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
The past it is 6 years to the day that this thread was brought up.
I used to go to a swim meet. There I would be greeted by all kinds of swimmers. Looking in mirrors hypnotizing themselves, others no eye contact they were told by their coaches to think you hate your competition. Some strange goings on.
Whenever I saw this I would try to distract them from whatever they were doing.
Rejean Lacoursiere used to hypnotize him self before he raced. One time he was at the side of Lake Ontario in a hypnotic trace saying to him self - The Water Is 70 degrees over and over again. I walked up to him took the temperature of the lake it was 52 degrees. I showed him the themometer and said no its 52 degrees. He swam 5 miles of the fifteen mile race and got out.
The past it is 6 years to the day that this thread was brought up.
I used to go to a swim meet. There I would be greeted by all kinds of swimmers. Looking in mirrors hypnotizing themselves, others no eye contact they were told by their coaches to think you hate your competition. Some strange goings on.
Whenever I saw this I would try to distract them from whatever they were doing.
Rejean Lacoursiere used to hypnotize him self before he raced. One time he was at the side of Lake Ontario in a hypnotic trace saying to him self - The Water Is 70 degrees over and over again. I walked up to him took the temperature of the lake it was 52 degrees. I showed him the themometer and said no its 52 degrees. He swam 5 miles of the fifteen mile race and got out.
