I started swimming competitively at age 8, and for nearly that long have had the same issue: I swim pretty fast in practice, but when it comes to meets, my results are not so spectacular. I find that the people who swim in my lane during swim workouts all get times 5-10 seconds faster (on sprints to mid-distance), than I do. I kind of avoided pool swimming and did open water for a while, but recently swam and the same issue is still there.
I don't feel like I get overly anxious about my swim events. At least not enough to hurt performance, and I usually have enough rest and food, etc. beforehand. It's less of an issue with distance swims - which makes me think that there's a switch turned off my brain that would make me really 'work it' when in a competition.
Any suggestions? :confused:
I am the same way. Either that or I really misread the clock! It's made for some disappointing meets.
In practice I swam the 400 meter free in 6:20, no dive, at the end of a hard practice; at a meet I did 6:29. Grrrr.
I notice I get very tense before meets, so I'm pretty sure my whole body tightens up. Warming up is not always relaxing, either! And then there is the sitting around after warming up, then warming up again/cooling down. Etc.
I too am a distance swimmer, and I think I push myself a lot in practice so that may be why there isn't that much difference in my times. (Though Ande says to swim fast in meets you have to swim fast in practice????)
Also, I too never get much sleep before meets so usually am swimming on about 4 hours, but I think that's not that uncommon.
My coach has talked to me about visualizing events, which I do, and in my visualizations I am swimming very fast and do amazing times, but actually I think I am supposed to slow the visualization down, really feel each part of my race in order. I am not very patient with this so have not achieved the slowed-down visualization but am working on it.
I still long for a Zen meet where I am amazed at my times and how little effort it seemed I put into my swims.
I am the same way. Either that or I really misread the clock! It's made for some disappointing meets.
In practice I swam the 400 meter free in 6:20, no dive, at the end of a hard practice; at a meet I did 6:29. Grrrr.
I notice I get very tense before meets, so I'm pretty sure my whole body tightens up. Warming up is not always relaxing, either! And then there is the sitting around after warming up, then warming up again/cooling down. Etc.
I too am a distance swimmer, and I think I push myself a lot in practice so that may be why there isn't that much difference in my times. (Though Ande says to swim fast in meets you have to swim fast in practice????)
Also, I too never get much sleep before meets so usually am swimming on about 4 hours, but I think that's not that uncommon.
My coach has talked to me about visualizing events, which I do, and in my visualizations I am swimming very fast and do amazing times, but actually I think I am supposed to slow the visualization down, really feel each part of my race in order. I am not very patient with this so have not achieved the slowed-down visualization but am working on it.
I still long for a Zen meet where I am amazed at my times and how little effort it seemed I put into my swims.
