better, or lose and believe it was entirely your fault (rather than crediting competitors), it will be difficult for you to bounce back for the next event. It’s important to be optimistic and to understand that even though you may have “failed,” a new race is a clean slate. You have control over your own performance, and that there is always something you can do to improve.

Finally, to be resilient you need to be confident in yourself and your hard work. Believe that you are good and be optimistic that all of the hours you log in the pool will pay off.

Resilience is simply readjusting
Whether it’s after a poor performance, an injury, or any other obstacle from which you are trying to mentally or physically recover, remember that all it takes to be resilient is to readjust your mindset. You may have suffered a setback, but you have the ability to view this setback as a challenge that can make you stronger, more motivated and mentally tougher. Instead of telling yourself you failed or that you will never recover from the situation, simply remind yourself that you can take control over what happens in the future but can’t go back and change the past. Once the milk is spilled you can’t unspill it, but you do get to choose to either cry about the mess or grab a paper towel and clean it up.

Make it great!

Dr. Aimee

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

USA Swimming – Psychology of Swimming