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

ABCs OF MENTAL TRAINING: V IS FOR VISUALIZATION

BY AIMEE C. KIMBALL, PHD, CC-AASP

You’ve all been told to imagine yourself swimming your best race. You’ve undoubtedly sat up before a big meet and thought about how you were going to do and tried to “see” yourself winning. This article will discuss how to make the most of your imagination and how to visualize correctly so that you’ll reap the performance benefits.

It Really Works
Without going into the science or citing a bunch of research, there is a lot of evidence on the power of visualization in sport as well as many other domains. Basically, there are various theories as to why it works, some claim it strengthens neuropathways while others think it is effective because it bolsters psychological skills. Regardless of WHY it works, the majority of the research does show performance is enhanced through visualization, provided the athlete does it correctly.

The Keys
I should really stop calling it visualization because technically the correct term is “imagery.” The reason it’s not “visualization” is because when doing it correctly, you are using more than just your visual sense. The first key to proper imagery is to incorporate all of your senses. Not only should you see yourself swimming well, but you should feel your hands pulling through the water, smell the chlorine, hear the crowd, and maybe even taste the Gatorade you drank as you were preparing for your race. Vivid details are essential for imagery to be effective.

Another important aspect is to try to imagine your race in real time. I know a few coaches who give out stopwatches to their swimmers and have them imagine their race as close to their goal time as possible. Along with this is the need for controllability and positivity-you must dictate where your imagination takes you and you should ensure you are always imagining a desired outcome and correct technique.

For added benefit, include mental cues and positive self-talk. You can create a CD/Mp3 that you listen to that will guide you through the race. Such guided imagery should include positive statements to program your race-day thoughts (ex: “As I pull through the water I feel how strong and powerful I am” or “As you stand on the blocks you focus on only your lane and feel confident in your preparation and are ready to race your best”).

Do it often, don’t wait until right before your meet to imagine the race you want. When you wake up every morning you can imagine performing well in your upcoming events. Before practice you can visualize your goals for the day. Before each set you can quickly imagine how this will help you in a race. It can even be helpful to picture something not going as planned (ex: goggles snap, a bad race, etc.), but imaging an appropriate and effective reaction (though I suggest keeping everything positive the night before/day of a race).

Déjà Vu
The purpose of imagery is to mentally prepare you for various situations. You want to have vividly imagined every aspect of race day so that when you arrive at the pool, your mind thinks it has already been there, done that. Your mind can’t always tell the difference between what’s real and what it’s created, so by convincing it that you’ve already successfully swam this race you’ll be calmer, more confident, and appropriately focused—a state of mind that in and of itself will help you to perform your best. Also, the more you feel yourself swimming (rather than imagining your race like you’re watching a video of yourself), the easier it will be to create this Déjà vu experience. So go start mentally rehearsing your future success now!

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

Reposted from USASwimming.org