Yogi Berra is famously quoted as saying"90% of hitting is 50% mental".I am not sure of the accuracy of those percentages,but the mental aspect of swimming a race is important
.What do you do mentally to swim fast?Inquiring minds want to know.
I thought I'd get it started by telling about the mental aspect of my 200 M BR from Nats.
The morning of the race I was not confident.I had swum the 50 and 100 BR well and still gotten beaten by Robert Wright.Fortunately I have found that confidence is neither necessary nor sufficient to swim fast.
I was excited,excitement and anxiety are identical physiologically,it is only a matter of attitude and labeling and I was choosing to label my feeling as excitement
I visualize my race for about 30 min before I swim.I found I was having a lot of negative thoughts as I was doing so(it's going to hurt,you're going to go out too hard and die,you're going to go out too slow and embarrass your self,etc.)After each negative thought I would erase it(literally visualize taking an eraser to the thought and replace it with a positive thought,such as you will swim with easy speed,you will feel smooth and powerful,etc.)I kept having the recurrent thought I needed to "swim hard",but I realized I did not want to swim hard,I wanted to swim fast.
At SCY Nats I had gone out too slowly in the 200 yd BR and could not catch the leaders,so I made it a conscious thought that I would not let Robert get too far ahead.This was a potentially dangerous decision because if he went out too fast we could both die the last 50,but I figured"no guts,no glory."
I have very few conscious thoughts during a race,which is strange since my mind won't shut up the rest of the time.On the block I try to focus only on being ready for the beep.In the air on the startIi remember thinking"good start"(I felt I had been slow off the block in the 100 BR.)
I count every stroke in practice so I always have a preconscious count going in my head.That was to prove useful in this race.At the first turn Robert was a little ahead,but my stroke count was 17(I don't count the pull out) so I thought"I'm a little behind and my stroke count is only 17,I'm right where I want to be."
My second 50 stroke count was 20 and I was even with Robert so I began to feel a little optimistic(not confident,just a little optimistic.)
With about 3 strokes left in the 3rd 50 I felt tired.I think this is where training is very important,because I had a lot of experience swimming tired,so I (mostly) took it as information instead of a reason to slow down.My stroke count for the 50 was 21 1/2(yes I took a 1/2 stroke into the wall,no that is not a good thing,being tired was a little distracting.)I was ahead at that point,my stroke count was still good and I started to feel a little more optimistic.
In retrospect what was conspicuous in it's absence the last 50 was feeling tired.I have had times in a SCY 200 BR where I come up on the last turn and the wall seems miles away.This time I came up saw the wall and thought"only one more length,you can do this."
In the 100 I was ahead of Robert at the turn and never saw him and yet he touched first.I knew better than to look,so I just assumed he was speeding up and swam as fast as I could.
When I hit the wall I looked over at Robert's lane first.He was there,but had he just gotten there?Had I won.I looked at the scoreboard and saw a 1 next to my name,so I had a wave of exultation,but the time didn't make sense.I had been pretty consistently swimming 2:52 in major LCM meets for years(when I wasn't slower.)I figured Robert would be 2:51.I hoped he would swim a high 2:51 as I thought if everything went right I maybe could beat that.
The time said 2:50.44,I knew that couldn't be right.I heard the announcer say that the World Record had been broken.I thought,"sure the world record was 2:50.77 so 2:50.44 broke it."Only then did it make sense,2:50.44 broke the world record,2:50.44 was next to my name,#1 was next to my name,therefore I had broken the world record.The logic was flawless.At that point I pulled myself out of the pool and although I was too exhausted to stand I was so excited I don't think my feet touched the ground.
I feel I have to say one of the great things about Masters is that while we are competitors we are also friends.I couldn't have gone nearly that fast without Robert and.
That is my story,what is yours?
Former Member
Thanks Jim. However, even though moving into the ancient age categories, I like to think I'm not old enough yet to bore forumites with pre-history war stories.
But to stick to Allen's topic, the mental aspects of sprinting are like the golf swing: the more things you think about, the more likely you are to screw up.
I liked some advice Rich Abrahams once gave for a 50: "kick like hell". Assuming you have prepared properly in training (a la Ande's SFF), if you stick to Rich's one-thought advice everything else falls into place.
Ian.
My races are also short, 50s and an occasional 100, so I don't think much about strategy during the race. For me, the mental preparation occurs during training, and it's usually in trying to push myself through sets where I'd really like to back off. My thoughts are pretty simple in that my mantra is "adaptation," and hope that I've stimulated enough of whatever aspect I'm working to come back as fast or faster the next time.
I have found that I've got the racehorse mentality in that if I'm swimming against someone as fast or faster, I'll push myself more and tend to wind up with a better time.
I have a love/hate relationship with seed times however. If my time is in the top 3 of the heat, it builds confidence. And if there's someone who's posted a faster time, I can get psyched out initially, until the race starts. But when the race starts I forget about seed times and just worry about beating the competition.
Lately for my 50 and 100 free races I think head down, fast turnover, and kick like mad. I've noticed in various practice runs that if I don't focus on a fast, strong kick then my turnover is slightly slower, and my time is slower. I also hope that if I've worked my stroke technique correctly in practice, then I won't suffer from too much slippage with the higher turnover.
Sorry for the rambling, just my thoughts.:bliss:
I saw it.
I heard the whimpering, too. Thank god there were no veterinarians in the lanes next to him.
They would have put him down.
I do remember seeing that race and thought that he was going to break Larry Day's World Record from 2001 at the time because he was out at the 100 in 1:05.52 to Larry's 1:07.98 and he still had a chance at the 150 at 1:43.23 to Larry's 1:45.43 and then the last 50. Everyone experiences this including myself in the 200 Back at this last Nationals.
A W R is the top feeling that you can have !!!
Mine was winning the 200 fly at Mesa Nats. I thought thru that race for weeks before doing it, good start , keep goggles on & dry for contacts, full pull on each stroke, do great turns with 5-7 kicks off each turn, don't look around , try to finish with a good last 50. All this stuff is going thru my pea brain every race. To win a national title is some thing I could only dream of till this day! What a feeling. I never saw any of the crowd until after after I made eye contact with my wife !!!
Rich, a great guy on our team got diagnosed with this odd autoimmune problem that caused extreme back pain and other joint problems. They didn't know what it was at first, but when they figured it out, they put him on prednisone and it worked wonders. Supposedly, the condition is self limited and supposed to go away in a year or two. He cut off the prednisone, and his symptoms returned, so he's back on an extremely low dose but doing quite well.
Good luck, and very sorry to hear about any discomforts you may be feeling.
Jim,
Just to make sure the auto-immune story is clear - this is what I have and not Rich! Hopefully it will go away - it has really killed my 100 which was never great.
My signs of dementia, however, are unlikely to diminish although I certainly remember having a beer or two with yourself and he who must not be mentioned.
It is sad to hear that Bill Muter passed away - he was one of those I have lost to - in Cleveland, I believe. Puts a mere auto-immune problem in perspective.
Ian.
Allen, great story. Thanks for posting.
I'm a newbie to racing. Until recently, I thought of swimming (or any form of exercise) as recreation or fitness, never as sport. As I've gotten more competitive in my swimming, I'm amazed by the mental aspect of it.
I can't believe how much fun it is to race another person. I never knew I could have these two thoughts at the exact same time: 1.) Wow, we make a great team! and 2.) I don't care if my heart explodes, I just don't want him/her to pass me.
When I'm competing with someone, I feel like my smart, human brain disappears and my animal brain takes over. I feel a really strong bond with the other person, like dolphins in a pod or antelopes in a herd. I never knew it was possible to want the win so badly but have such a warm feeling toward the other person at the same time.
In the past few weeks, I've made a breakthrough on the mental aspect. A part of me has always been afraid to go all out. When I go all out, it feels like I'm giving up control. For some reason, it makes me think of skydiving--once you jump out of that plane, you can change your *mind* but your *body* is in for a free fall whether you like it or not.
A couple of weeks ago, when I was trying to do a fast 1,000 by myself, the mantra "I'm in God's hands" came to me. In other words, I can only control my effort. My speed, comfort level, etc. are out of my control. To swim my best, I have to surrender to that reckless feeling.
In that surrender mode, my thinking turned off. I still had focal points for my stroke, but they were either visual or tactile. No words. I had fleeting awareness of other people, my level of fatigue, etc., but they passed quickly. I could almost visualize myself swimming past those awareness, just like swimming past a buoy or a fish. If conscious thought popped into my mind, I just repeated my mantra.
At the end of it, I felt great mentally, physically, and spiritually. Plus I PR'd on the 1,000.
Very nice.I think that "surrender" mode can really help with dealing with anxiety.
Allen, great story. Thanks for posting.
I'm a newbie to racing. Until recently, I thought of swimming (or any form of exercise) as recreation or fitness, never as sport. As I've gotten more competitive in my swimming, I'm amazed by the mental aspect of it.
I can't believe how much fun it is to race another person. I never knew I could have these two thoughts at the exact same time: 1.) Wow, we make a great team! and 2.) I don't care if my heart explodes, I just don't want him/her to pass me.
When I'm competing with someone, I feel like my smart, human brain disappears and my animal brain takes over. I feel a really strong bond with the other person, like dolphins in a pod or antelopes in a herd. I never knew it was possible to want the win so badly but have such a warm feeling toward the other person at the same time.
In the past few weeks, I've made a breakthrough on the mental aspect. A part of me has always been afraid to go all out. When I go all out, it feels like I'm giving up control. For some reason, it makes me think of skydiving--once you jump out of that plane, you can change your *mind* but your *body* is in for a free fall whether you like it or not.
A couple of weeks ago, when I was trying to do a fast 1,000 by myself, the mantra "I'm in God's hands" came to me. In other words, I can only control my effort. My speed, comfort level, etc. are out of my control. To swim my best, I have to surrender to that reckless feeling.
In that surrender mode, my thinking turned off. I still had focal points for my stroke, but they were either visual or tactile. No words. I had fleeting awareness of other people, my level of fatigue, etc., but they passed quickly. I could almost visualize myself swimming past those awareness, just like swimming past a buoy or a fish. If conscious thought popped into my mind, I just repeated my mantra.
At the end of it, I felt great mentally, physically, and spiritually. Plus I PR'd on the 1,000.
"I CHOOSE TO GET EXCITED!"
LOVE this philosophy Allen!
As Elainiak :cheerleader:always tells us... You rock!
:D
I can relate to that quote; because that is my choice, too! :bliss:
Nice interview with Allen Stark! www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../27896.asp
"I CHOOSE TO GET EXCITED!"
LOVE this philosophy Allen!
As Elainiak :cheerleader:always tells us... You rock!
