i've been training my hardest in practice, but in meets its just not there.
i dont know what could be wrong, but i have a hunch its my attitude. i have difficulty getting psyched up before events or else i just feel soooo sleepy and emotionally/physically drained.
while i swim i know i can go faster, but i just can't. and after swimming my events i don't even feel tired or dead like i should be feeling, as if i've held a part of me back while swimming.
i give it my all in practice, but fail in swim meets... and i haven't improved in a long time.
can any of you offer tips? suggestions?
Swimchickee:
I am assuming that you want to swim in meets and are not just a fitness swimmer. (If you don't want to, don't. Meets require a tremendous mental energy for most of us. Many swimmers avoid them.)
If you do want to swim in meets, it sounds like you've diagnosed yourself. You sound like you a have mental "meet" block and are psyching yourself out. Negative thinking leads to more negative thinking and becomes self-fulfilling. Forgive yourself for those other swims and move on. We all need to train our brains as much as our bodies. This is not always easy to do.
I recommend you go right out and and buy Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide To Inner Excellence by Gary Mack. My son came home with this book one day and I read it. It was not your standard psychobabble/self-help stuff. It was fairly useful and insightful and surveyed athletes in many sports. It does say, among other things, that competitive toughness is an acquired skill, not an inherited one. Hang in there.
Swimchickee:
I am assuming that you want to swim in meets and are not just a fitness swimmer. (If you don't want to, don't. Meets require a tremendous mental energy for most of us. Many swimmers avoid them.)
If you do want to swim in meets, it sounds like you've diagnosed yourself. You sound like you a have mental "meet" block and are psyching yourself out. Negative thinking leads to more negative thinking and becomes self-fulfilling. Forgive yourself for those other swims and move on. We all need to train our brains as much as our bodies. This is not always easy to do.
I recommend you go right out and and buy Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide To Inner Excellence by Gary Mack. My son came home with this book one day and I read it. It was not your standard psychobabble/self-help stuff. It was fairly useful and insightful and surveyed athletes in many sports. It does say, among other things, that competitive toughness is an acquired skill, not an inherited one. Hang in there.
