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?
Former Member
Several years ago I was surfing around looking for sports psychology (as those kinda things are interesting to me--wonder why?) and found this site. Most of it is 'pay to view' but there are several articles that are free, you might find interesting. Click on the archive link on the left.
swim psychology
Ask yourself if what you are doing, is working for you. Is the negative self talk getting you what you want? If it isn't, then ask yourself why you continue to engage in that behavior. Finally ask yourself how you can change your negative talk into positive criticism.
Most people have some self doubt and engage in critqueing their own behavior a sometime. When you feel the need to critque your performance, do it constructively. Instead of saying, "I suck.," Say, "My elbow wasn't as high as it should have been." That kinda of "negative talk" focuses you on how you could do better. Then you have to follow through and work on improving. Beware though that you shouldn't try to fix everything at once. Focus on ONE or TWO things. Don't worry about other things, and try try try not to make negative statements about the things you haven't chosen to change. As the things you have focused on improve (keep a chart), at the very least, remind yourself of how far you have come in both the skill and self talk (and reward yourself with a new suit, or fins, etc.), then select something else to improve. Now that's a positive way to approach the problem.
Positive reinforcement increases behavior and punishment decreases behavior. Then there's omission and negative reinforcement (which isn't the same as punishment) but I'll hold those for another lesson.
A simple behavior mod technique for eliminating negative thoughts (would be considered punishment): wear a really good, thick, stiff rubber band on your wrist at all times. The second a negative self thought pops into your head, pull that rubber band back and give your wrist a good stinging snap.
Lainey
Everyone:
Thanks for all the awesome feedback. It is so hard to pull yourself out of a state of "swimming depression" alone; it's hard to see anything good about yourself.
Karen - those are really great ideas - picking out something small and attainable. Yeah, I need confidence - that's for sure. My next few Saturdays are crazy but I plan to show up soon....
Thank you for the kind words.
Don't forget to give yourself some positive self talk... my elbow wasn't as high as it should have been but my hand entry was pretty good.
using both the positive and negative will decrease the unwanted self talk and increase the positive thoughts.
Lainey
"I know this is kind of a rant....but how does one really feel good about themselves as a swimmer yet avoid being delusional?"
What's so wrong with dulusions? I swim in the psychology pool five days a week, and yea, sports psychology -it's a post grad degree from a few colleges and universities. :rolleyes:
Very helpful I suppose for the oober awsome and elite athletes, and yes, it starts with positive self talk and guided imagery, but that is also counseling 101.
The idea of dulusions however is not a bad thing... If thinking, and racing, like you are next to Phelps, Thorpe, and Spitz --there is nothing wrong with that and would be encouraged.
Now if you think you are Phelps or Thorpe we have medication for that!:D
Give it time. You should be able to feel how good you are when you swim. Balance is applicable to all aspects of your life so work on your general self-esteem. Try not to compare yourself to other people, because everybody's body is different and works differently. Do the best you can.
You might try reading some of the interviews at www.usolympicteam.com. Athletes from a variety of disciplines have discussed how to deal with failure and frustration and it helped me a lot.
You might find the book "The Warrior Athlete" by Millman useful.
In one section, he suggests that you treat yourself as you would treat others. Do you go around yelling at other swimmers, "You suck! You aren't good enough!" ? Shouldn't you be as courteous to yourself?
In my view, there is a world of difference between "(I'm okay now, but) I could be better" versus "I'm not good enough now".
Originally posted by Fishgrrl
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?
If you want to improve your times - even set a world record - that's not delusion, it's desire. Now, if you believe that you've already set a world record (when you haven't), that's delusion!
I really don't see any conflict between "positive thinking" and honestly regarding "how you swim and what needs to change/improve". It's pretty hard to believe that your times are going to get better unless you can see things that need to change/improve about how you swim.
Bob
