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?
Ian,
Having been on the road for some time I have'nt had any time to get involved on this topic (which I touched on in the previous forum). The reason that I brought it up was that I hear quite a few people talk about their workouts, but when we start going to meets all to often all the great training gets "lost" and people "choke".
I look at mental training in two ways:
1) Day in day out "motivation". What is it that keeps people getting up and hitting the pool at all hours in all conditions abusing themselves?! For me I have three things that keep me focused: Health/fitness, friendships & meets.
2) Race Prep: I think this is the area that stumps a lot of people, the truth is that winning races is usually not decided by who is in the best shape, but rather who is the better prepared mentally.
The sad part is that there is no tried & true formula! What works for one person may be terrible for the next (I need to relax, visualize and get myself quietly worked up, my wife is bouncing off the walls and usually driving me crazy!). I thought Bert actually summed it up very well.
Bottom line if you want to be good at racing is to get out and swim as many meets as you can, experiment and find what works for you!
Ian,
Having been on the road for some time I have'nt had any time to get involved on this topic (which I touched on in the previous forum). The reason that I brought it up was that I hear quite a few people talk about their workouts, but when we start going to meets all to often all the great training gets "lost" and people "choke".
I look at mental training in two ways:
1) Day in day out "motivation". What is it that keeps people getting up and hitting the pool at all hours in all conditions abusing themselves?! For me I have three things that keep me focused: Health/fitness, friendships & meets.
2) Race Prep: I think this is the area that stumps a lot of people, the truth is that winning races is usually not decided by who is in the best shape, but rather who is the better prepared mentally.
The sad part is that there is no tried & true formula! What works for one person may be terrible for the next (I need to relax, visualize and get myself quietly worked up, my wife is bouncing off the walls and usually driving me crazy!). I thought Bert actually summed it up very well.
Bottom line if you want to be good at racing is to get out and swim as many meets as you can, experiment and find what works for you!
