I'm thinking the level of anxiety I have leading up to meets, especially championships, is telling me competition is not worth it for me. I wish I could see myself improving through a season so that I can be excited to find out how fast I'm going to race at the end of it. Unfortunately, I'm at that age where I'm only getting slower, and I don't have the technical background to draw upon that some others do. I always feel relieved just after a big meet, but in the months and weeks leading up to one, I have anxiety even going to the practice pool. I dread the fact that I'm facing work, not leisure. That almost guarantees a bad practice. 'Sounds crazy doesn't it? Is it time for me to quit competing? In re-reading my first sentence I'm considering, maybe I need a therapist to help me learn what small reward keeps me going back to something so stressful, or to figure out how to give myself permission to quit. I saw a video on USA swimming in which they mention, Ryan Murphy used to puke before big events. That was a little validating. So how do you forumites manage your anxiety? Or if you don't have any, how did you achieve that serenity?
I was nervous before my first usms meet and think I dehydrated myself emptying my bladder multiple times. But after a few more meets they become more of a routine, less nerves and lots of fun. Keep telling yourself nobody cares except you, and you are there to have fun. A couple of other thoughts.
If you can, swim in meets with separate male and female heats (especially for longer stuff like 100+ , that way you won't be "waked" as badly. Swim the short races 25s and 50s in meets with both male and female seeded in the same heats (you won't be repeatedly hitting wake after wake in a 25 or 50).
Swim some meets as "experimental swims" or learning experiences without thinking about best times - try different udk, kick beats, breathing patterns, pull, recovery, strokes, etc. so you are focused on what you are doing and not on how you are doing. An internal focus on what you want to do can go a long way towards eliminating the other thoughts that make one nervous (like how did I do or look). From the learning experiences become focused on what it is you want to do with each swim in the meet.
For longer events, don't be quite as aggressive with your seed times, so you aren't seeded into heats with much faster swimmers and will have competition along side. This is harder to do at smaller sized meets.
Getting older does mean getting slower, eventually everyone does get slower and the national qualifying times reflect this (although I think my age group only has a bunch of really fast swimmers left and me - haha).
Don't give up - meets can be a lot of fun.
I was nervous before my first usms meet and think I dehydrated myself emptying my bladder multiple times. But after a few more meets they become more of a routine, less nerves and lots of fun. Keep telling yourself nobody cares except you, and you are there to have fun. A couple of other thoughts.
If you can, swim in meets with separate male and female heats (especially for longer stuff like 100+ , that way you won't be "waked" as badly. Swim the short races 25s and 50s in meets with both male and female seeded in the same heats (you won't be repeatedly hitting wake after wake in a 25 or 50).
Swim some meets as "experimental swims" or learning experiences without thinking about best times - try different udk, kick beats, breathing patterns, pull, recovery, strokes, etc. so you are focused on what you are doing and not on how you are doing. An internal focus on what you want to do can go a long way towards eliminating the other thoughts that make one nervous (like how did I do or look). From the learning experiences become focused on what it is you want to do with each swim in the meet.
For longer events, don't be quite as aggressive with your seed times, so you aren't seeded into heats with much faster swimmers and will have competition along side. This is harder to do at smaller sized meets.
Getting older does mean getting slower, eventually everyone does get slower and the national qualifying times reflect this (although I think my age group only has a bunch of really fast swimmers left and me - haha).
Don't give up - meets can be a lot of fun.
