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?
Everyone has that voice in the back of there head that at times tells us some variation on"you suck."There are several ways to deal with it and no one thing works for everyone or even all the time.Some find it helpful to just say to it "shut up." Positive imagery as Ande suggested is also often helpful.Some can just ignore it.One thing I suggest is to recognize it is really meaningless and that it is just something you do when stressed.I tell myself "there you go again,playing the old tapes,that doesn't make it true,it's just what you do when your stressed."
Everyone has that voice in the back of there head that at times tells us some variation on"you suck."There are several ways to deal with it and no one thing works for everyone or even all the time.Some find it helpful to just say to it "shut up." Positive imagery as Ande suggested is also often helpful.Some can just ignore it.One thing I suggest is to recognize it is really meaningless and that it is just something you do when stressed.I tell myself "there you go again,playing the old tapes,that doesn't make it true,it's just what you do when your stressed."
