Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Teaching Story: The Secret to Outracing Your Competition
In 1988, at the age of 17, Eric Namesnik achieved his lifelong swimming dream and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Swimming in the 400-meter IM in preparation for the Seoul Olympics.
Erik had told me that before this, he had never really thought about a goal to medal at the Games. He just wanted to qualify for Trials. That had always been his “big enough why.” So going into this huge meet, Erik put absolutely no pressure on himself, having already reached his dream!
Leading up to prelims, he was totally oblivious to the other seven swimmers in his heat as well as who was in any of the other heats. Feeling relaxed and confident, he ended up swimming the race of his life and the second fastest time of the morning, qualifying him as the second seed going into finals!
Of course, between prelims and finals, swimmers always have a lot of time to think — and Namesnik, like many other athletes, made “good” use of this time! First he thought, “All I have to do is swim the same time and at 17 years old, I'm going to be on the Olympic Team!”
Then, when his excitement of that possibility started to fuel his nervousness, he started thinking about the other seven swimmers who had qualified for finals. One of these was a previous bronze medal winner. Several others were NCAA finalists in that event and all seven were older and bigger than he was.
By the time finals rolled around, he didn't want to swim against these guys, he wanted to get their autographs! He told me before finals that he was totally in awe of them. As a consequence, in finals, he swam over 3.5 seconds slower than he had in prelims! Of course, the good news here is that by the time the next Olympiad rolled around in 1992, not only did Namesnik make the team, but he came home with a silver medal in his event. And then he did the exact same thing in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics.
However, Namesnik's story in 1988 is a classic one and representative of a very common mental mistake that swimmers frequently make when they're racing under big-meet pressure. He lost control of his focus of concentration and spent way too much time thinking about his competition!
When you, as a swimmer, allow your focus to “leave your lane” mentally either before or during your race, you'll get nervous, lose your confidence and set yourself up to choke! In fact, this is THE primary cause of swimmers getting intimidated and psyched out pre-race: Focusing on other competitors! In order to swim your best when it counts the most, you need to learn to discipline yourself to keep your focus on what YOU are doing; on the feel of YOUR movement both before and during your race!
This means that pre-race, your focus needs to be mainly on YOUR pre-race routine and on nothing and no one else. When you stretch, jump up and down, swing your legs back and forth or whatever else you do behind the blocks to loosen up, your concentration needs to be on the feel of that movement.
Similarly, during your race, your focus needs to be on what you're doing between your two lane lines, on the feel of your movement thru the water. This could be the feeling of staying long each stroke, how much water you're pulling, feeling your hips high in the water, your breathing pattern, under-waters, pace, etc.
Far too many swimmers get totally distracted by what's happening in other lanes and get too caught up concentration-wise with needing to beat their opponents or not lose to them. This causes you, as a swimmer, to begin to think too much which then takes your focus away from the feel of your movement. The instant this happens, you will tighten up and slow down.
The secret to beating specific opponents is what I call a paradox! That is, the more you focus on your competition and needing to beat them, the lower the chance there is that you will actually do that! The more you focus on executing YOUR race strategy and the feel of YOUR movement thru the water, the greater chance you'll have of beating your opponents! The way I like to break this down is as follows: 95% of your race focus needs to stay between YOUR two lane lines on the feel of your movement, and the remaining 5%, way in the background can be peripherally on your opponents.
If you really and truly want to beat certain other swimmers, do not allow them to have a lot of “air time” in your head either before or during your races. They are NOT your toughest opponent. You'll always find your toughest opponent looking back at you in the mirror, first thing in the morning!
As a Sports Performance Consultant, Dr. G works with swimmers at every level from Olympians right down to age groupers. A popular presenter at coaches clinics and clubs around the country, Dr. G specializes in helping swimmers get unstuck and swimming fast when it counts the most. Dr. G. is the author of Swimming Fast When It Counts The Most, DMTS (Developing Mentally Tough Swimmers), and his newest mental toughness training program, Swimming With The Competitive Edge.
Interested in more tips?
https://www.competitivedge.com/mental-toughness-tips-swimming/
Erik had told me that before this, he had never really thought about a goal to medal at the Games. He just wanted to qualify for Trials. That had always been his “big enough why.” So going into this huge meet, Erik put absolutely no pressure on himself, having already reached his dream!
Leading up to prelims, he was totally oblivious to the other seven swimmers in his heat as well as who was in any of the other heats. Feeling relaxed and confident, he ended up swimming the race of his life and the second fastest time of the morning, qualifying him as the second seed going into finals!
Of course, between prelims and finals, swimmers always have a lot of time to think — and Namesnik, like many other athletes, made “good” use of this time! First he thought, “All I have to do is swim the same time and at 17 years old, I'm going to be on the Olympic Team!”
Then, when his excitement of that possibility started to fuel his nervousness, he started thinking about the other seven swimmers who had qualified for finals. One of these was a previous bronze medal winner. Several others were NCAA finalists in that event and all seven were older and bigger than he was.
By the time finals rolled around, he didn't want to swim against these guys, he wanted to get their autographs! He told me before finals that he was totally in awe of them. As a consequence, in finals, he swam over 3.5 seconds slower than he had in prelims! Of course, the good news here is that by the time the next Olympiad rolled around in 1992, not only did Namesnik make the team, but he came home with a silver medal in his event. And then he did the exact same thing in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics.
However, Namesnik's story in 1988 is a classic one and representative of a very common mental mistake that swimmers frequently make when they're racing under big-meet pressure. He lost control of his focus of concentration and spent way too much time thinking about his competition!
When you, as a swimmer, allow your focus to “leave your lane” mentally either before or during your race, you'll get nervous, lose your confidence and set yourself up to choke! In fact, this is THE primary cause of swimmers getting intimidated and psyched out pre-race: Focusing on other competitors! In order to swim your best when it counts the most, you need to learn to discipline yourself to keep your focus on what YOU are doing; on the feel of YOUR movement both before and during your race!
This means that pre-race, your focus needs to be mainly on YOUR pre-race routine and on nothing and no one else. When you stretch, jump up and down, swing your legs back and forth or whatever else you do behind the blocks to loosen up, your concentration needs to be on the feel of that movement.
Similarly, during your race, your focus needs to be on what you're doing between your two lane lines, on the feel of your movement thru the water. This could be the feeling of staying long each stroke, how much water you're pulling, feeling your hips high in the water, your breathing pattern, under-waters, pace, etc.
Far too many swimmers get totally distracted by what's happening in other lanes and get too caught up concentration-wise with needing to beat their opponents or not lose to them. This causes you, as a swimmer, to begin to think too much which then takes your focus away from the feel of your movement. The instant this happens, you will tighten up and slow down.
The secret to beating specific opponents is what I call a paradox! That is, the more you focus on your competition and needing to beat them, the lower the chance there is that you will actually do that! The more you focus on executing YOUR race strategy and the feel of YOUR movement thru the water, the greater chance you'll have of beating your opponents! The way I like to break this down is as follows: 95% of your race focus needs to stay between YOUR two lane lines on the feel of your movement, and the remaining 5%, way in the background can be peripherally on your opponents.
If you really and truly want to beat certain other swimmers, do not allow them to have a lot of “air time” in your head either before or during your races. They are NOT your toughest opponent. You'll always find your toughest opponent looking back at you in the mirror, first thing in the morning!
As a Sports Performance Consultant, Dr. G works with swimmers at every level from Olympians right down to age groupers. A popular presenter at coaches clinics and clubs around the country, Dr. G specializes in helping swimmers get unstuck and swimming fast when it counts the most. Dr. G. is the author of Swimming Fast When It Counts The Most, DMTS (Developing Mentally Tough Swimmers), and his newest mental toughness training program, Swimming With The Competitive Edge.
Interested in more tips?
https://www.competitivedge.com/mental-toughness-tips-swimming/