PVC Mental Strategy 28

Drop Your Expectations, Drop Your Times

Your Pre-Meet Routine:
  • Show up to practice with no expectations.
  • Listen to the coach, explain set one, then push.
  • No time to think, just do it!
  • Listen to the coach, explain set two, then push.
  • No time to think, just do it!
  • And so on for the next two hours.
  • You surprise (amaze) yourself by swimming “near best times” in practice beaten up and broken down.
  • How does that happen, you wonder?
  • You have no clue, but you’ll take it.
  • You go home satisfied, looking forward to the next meet where you plan to “kill it.”
Your Meet Routine:
  • You remind yourself (on the way to the meet) that you did “near best times” in practice, and you plan to kill it today.
  • Your parents remind you that you did “near best times” in practice, and you’re going to kill it today.
  • Your coach reminds you that you did “near best times” in practice, and you’re going to kill it today.
  • Your teammates remind you that you did “near best times” in practice, and you’re going to kill it today.
  • You bomb out, not one best time the entire meet, except for relays (and that’s another story).
  • You felt exhausted in every race, and your arms and legs felt like led.
  • You tell yourself, “I swim fast in practice but die in races; something must be wrong with me.”
Summary:
  • So what’s wrong?
  • I know, do you?
  • What one thing is absent when you train but present when you race?
  • If you guessed “expectations,” you’re 100% correct!
  • Expectations are the death knell for most non-elite swimmers.
  • In a recent study, 94% of non-elite swimmers (with high expectations) performed below them in competition, while only 6% met or exceeded them.
  • So if you’re one who places high expectations on themselves and fail to meet them, what can you do?
  • The answer is simple.
  • Stop expecting, just do it!
  • It works for you in practice, and it will work in competition too.
  • From now on, if someone asks you about your swim meet expectations, respond by saying, “Time will tell” or “We’ll see.”
  • This is just the beginning of the process, more to follow …

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