Sports Psychology and the art of feeling good about yourself....or not
Former Member
Confession time: I struggle with a committee in my head (and I've tried to ignore 'em) that tells me things like...."you suck"..."you'll never get any better", blah blah blah.
Now that BillS has encouraged me to delete that dreaded work from my lexicon, I am sure that another one will pop up.
I know this is kind of a rant....but how does one really feel good about themselves as a swimmer yet avoid being delusional? Seriously....how do you keep a balance of positive thinking while being able to honestly regard how you swim and what needs to change/improve?
What do you guys do? Is it good coaching, simply having a solid self esteem in the first place....?? Is it simply that people carry their low self esteem into the water...if so, how do you overcome that...?
Thoughts?? What in the world is sports psychology anyway?
Parents
Former Member
I often had that or similiar asked of me when I was coaching racewalkers. The answer I often gave was this:
Get lost in the process of your training.
Reasons:
You will achieve your best results from training; not from worrying about arbitrary goals or how you stack up against everyone else.
We set goals for ourselves, not realizing that they usually become barriers at the same time. "I'd be happy to swim XXX for YYY" means that you've probably just created your own Everest. Just swim and blow right through the barriers.
If you keep one eye on your "goal" you will only have one eye to find the path to that goal.
-LBJ
P.S. I urge you to pick up a copy of the book "Zen in the Martial Arts". There are several chapters that would be most instructive here. It's a short and accessible book.
I often had that or similiar asked of me when I was coaching racewalkers. The answer I often gave was this:
Get lost in the process of your training.
Reasons:
You will achieve your best results from training; not from worrying about arbitrary goals or how you stack up against everyone else.
We set goals for ourselves, not realizing that they usually become barriers at the same time. "I'd be happy to swim XXX for YYY" means that you've probably just created your own Everest. Just swim and blow right through the barriers.
If you keep one eye on your "goal" you will only have one eye to find the path to that goal.
-LBJ
P.S. I urge you to pick up a copy of the book "Zen in the Martial Arts". There are several chapters that would be most instructive here. It's a short and accessible book.
