sport psychology

hi there, i found here a lot of useful informations regarding technique and training, plus tip for reading (eg fastest swimming - by the way, an excellent book), for which i am thankful, but dit not found anything about sport psychology. does someone have a good advice, a recommendation what book to buy, what to read ? does this book helped you? thank you I'm not as good a swimmer as many of the people on this site. But I am a very skilled runner, if I do say so myself. In running, I deal with psychological barriers a lot more then I do in swimming. The main reason is, that our races tend to be longer. But that's aside from the point. A great deal of the time, races are won and lost due to determination, not fitness. How useful is the physical fittest swimmer if they give up halfway through the race even though they haven't reached their physical peak? Some people are like this due to low Id, (Id is sort of like mojo) self confidence, and determination. Determination can't be gained easily. You really have to want to win. (hopefully, you are already determined. As for Id/self confidence, there are several ways of increasing this: 1. Blend almonds, water, and milk and drink a cup the morning of the race. Surprisingly, this actually gives me a boost of confidence going into races, which overall helps me perform better. 2. Placebo effect. If you can convince your brain that you are on steroids, your brain will actually trick your body into developing some of the attributes of someone on steroids. That's just an example of the placebo effect. 3. SLEEP! 8 hours sleep is a MUST. 4. Inspirational music can help some people. Listening to music you love before may inspire you to do better. In fact, if you listen to music while you run/swim, you'll find that you will be able to go a lot faster for longer periods of time. I, for example, PRed on my mile time with a 5:02 last year while listening to the free bird solo. For this reason, don't listen to music while you train. Once you start a race with no music, after being used to it for awhile, you'll find yourself going a lot slower then usual. Instead, try to replay songs in your head as you swim a race, especially if it's a longer race. This will distract you from the pain, and may very well influence you. These are all just observations from my experience. I hope this helped.

hi there, i found here a lot of useful informations regarding technique and training, plus tip for reading (eg fastest swimming - by the way, an excellent book), for which i am thankful, but dit not found anything about sport psychology. does someone have a good advice, a recommendation what book to buy, what to read ? does this book helped you? thank you I'm not as good a swimmer as many of the people on this site. But I am a very skilled runner, if I do say so myself. In running, I deal with psychological barriers a lot more then I do in swimming. The main reason is, that our races tend to be longer. But that's aside from the point. A great deal of the time, races are won and lost due to determination, not fitness. How useful is the physical fittest swimmer if they give up halfway through the race even though they haven't reached their physical peak? Some people are like this due to low Id, (Id is sort of like mojo) self confidence, and determination. Determination can't be gained easily. You really have to want to win. (hopefully, you are already determined. As for Id/self confidence, there are several ways of increasing this: 1. Blend almonds, water, and milk and drink a cup the morning of the race. Surprisingly, this actually gives me a boost of confidence going into races, which overall helps me perform better. 2. Placebo effect. If you can convince your brain that you are on steroids, your brain will actually trick your body into developing some of the attributes of someone on steroids. That's just an example of the placebo effect. 3. SLEEP! 8 hours sleep is a MUST. 4. Inspirational music can help some people. Listening to music you love before may inspire you to do better. In fact, if you listen to music while you run/swim, you'll find that you will be able to go a lot faster for longer periods of time. I, for example, PRed on my mile time with a 5:02 last year while listening to the free bird solo. For this reason, don't listen to music while you train. Once you start a race with no music, after being used to it for awhile, you'll find yourself going a lot slower then usual. Instead, try to replay songs in your head as you swim a race, especially if it's a longer race. This will distract you from the pain, and may very well influence you. These are all just observations from my experience. I hope this helped.