It's All In Your Head

One of the most important parts of swimming, or really of any sport, is your attitude. Your attitude, thoughts, confidence, and how you handle pressure can influence your performance and can either help you or break you.

In Developing Swimmers, Michael Brooks explains that "Swimmers who work hard and smart in daily training, who are used to setting goals and working to reach them, and who are getting better every day will generally be confident in their abilities" (Brooks 181). It is important that you set goals and work for them. You have to believe that you can do it in order to actually give yourself a fighting chance. Don't get in your head too much, make it fun and enjoy it, but also know when to be serious and when to push yourself.

Throughout this book, certain rules are listed in order to help the swimmer perform to their best ability such as, expect to swim fast, get tougher for tougher conditions, race hard and finish the job, and learn from experience (Brooks 185,186).


Expect to swim fast: When you have low expectations of yourself and begin to overthink everything that may have gone bad leading up to your race like, you didn't get enough sleep, its not your best stroke anyways, you ate junk food, its almost the end of the season so why try along with other things, you trick yourself into believing all of it and psyching yourself out. The moments before your race are the most crucial. Stay positive and accept the challenge of the race and push yourself.  "Swimmers have to walk to the blocks having already said to themselves, ' I have trained my guts out and I'm going to do whatever it takes to swim fast, no matter what.' A focused laser beam will cut through anything in its way" (Brooks 185).


Get tougher with the conditions: Swim meets can be unpredictable, especially when it comes to the weather. Swimmers may use the weather as an excuse to not perform their best but it is up to them to decide if it will make them or break them. They can easily decide if they will let it affect them. "The worse the conditions, the more champions step up, prove their championship qualities, and separate themselves from the crowd. They focus at the task at hand, don't worry about what they cannot control, and don't waste their effort thinking up excuses for not swimming fast" (Brooks 184).

Race hard and finish the job: Many athletes set goals for themselves throughout the season. Never give up on those goals. Some may come extremely close to a goal only to barely miss it and then they immediately give up and feel that they have failed. If a goal is slightly missed, you should change that failure into a reason to try harder. You were clearly close to reaching your goal so you know you're capable of it, so never stop and push yourself harder.

Learn from experience: A race is never wasted. You can always improve and learn from yourself and how to be better for next time.  Just because you failed once, twice, three times, or maybe ten times doesn't mean you can give up. Use each race to your advantage, learn from it, change and improve. You have to work to be better, so put in the time.

 "Swimmers with dreams of greatness must be willing to confront their weaknesses and improve them" (Brooks 186).

For any sport it is important to trust yourself and what your capable of. Believe in yourself and you are already half way there. It is hard to live up to not only your teams expectations but your own, so just take time to remind yourself why you do it and never forget to have fun!

When you compete do you overthink and sometimes begin to doubt yourself? What are some things you do to stay positive, confident, and relaxed?

Brooks, Michael. Developing Swimmers. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2011. Print.