KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH OLYMPIAN AND NATIONAL CHAMPION MIKE ALEXANDROV

1. Aim higher than you intuitively think you can go. That’s important because the mind is stronger than the body. If you think you can do something, you can push your body to certain limits beyond what you are capable of doing physically. Your mind can mentally override what the body can do. It’s the same thing with training and with racing.
2. Be able to concentrate. You have to be able to isolate your thoughts and focus on your race. Focus on the moment. Do not worry about the future beyond the absolute immediate future. Concentrate on the here and now. If you make a mistake, worry about it later. You have to be able to concentrate because so many things will go wrong. You will never have a perfect race. You just focus on doing your best in that moment.
3. Effectively prioritize. You have to be able to do this with your life, and your lifestyle. You have to know what you have to do and when to do it, and what is required to do it. You have to be a good planner. Prioritizing the way you eat, the times of day you eat, the diet you have and making sure you have enough time to rest is a big part of how your workout is going to go. Everything you do is centered around pursuing your goal. Ask yourself when you take your next bite of food, “Is this going to help me accomplish my goal?” You have to know your priorities, and then actually do what you need to do.
4. Surround yourself with the right people and the right atmosphere. You have to choose the right kind of friends and have a good set of influences around you. Your friends are going to have a big influence on your life, who you are and what you do. In fact, who your friends are says a lot about who you are as person. Tell me who your friends are, and if I know them, I can l tell you who you are as a person.
5. Take on the biggest challenge. I could swim for Bulgaria. But the pressure is exciting to me. When the stakes are higher, your performance is better. The road to glory, the road to a record, the road to success – and it could be a best time or making a team – is about achieving a goal. Whenever I win a race or a medal, I very rarely remember the race itself or the feeling afterward. It all comes back to the road it took to get there – the journey, and demanding the most from myself. The gold medal is Christmas. The podium finish is really neat. But what got you there is what you remember. And what got you there is what will take you onto greatness in the rest of your life, too.

Reposted from USASwimming.org

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

SWIMMMING FAST WHEN IT COUNTS: TOP 10 MENTAL TOUGHNESS TIPS

BY DR. ALAN GOLDBERG//SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

USA Swimming Article – SPEEDO Tip of the Week

SWIM FASTER TODAY

BY CHELSEY WALDEN SCHREINER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH CHLOE SUTTON

Speedo Tip of the Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

MENTAL TRAINING: SWIMMING FAST AND UNBURDENED FOR YOURSELF

BY DR. ALAN GOLDBERG, SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST

Let me ask you what may seem like a really silly question. How fast do you think you’d swim if you went into your best events with a 150-pound weight strapped to your back? Obvious answer: You’d be so weighed down that you wouldn’t be able to get off the blocks.  

Believe it or not, this is exactly what a lot of swimmers unknowingly do at many of their big meets. They consistently go into their races worried about disappointing mom and dad and/or their coach. When you do this mentally, it’s as if you are trying to swim while literally carrying mom, dad and/or coach on your back. While you might not be able to actually see this weight, the crushing burden of letting others down is powerful and performance disrupting.   

If you get up on the blocks and you’re preoccupied with wanting to make your parents and coach happy, and fearful that if you swim poorly, they won’t be, then you will inadvertently be creating the most powerful performance anxiety there is. Your nervousness will go into the red zone, your muscles will tighten and your arms and legs will feel like lead. No child ever wants to disappoint mom or dad. In fact, as kids, we’re hardwired to want to make our parents proud of us. When we fail, or have a less-than-stellar performance, it feels like we have directly disappointed those who matter to us. When this happens, we then worry they will love us less for it, and for a child, this is a scary and threatening situation. 

Most parents out there would be absolutely horrified to know that you as their son or daughter were worried about losing their love if you didn’t swim fast enough. These parents would want you to know that their love for you is totally unconditional, regardless of how fast you go in the pool. Loving parents would want you to know that they were proud of you just because of who you were and that you didn’t have to perform in any way to earn their love, caring or respect. Loving, appropriate parents would want you to enjoy swimming completely unburdened by their own expectations. They would want you to swim just for YOU, because YOU wanted to and YOU loved it.

This is why it is absolutely critical that you learn to swim for yourself. This means that when you approach practice and meets, you do it just for YOU! In other words, your goals and motivation should always come from inside of you and not be about making those around you happy. The goals that you pursue in this sport should be all yours, regardless of how grand or modest they might be.    

This also means that you learn to keep your pre-meet and pre-race focus of concentration on you and no one else. Worries about disappointing mom, dad or the coach means that you’re not keeping your concentration on you. When these kinds of “others” thoughts come up, you want to quickly return your focus to yourself and your swim. In addition, it’s critical that you learn to keep your focus in the moment, on what’s going on right now instead of allowing your concentration to jump ahead to the outcome and consequences of the race, (i.e. how people may be upset with you if you don’t go fast enough).

When you get up on those blocks you want to be totally unburdened by concerns with other’s expectations. You want to feel that you’re not swimming to prove your self-worth or lovability, but that you’re swimming from your heart, for the love of the sport. It’s only then that you’ll be able to consistently swim freely and fast.

USA Swimming - Speedo Tip of the Week Archives

Don't Let Fear Affect Your Swimming

BY STAN POPOVICH

Sometimes, fear and anxiety can get the best of us in swimming. The key is to know how to manage that fear and anxiety. As a result, here is a brief list of techniques that a swimmer can use to help manage their fears and every day anxieties.

Occasionally, you may become stressed when you have to swim in an important event. When this happens, visualize yourself doing the task in your mind. For instance, you have to swim in front of a large group of people in the next few days. Before the big day comes, imagine yourself swimming and doing your thing. Self-Visualization is a great way to reduce the fear and stress of a coming situation.

Sometimes we get stressed out when everything happens all at once. When this happens, a person should take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get their mind off of the problem. A person could read the newspaper, listen to some music or do an activity that will give them a fresh perspective on things.

Another technique that is very helpful is to have a small notebook of positive statements that you can carry around with you. Whenever you come across an affirmation that makes you feel good, write it down in a small notebook that you can carry around with you. Whenever you feel stressed, open up your small notebook and read those statements. This will help to manage your negative thinking.

In every anxiety-related situation you experience, begin to learn what works, what doesn’t work, and what you need to improve on in managing your fears and anxieties. For instance, you have a lot of anxiety and you decide to take a small walk before your event to help you feel better. The next time you feel anxious you can remind yourself that you got through it the last time by taking a walk. This will give you the confidence to manage your anxiety the next time around.

Take advantage of the help that is available around you. If possible, talk to a professional who can help you manage your fears and anxieties. They will be able to provide you with additional advice and insights on how to deal with your current problem. By talking to a professional, a person will be helping themselves in the long run because they will become better able to deal with their problems in the future. Remember that it never hurts to ask for help.

Remember that patience, persistence, and education will go a long way in preventing fear from becoming a factor in sport of swimming.

Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods” – an easy-to-read book that presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties.

Setting Controllable Goals

BY CHRISTOPHER CARR, PhD//Sport and Performance Psychologist

As I observed the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, I was reminded that athletes who win medals have, for years, had the goal of winning a medal. Yet, it was the daily work and effort that pays off at the Olympic Games.

In the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay, the USA team trailed France going into the last 100. But Jason Lezak came from behind and by .08 seconds beat the French world champion and set a world record. After the race, Lezak was quoted as saying to himself that he felt the fatigued.

"Then I changed,” he said. “I said, ‘You know what? That's ridiculous. This is the Olympics. I'm here for these guys. I'm here for the United States of America. It's more than me. I don't care how bad it hurts, or whatever, I'm just going to go out there and hit it.’”

The rest is Olympic history. But that history began with the goal of Olympic success. It is important to learn how to set goals in order to achieve your own swimming performance goals. As you prepare for this upcoming competitive season, make sure you have followed some important steps to effective goal setting:

Make daily practice goals. Take a notebook (could be your mental training journal) or some 3x5 cards and write down 1-3 goals for each practice. Not just doing what is on the practice schedule, but make the goal specific to your improvement (e.g. achieving 80% of your fast-paced intervals). Just 1-3 goals a day. Then review after each practice. Did you accomplish your goals? Did you make good progress? Then make revisions and be goal-directed at the next practice – every day.

Review your goals each day. Find time to sit down and review the goals you had for that particular practice/meet. Did you achieve the goal? What did you do (or not do) to help you achieve that goal? How can you make the goal more challenging tomorrow? Make this process your own and don’t wait for a coach to give you goal direction. The results will be more confidence in yourself when you step up on the starting block.

Learn how to refocus your goals during practice. If you made a practice goal that is going to be tough to accomplish (due to a bad start or change in drills), make the adjustment so you can still find success. Even small successes (finishing a tough set, using a positive cue word) can lead to confidence and focus. As soon as you drift from goals, you lose self-direction and focus.

Good luck to you in your pursuit of your swimming goals and successes…have fun and swim fast!

“The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses…behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” – Muhammad Ali

What are you doing today to guarantee greatness tomorrow?

BY DR. ALAN GOLDBERG//Sport Psychologist

What if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you did today, in this set, how hard you pushed yourself and how precise you were with your strokes and turns would guarantee a “meet-of-your-life” performance in your events come taper time? How motivated would you be? Would you concentrate more? Would it bother you that you went into practice a little tired? Would you allow yourself just to go through the motions the way you sometimes do or cut as many corners? Would you complain to yourself or a teammate about how you hated this set?

Chances are pretty good that if you knew that today’s practice would guarantee you great swims at the big meet, then you’d be totally psyched and willing to work your butt off. In fact, you’d probably go into practice with a seriousness of purpose that would instantly raise the quality of your training.

It’s this mental approach to practice that you need to adopt right now to help get you through the grind and drudgery of this, the toughest part of the training cycle.

Come December and January of the short course season, the intensity of your practices has increased, your body is more broken down and your motivation may be at an all-time low. The taper meet seems months away, and it’s easy to lose sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing. This is the time when swimmers are most vulnerable to wasting valuable practices by giving in to their mental and physical fatigue. Take note: If you want to become a winner, then you can’t allow yourself to do this.

You have to approach today’s training as if this is championship time! You have to mentally connect what you are doing right now in the pool with what you want to be doing at the taper meet. You have to create a sense of inner importance for today’s practice by directly linking it with your end-of-season goals. You do this by asking yourself the question, “How is what I’m doing today and right now going to help me get to where I want to go?”

By continuously connecting your big goals with what you are doing right now, you will out-work the competition, and in the process, distinguish yourself as a champion.

Keeping a Training Journal

BY DR. LENNY WIERSMA//Correspondent

The beginning of a swimming season is a great time to start a training journal, which is a written record of your performance and a consistent, positive and concrete reminder to keep you focused. Use the journal to make observations about how you feel physically or mentally, and describe your level of motivation, mood and confidence. By recognizing these things, you have taken the first step in gaining control over them and using them to your advantage. Personalize it however you want, but I recommend the following:

1. Buy a writer’s journal or spiral-bound notebook. On the first page, write out the following in big, bold print: What are your specific goals for this year? What are the major improvements you want to make during the season?

2. After each practice, date your entry, then list your practice goal, how you felt during practice (physically and mentally), and how you dealt with distractions or fatigue. End each entry with one positive note about practice, then with a powerful statement, such as, “I am strong,” or “Nothing can stop me.”

3. After each meet, write down your goals for the meet and the times you swam. Briefly describe how you felt physically and mentally, then what you learned from your performance. List any stressors you faced as well as how you attempted to deal with them. End each entry with a very positive, powerful statement, such as “I love the battle” or “London, here I come.”

Keep the journal simple so it doesn’t feel like homework, and make it as positive and motivating as possible. If nothing else, it will be quite a gift to yourself to look back over your swimming career and keep cherished memories of your experience.

Nick Brunelli's Keys to Success

This week’s Speedo Tip of the week comes from National Teamer Nick Brunelli. Brunelli offers his five keys to success.

Focus on now, but remember the future. You know that workout that slammed you yesterday? It's not only going to help you at your next meet, but also in 15 years when you have a big business meeting your boss puts you in charge of, and you have to work 20 hours in a day to get things going. You'll know what it means to work when you are tired. You won't be fazed by what others would consider an unreachable summit.

Assemble the moments. Every moment during the day there are choices to be made and throughout the day, they add up to create a feeling of how the day went. It’s up to you to choose correctly and match the goals you set in life with the choices you make in a day. Day after day, these choices add up to make that goal more attainable. If you want to go to the Olympics, it’s going to take many right choices throughout the day, every day, leading to that final moment at Olympic Trials. In the weight room doing that extra set, or during the last round of a set, force yourself to do everything right from your stroke to what you say to encourage others.

Be passionate and proud. Many people don't realize how much time and energy swimming takes up when done all-out. Be proud of the work you do in practice, and take that pride to become the best you can in anything you do. The best moments in many swimmers lives are right after the hardest sets or practices. Those moments are filled with feelings of achievement, success and absolute exhaustion.
Swim with meaning. Swim every stroke like you would want to swim when you achieve your goal time. The more times you swim with that perfect stroke, the sooner you will be swimming faster. When you decide to do something, fully commit to it. Commit mind, body and soul to your dreams and desires. This means on a daily basis making sacrifices that in the moment may not seem appealing but in the long run will matter the most.

When you fall, get back up. My favorite saying in recent years is, "Adversity causes some men to break; but others to break records." When you fall and get back up, use that as motivation to never fall again. Challenges that set you back and are later conquered can be some of the strongest motivation out there.

Swimming Fast When It Counts Most

Once you get to that big meet, your physical work and preparation are over. You’ve done everything to insure that your body has the physical capability to go fast. Now what you need is to keep your mind in a “gold medal place.” Swimming fast when it counts the most is all mental. The following three strategies will help you maximize your training and go fast:

1. KEEP YOUR RACE FOCUS ON PROCESS, NOT OUTCOME – One of the biggest mistakes that a swimmer can make is getting too caught up in the importance of the race, by focusing on their time or place. This “outcome” focus will make you nervous, tighten your muscles and slow you down. To go fast, your concentration must be on the “process.” Focus on what YOU are doing in your lane, in the NOW.
2. TRY SOFTER, NOT HARDER – When you place too much importance on a race, you will tend to try too hard. Trying too hard tightens muscles and shortens your stroke. It’s the game of diminishing returns: The harder you try, the slower you’ll go! Instead, try to relax and focus on lengthening your stroke by “trying softer.” Remember, your body already knows how to swim fast. Trust your training and let the fast swim come to you!
3. STAY CALM PRE-RACE – Many swimmers unknowingly “lose” their races before the start because they get too nervous. Swimming fast is all about staying relaxed pre-race. To do this, try any of the following: stretch, listen to music, talk to friends, slow and deepen your breathing, joke around and most importantly, have fun!

Keys to Success: Whitney Myers

This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week comes from 2005 and 2007 U.S. World Championships Team member Whitney Myers. Myers was also the 2007 NCAA champion in the 200 IM and NCAA Woman of the Year. Here are the keys to her success.

 

Have fun. Everybody says this, but it’s true. If you are not having fun, choose a different sport or hobby, or find a way to make it fun. When people are growing up, there are so many sacrifices you have to make to be an elite athlete.”

 

Set little goals for yourself along the way. This point relates to my first one, because it keeps it fun for me. Accomplishing goals helps you enjoy what you are doing. Goals go from times in practice to how many pull-ups in dryland, or having positive self talks, making social goals like, ‘I’m going to make at least one new friend at this meet.’”

 

Have a life outside your sport. That could mean applying yourself in school or having a hobby on the side, maybe arts and crafts, singing or riding a bike. It’s important to experience the world around you. There are days when swimming isn’t going so well, so if you don’t have other things going on, it can bring you down.

 

Be involved in whatever you are doing. Really immerse yourself. Get to know the people in your circle, and outside of it. Get involved with your team, your school, your family and your friends. Don’t just sit and let things happen to you. Go out and make things happen. Swimming takes up a lot of my time, but I still have a lot of balance. I love going to a meet and making new friends.

 

Make good decisions for yourself. That might be about food, about your sleep, about what you do on Friday and Saturday nights, or in school. Making the right decision time after time ends up giving you reward after reward, which add up and make you feel good. Plus, making smart decisions gets you respect. You want to earn respect for all you accomplish, not be one of those people who just wins all the time and isn’t respected.

Keys to Success: David Walters

In this week’s Speedo Tip of the Week, Olympian David Walters offers some advice on what you need to do to become the best swimmer you can be.

Practice: We do it all the time without thinking, but we should always think about it. You have to do the work in the pool, and do the work in the weight room. You can cut corners, but it comes back to you, and maybe you’ll get away with it in practice or a small meet, but when you get up on the blocks for that big race, you won’t stick the last turn. You won’t have that last burst of energy. You won’t have the technique you should’ve been honing. You have to make practice count. I lost a relay for our team against Cal, so I can tell you first-hand that if you cut corners, it will nip you down the road.

Maintain a positive attitude: You have to keep your head up. You can’t take things in this world personally and be in a constant state of stress, or compete with a bad attitude. Not having a positive attitude does not help. It makes things harder on yourself. I’ve learned that from Aaron Peirsol, seeing how great his attitude is even when times are harsh, like when it’s Thursday and we’re ready for the weekend. Aaron will say, “Let’s go, two more days of practice, and we’re to the weekend. Get it done!”

Understand how everything fits together: I feel like everything is a building block that needs to fit with the others. It can be overwhelming at times trying to focus on so many little things. So the best way to play the game is to take one thing at a time, get it right, move on to the next time and learn how it all fits together. If you do make a mistake, that’s okay. Learn from it, and don’t do it again.

Adversity: You might not realize it, but this is a building block unto itself, too, and how we deal with it defines us as people and can boost us as competitors. Dealing improperly with adversity is probably the No. 1 career destroyer – letting something bad get to you and not getting over it. You can’t be afraid to try again. You have to jump back in and nail that relay start, or make up that extra tenth of a second on that competitor you are chasing down. Don’t let mistakes slow you. Use them to propel you to be better.

Pre-Race Routines

BY JENNY SUSSER, PhD//Special Correspondent

Pre-race routines are valuable tools for swimmers that can help with pre-race jitters. A pre-race routine is what you do once you’ve arrived behind the blocks and before the gun goes off. Think about your favorite swimmer right now and try to remember what they do behind the blocks before a race. You might realize that it’s the same each time, race after race. Even Tiger Woods has a “pre-shot” routine!

Pre-race routines are important for several reasons. One is consistency. When you go to a meet, certain things will always vary: the pool, the blocks, the lane lines, the bathrooms, the officials and your competitors. Your pre-race routine will not vary, and that you can count on.

A second reason pre-race routines are important is that they can help “ground” you and make you feel more comfortable. Whether you are at home or away, it can help manage distractions by always giving you something to focus on. As you know, focus is key to swimming fast and when you get nervous, your focus unfortunately tends to go to how nervous you are and not your race or technical strategies.

To create a pre-race routine, think about the best race you’ve ever had and try to remember what you did behind the blocks. If you can’t remember exactly, it doesn’t matter, you just want to get the feel of it. Come up with a short pattern that you like, write it down, rehearse it for a few days until it feels natural, and voila!

Now, the most important part of the routine is not what you are doing physically, but what you are doing mentally during your pre-race routine. Come up with 2-3 positive thoughts to repeat in your mind and combine them with the physical pattern. That way you have a “job” for your body (something to do with the nervous energy) and a “plan” for you mind (something positive and supportive to focus on).

Jenny Susser is a sport psychologist with a PhD in Clinical Health Psychology. She works at the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for special Surgery in Manhattan.

Five Simple Things to get Faster

Kelton Graham, a senior coach with Club Wolverine, in Ann Arbor, Mich., offers a few simple suggestions to help you swim faster right now:

• Swim deliberate laps. There is always something to work on, whether it is proper hand entry or tight turns. Focus on those things and avoid swimming mindless laps.
• Streamline. This may seem trivial, but streamlining, along with the underwater dolphin kicks can be quite a weapon. Some refer to the dolphin kick as the "fifth stroke."
• Develop effective race strategies. Sometimes swimmers can improve the very next race if they change something in the way the race paces. Analyze your race. Did you go out too fast or too slow? Did you bring in your kick too early or too late?
• Relax before you swim. Enjoy the meet. Don't worry about the things you can't control. Focus on the things you can control in your lane.
• Warm up before and cool down after each event.
• Make sure to discuss your race with your coach before and after each swim.
• Don't be afraid to change things. If your coach makes a suggestion about how to get better, don't keep swimming the same way just because it worked in the past. Try something different.
• Make your weakness your strength. If breaststroke is killing your IM, hop in the breaststroke lane at practice. Or, spend time with your coach after practice and work on it.
• See what the best are doing and see if there is anything you can apply to your own race. Sometimes just watching others who are better than you can help you find things that you are missing in your own race. Talk it over with your coach and see if it fits you.

Swimming Fast When the Pressure's On

BY CHRIS CARR, PhD//Special Correspondent
One of the greatest challenges for a swimmer is learning how to be a great competitor, especially when the race begins.

In my years of experience as a sport psychologist, I have found that there are a few keys to performing well under pressure:

See competition as a challenge rather than a threat. If you prepare for your big event with excitement, anticipation and enjoyment, you will be able to get the butterflies in formation and use your nerves in a positive, performance-focused way. As a swimmer, your greatest challenge is the ability to improve your times in each event you swim. The other swimmers are irrelevant to your own performance, so if you are distracted by other swimmers in the race, you take away focus from yourself. See the race as a great challenge for your best performance to occur.

Have a planned pre-race mental routine. If you have a routine that you’ve used all season, do not change it at the big event. Trust in your routine will aid you in feeling composed, confident and focused. A good mental routine includes deep breathing, cue words (e.g. smooth, effortless, strong) and directed focus.

Narrow your focus as you get closer to your race. Whether you sit in a corner and listen to your iPod, or walk around with arms swinging and moving, it is important to allow yourself to begin focusing on your pre-race cues (e.g. smooth stroke, strong kick, -- words that represent your best swimming in that event) and manage the distractions by focusing on what you have control over and seeing yourself swim fast in your upcoming event. Many swimmers I’ve worked with have said that if they imagine a funnel, they see all the distractions at the top and their positive race cues at the bottom of the funnel, leading to a fast swim.

Before you start, take a deep breath. Just before you step up on the block, or jump in for backstroke, take a deep breath in through your nose (imagine cool, relaxed air entering your body) and a deep breath out through your mouth (releasing fears, anxiety, doubt from your body). Then find an “anchor cure,” a word that best describes your fast swim in this event, and focus on this anchor cue last before the gun.

Stay composed, confident and focused during and after your swim. Many swimmers I have consulted report that their fastest swims are often their easiest swims. Remember that once the race starts, your mind can switch off and trust your body to do the work.

Remember, sometimes when you swim badly you win, and sometimes when you swim fast you finish third. The key is to focus on your best race for each event you swim. Have fun, stay focused and swim fast.

Chris Carr, PhD is a Sport & Performance Psychologist with St. Vincent Sports Performance Center in Indianapolis. He is also USA Diving's National Team Sport Psychologist.

Kate Dwelley: Keys to Success

Kate Dwelley was named to the 2007-08 U.S. National Team after winning a bronze medal in the 200m free at the 2007 World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand. Here are the keys to her success:

Be happy. You have to be happy. When I’m happy, I use nervousness as excitement, which puts me in a better place. I have fun with swimming. I just swim better when I am happy. I took a class on sports psychology, and they said people who are happy are more likely to go out of their comfort zone and reach new goals.

Trust your coaches. Sometimes, you think, “I know everything about swimming,” but the truth is, your coaches know a lot more than you do. You have to trust that they know what is best for you. So give them your feedback, but know they have been working hard on a plan and have been putting a lot of thought into your program, so follow that.

Challenge yourself. Each time you try, even if you fail, you will learn a lot about yourself. Because the next time you come up against that barrier, you will know how to deal with it, how to move beyond it, and be ready for the next challenge.

Don’t rest on your laurels. You have to be looking for what that next step will be after you reach your goal. You have to achieve your accomplishment and then work toward the next step. That next step will be harder, but you want it to be so you can continue to gain new experiences.

Let the people who care about you help move you forward. You can’t do everything on your own, so make the most of your resources. But remember it’s a give and take, so don’t forget to give back to the people who are giving so much to you. Take time to help them with their own goals.

Reminders about Mental Toughness

BY LENNY WIERSMA, Ph.D.
To reach your goals, you’ll need to learn to deal with stress and keep a healthy perspective. Below is a list of five short reminders about mental toughness that every swimmer should follow:

1. You have to be in control of yourself before you are in control of your performance. Take deep breaths, slow down the thoughts racing through your head and smile.
2. Allow yourself room to fail. Remind yourself that taking a chance and failing is better than not having the guts to fight in the first place.
3. Swimming your best when you feel good is easy. Swimming your best when you are tired, scared or sick: now that’s an athlete. Remember, it’s not how you feel. It’s how you act. You don’t always have to be confident, but you should always act like it.
4. Last year, a 44-year old man ran 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days in 50 different states, then turned around and ran from New York to St. Louis, almost 1,300 miles away and the start of the first race. What’s the point? The 200 butterfly won’t kill you.
5. There’s a big difference between winning and competing. Learning how to compete is a much more useful skill later in life than the dusty trophy you won when you were 12.

Lenny Wiersma is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton, and a member of USA Swimming’s High Performance Network in Sport Psychology.

Defeating Negative Self-Thoughts

BY DR. AIMEE KIMBALL//Sport Psychologist
Have you ever said mean things to yourself like, “You are awful. You are the slowest person in the water,” or “There is no way I’m going to get better, I should just quit?”

If so, imagine how you would react if someone else said those things to you. You would definitely be angry and possibly push them in the pool. My point is, don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t let anyone else get away with.

Tips for helping you quiet the negative talk in your head:

Be your own biggest fan.
Imagine the president of your fan club standing on your shoulder wearing a T-shirt with your face on it telling you, “You’re awesome. You’ve worked so hard, I know you’ll do well. You deserve to be out here, show them what you got.” Cheer yourself on and have your “biggest fan” fill your head with positive thoughts.

Write down your negative thoughts.
Write a list of things you typically say to yourself, then counteract those thoughts with something positive. For example, if you write down “I’m not nearly as good as her. There’s no way I can win,” you can cross it out and say to yourself, “She’s fast, but I don’t control her. I am going swim my best and get a great time.”

Create more positives than negatives.

Any time you say something negative, make yourself say two things you’re doing well. For example, if you say, “My turns are awful,” you have to positively refocus yourself by saying, “I have a great stroke and my starts are fantastic.” Tell your coach, your teammates, and your parents to enforce this with you, too, in all areas of your life.

Make it Great!

Dr. Aimee C. Kimball is the Director of Mental Training for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Sports Medicine.