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?
I have struggled with the negative self-talk for years, since I swam competitively as a kid. I have always looked back and wondered why I didn't swim better than I did, and I think the negative self-talk was a big part of the reason. I have decided that I am tired of having my head hold me back, and I have really been working on not being that person anymore. The last time I went to a meet (last spring, I don't compete often), I said, OK -- I am not going to sabotage myself, I am going to get psyched, I am going to tell myself that I CAN do this. I just don't want to be that person anymore. And it worked well -- all of my times dropped. So, it can be done. If I, the queen of the negative self-talkers, can do it, so can you. It hits me in practice, too -- I am still fighting it. But things that help me are focusing on the interval at hand, rather than the whole set. Tell yourself that you will do this one bit well, and don't think about the rest. Lately I have been working on not obsessing over how hard I am breathing -- instead of thinking "I'm really tired, I need to rest," I try just to get my breath under control and just swim strong. I figure it's a mind over matter thing. But as I said, I am still a work in progress. Keep fighting it -- it's worth the fight.
I have struggled with the negative self-talk for years, since I swam competitively as a kid. I have always looked back and wondered why I didn't swim better than I did, and I think the negative self-talk was a big part of the reason. I have decided that I am tired of having my head hold me back, and I have really been working on not being that person anymore. The last time I went to a meet (last spring, I don't compete often), I said, OK -- I am not going to sabotage myself, I am going to get psyched, I am going to tell myself that I CAN do this. I just don't want to be that person anymore. And it worked well -- all of my times dropped. So, it can be done. If I, the queen of the negative self-talkers, can do it, so can you. It hits me in practice, too -- I am still fighting it. But things that help me are focusing on the interval at hand, rather than the whole set. Tell yourself that you will do this one bit well, and don't think about the rest. Lately I have been working on not obsessing over how hard I am breathing -- instead of thinking "I'm really tired, I need to rest," I try just to get my breath under control and just swim strong. I figure it's a mind over matter thing. But as I said, I am still a work in progress. Keep fighting it -- it's worth the fight.
