The old discussion format left dangling an interesting topic suggested by Paul Smith in the rather excellent Distance vs Sprint thread started by Jim Thornton. The topic being that of the mental side of training/competition.
My own selfish interest in this area would be on the mental preparation for 50yds/m competition. Obviously there is not much time to do a great amount of thinking during this event (one of the benefits of 50's) but you need to go into the race with some limited number of important thoughts to concentrate on while swimming. Kind of like 'swing thoughts' in golf (my cross over training sport). As in golf, muscle memory will play a large part in not having to think about everything involved.
I wonder if Paul or any others would care to share what those few key race thoughts might be, from the start, swim and turn through to the finish? And would there be any mental aspects to training for a 50 that might be different from distance training?
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Former Member
Ian; I'd like to take a whack at it, since I am definitely a sprinter. My Butterfly licence expires at 109.63 yards........ Assuming you haven't been out of the water for years, a short race is almost entirely mentally driven. Psyching yourself up is part of it. Read the heat sheet-see who the competition is-think about winning and/or having a best time. A good long warm-up, 700 yds. minimum and some sprints to fire up the fast twitch muscles. Oh, I forgot, stretch every muscle you can find on your body before the warmup. If the facility allows, some hard kicking and stroking close to the event fills up those muscles with blood and, hence, energy. To do well, ya gotta believe you CAN do well. Take this to the bank: If you think you can, you might. If you don't think you can, for sure you WON'T. Visualize ! Imagine the race- how many kicks before surfacing, exactly when are you going to breathe, see yourself touching the pad and looking up at a best time. Try to keep Adrenalin under control until about one heat before yours. Then get as scared as you please. Now, if you kick my hindey next time we compete, I want some credit !!!
Ian; I'd like to take a whack at it, since I am definitely a sprinter. My Butterfly licence expires at 109.63 yards........ Assuming you haven't been out of the water for years, a short race is almost entirely mentally driven. Psyching yourself up is part of it. Read the heat sheet-see who the competition is-think about winning and/or having a best time. A good long warm-up, 700 yds. minimum and some sprints to fire up the fast twitch muscles. Oh, I forgot, stretch every muscle you can find on your body before the warmup. If the facility allows, some hard kicking and stroking close to the event fills up those muscles with blood and, hence, energy. To do well, ya gotta believe you CAN do well. Take this to the bank: If you think you can, you might. If you don't think you can, for sure you WON'T. Visualize ! Imagine the race- how many kicks before surfacing, exactly when are you going to breathe, see yourself touching the pad and looking up at a best time. Try to keep Adrenalin under control until about one heat before yours. Then get as scared as you please. Now, if you kick my hindey next time we compete, I want some credit !!!
