Believe it or not, the way you practice today is going to have a direct result upon your results in the near future.

Amazing as it may sound, it is true - during today's training or practice (just as it does every day), your subconscious mind will record all your thoughts, attitudes, times, strokes, your level of effort, and your emotions towards your swimming - and use all this information towards your races at a meet in the near future! This is a fact of the human body - the subconscious is your body's control center of all movement and also the huge filing cabinet containing your entire life's memories - including all your swimming 'experiences'. This is where all your 'experience' is stored which you draw upon at each meet.

So it is a good idea to provide good daily habits for your subconscious to record for your future races. This means that, as I mentioned once in one of my tips on consistency, if you want to be consistent in meets, then you must be equally consistent in your daily practice. Physical and mental consistency. You see, your subconscious is constantly eavesdropping on you all the time, and using your thoughts, habits and actions to create your future results, right from the here and now.

Yes, this means your subconscious pretty much already knows how you will go at your meet in a week's time - because your body is already programmed to achieve a particular result! The blueprint for this future swim is already there - it was created by your past habits, thoughts and actions over the past few months and even years. The best way you can positively change your next race's inner blueprint is to change your body's 'programming' (within your subconscious), and this is how you do this:

Basically this means that your inner swimming computer is constantly being updated by your everyday thoughts and actions right here, right now. It uses this data to instruct your body in your future races.

So be warned - those days in practice when you may feel like slacking off a little will be noted by your subconscious - but at the same time, here's the GOOD news from this:

I've been hearing a lot lately about the occasional team mate who 'cheats' in practice (simply to impress the coach with their times), but be heartened to know that those swimmers who do this will never, ever succeed in the long term - as these swimmers are programming their minds with a daily message that says "I am not good enough to do it the right way, I have to cheat". Sure, they may get a few minutes of (ill-earned) glory now, but that will basically be it - you will never have to seriously worry about these swimmers as future competitors, because cheats never make it.

This means that 'today' DOES affect what will happen tomorrow - and what you do today in practice will make a difference to your meets in a few week's time, so don't waste the opportunity you have right now, at this very moment. If you truly want positive results in future, create positive habits in your training that will echo throughout your meets in future. In essence, I am saying you must become the person (now) you wish to be (later). Don't wait and just hope it will happen, MAKE it happen - and this means you have to work with in the 'now' - and that means today's training session.

So ensure that during your daily training each day that the data (or thoughts) you put into your computer (or mind) will give you the printout (results) that you desire in your races. Create the daily habit of being positive and consistent, and these attributes will slowly but surely permeate your inner being and follow you to every meet.