How much anxiety do you have before a meet?

The answer is no more suffering. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).All anxiety is easily released as you tap on meridian points while bringing up the negative followed by a positive statement. "Even though I get nervous and anxious before competition, I don't want it, I don't need it and I choose to let it go." Or even though I have this fear ( false evidence appearing real)... and whatever the fear is, I don't want it , I don't need it and I hoose to let it go." Positive statement ts can be, "I choose to be confident, calm and in control." or " I choose for my stroke to be strong, powerful with my antagonistic muscles relaxed.", "I choose to block out all external and internal thoughts." , this is the Zome (Flow) so many try for and never achieve. Check out my web site www.tommeade.com Sounds awesome! certainly worth a try!

I meditate and use various mindfulness techniques. They are useful and relaxing, but I can never truly quiet my mind with them. Similarly in workouts. I actually do some of my best thinking in workouts. Sometimes,not often, in a major meet I can get into a flow state where there is no thought while having heightened awareness. Achieving that state is worth any pre- meet jitters for me.

First off, Betty, I can absolutely relate. I have been a competitive swimmer practically my whole life from age 5 to now 51, with a fairly substantial (but not complete) break from age 22 to 34. I blew a lot of races in college as I let my anxiety get the better of me. When I first came back to Masters swimming and went to my first Nationals in 2001, I went in with no expectations and just looking to have fun. I loved it. I got a little edgy behind the blocks, but nothing too distracting. At my second Nationals in 2002, though, I went into the meet with GOALS for each race. I totally let my anxious monkey mind get the better of me in the very first race ... and then did even worse in the second race with my performance completely a function of my mind. The night before my last race, I completely took my mind off the meet with a nice meal with my family. I removed any expectations of what I wanted to achieve, had no thoughts about what I needed to achieve ... I just got on the blocks and let my body do what it knew how to do. My third race went smashingly well! Though I can't say I always do this, I have found that the best way for me to swim well and fast is to swim relaxed. The single best way to do that is to try, in the heat of the moment of the meet, to not be attached to the outcome. Let your mind go and focus on the fundamentals. One of the ways I practice this is completely counter to everything my coaches told me when I was growing up. I was always told to "swim my own race" and to "keep my blinders on" so as not to pay attention to the others in the pool. Now, though, I find that actually concentrating on racing the others in the pool helps keep my mind clear and far away from any expectations that otherwise might spin me into anxiety. I will also echo that taking time away from racing can help ... especially if you are forced to take time away. I missed essentially all of 2017 due to shoulder issues, but was back at Nationals in Indianapolis this year. I soooooooo missed racing by that point that I was just happy to be there. In addition, that break also allowed me a little more mental distance from prior years' results, so I was pretty detached from comparisons.

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.

Thanks Sojerz!

When I first came back to Masters swimming and went to my first Nationals in 2001, I went in with no expectations and just looking to have fun. I loved it. I got a little edgy behind the blocks, but nothing too distracting. At my second Nationals in 2002, though, I went into the meet with GOALS for each race. I totally let my anxious monkey mind get the better of me in the very first race ... and then did even worse in the second race with my performance completely a function of my mind. This is my problem exactly. For me, goals = anxiety. Goals lead to self-induced pressure and therefore anxiety. It may also be that my goals are unrealistic. The better I do in a meet, the higher I set the bar for the next one. Or, I think, ugh! I now have to train that hard again next season just to hold that time? So, more pressure! I also find that racing in a reasonably matched heat helps because my focus shifts away from everything in my head to the simplicity of the racing. Sometimes that still leads to panic when I find I am trailing, but it only lasts as slow as I swim.

You know, if you train well, the outcomes will show what progress you've made with it. Up until the point you get on the blocks, you've set your goals, trained to your goals, you've done the work. There is nothing more you can do than relax and enjoy the ride of the labor you've put in. If you are true to yourself and the work you've put towards your goals, it will show, so why not have fun with it? That said, you still get butterflies, but that's the body's way of telling you, "I'm amped up and ready to race!!" :) You can do this, Betty. Just have fun.

Besides doing your homework in practices and preparing for the races you have set out to compete in, I would advise that you create a pre-race routine for yourself. It's a great coping tool that athletes can use to steady their nerves and increase control over their thoughts before races. Here's an article by sports psychologist Jennifer Lager that gives further insight into the pre-race routine: www.swimspire.com/.../ Good luck!