Ande has done a great job of having all the various physical aspects of swimming covered but I need help with the mental aspects.
I'm really struggling with negative self-talk while I'm swimming. It feels like there's a huge jumbo-tron in my brain and messages are just running accross it non-stop while I'm swimming:
'Give up'
'ease up'
'quit'
'breaststroke's coming up, why not stop?'
'you suck'
I'm having trouble getting this stream of consciousness to stop. Not only that but I feel like such a fraud with my kids when I'm coaching. I stand there and tell them to get tough mentally but I seem to have the mental fortitude of a Krispy Kreme.
Not being able to 'get out of my head' seems to only happen when I swim.
Help?
On more than one occasion I've found myself thinking "high elbow, high elbow" in the last 25 of a 200 Free race. Autopilot would probably be far superior to talking to myself.
I agree with you on this. I find that in my longer events (200 and up), there is ample time to tweak/maintain a technical mental thread (kind of like a checklist) as I plow throw each lap and the turns.
However, when I get to the 50's, it's like all I can think about is turnover and maintaining an "even keel".
On more than one occasion I've found myself thinking "high elbow, high elbow" in the last 25 of a 200 Free race. Autopilot would probably be far superior to talking to myself.
I agree with you on this. I find that in my longer events (200 and up), there is ample time to tweak/maintain a technical mental thread (kind of like a checklist) as I plow throw each lap and the turns.
However, when I get to the 50's, it's like all I can think about is turnover and maintaining an "even keel".
