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GETTING YOUR MIND RIGHT FOR COMPETITION
When you get to the competition situation, there are a number of things that can
affect your performance in the water. One of these things is the mental approach
you have to the race. It is not difficult to see that some people cope with the
mental side of competition better than others do. A good thing for swimmers to
be able to do is to control the mental state in the time before competition. If
you can manage to do this well then the race probably has a better chance of
going the way you would like it to.
It is difficult to say what the correct frame of mind before competition would
be, as this is a very individual thing, but the following examples of things you
can do might help you to develop your own way of getting to the perfect mental
state.
The skills have been split into two sections to help to give you some idea of
what to use when. The two sections are the last twenty minutes and the last two
minutes.
DEVELOPING THE CORRECT FRAME OF MIND
20 MINUTES T0 GO
This period of time is one that can be used to control the mental state so that
when the pressure really comes on (eg when you stand by the blocks) all you have
to do is to "tweak" or "fine tune" how you are mentally. Therefore what you do
to prepare mentally in the last twenty minutes will set up a mental platform or
base. If you do not do this then it is quite likely that when you stand by the
blocks you will have too much to do mentally in the time available to you.
POSITIVE STATEMENTS - use these to help yourself to focus on the good aspects of
your swimming and to create a confident feel.
RELAXATION - using short relaxation methods can help you to keep your cool and
can also help as preparation for using imagery in a slightly relaxed state.
GOAL FOCUS - thinking clearly about what you are trying to achieve can help to
focus your mind and to increase the feelings of control over your race.
RACE PLAN - using imagery to run through your race plan in your mind can help
you to see success and develop confidence and also help to focus your mind on
what you want to do in the race.
TWO MINUTES TO GO
At this point in time your mental preparation is almost complete and it is now a
question of maintaining what you have got. This can be done by trying some of
the following techniques to keep what you have already got or to alter and fine
tune so that you can be in an ideal mental state as you are on the blocks.
FOCUS ON YOURSELF - at this point in the mental preparation it is crucial to
focus on you and you alone. Using the following techniques will help you to
avoid distractions and maintain your focus on what you are going to do.
KEY THOUGHTS - using key thoughts and phrases can help you to think about the
right thing at the right time and could be related to any goals you have about
how you want to swim the race.
IMAGE - using images of yourself swimming well could be useful as well as images
used to help you to get a good start such as a powerful, explosive action.
CENTRING - this is a breathing technique that you could use as you are standing
ready to get onto the blocks or even whilst on the blocks themselves.
The process of centring itself is a very simple one and involves two steps:
1) Whilst standing with feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent you
focus in on breathing from the stomach. Concentrating on this brings you away
from any distractions.
2) With one breath you should, on breathing out, feel yourself solidly balanced.
This will happen at the same time as your centre of gravity drops a slight
amount as your knees bend further as you breathe out. It is at the end of this
breath that you will be ready to redirect your attention to, for example, a key
thought.
It is important that whatever mental preparation you find most useful before a
race should be practised during training and in smaller competitions so that you
can automatically go through your individual mental skills without having to
think about it when it really matters. This will only happen as a result of
practice.
SWIM 2000 - SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY - TIM HOLDER
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