Create Your Dream Swim Race - Mind Training Tips for Swimmers

I am sure you, like most swimmers, have experienced a time when you felt like you were 'in the zone', where every action flowed absolutely perfectly and effortlessly. These are times when you feel, even just for a few minutes, like you are the world champion. Well, those times when you felt invincible can propel you towards even greater success in the future!

You can do this by mentally constructing your own 'dream race'. This is something you can use and practice in training, so that when you reach the big meets, you will be ready to put your dream race into action. Here's how you do it.

• First of all you need a pen and paper, and then I want you to really think hard through the archives of your memory bank, because I want you to remember the time and the place that you did the 'best dive you've ever made'. Yes, you CAN remember if you try hard enough! Your best dive ever.....think for a moment. OK, once you've remembered, write down the word 'Dive' on the paper, followed by the location, date and the event where you had this fabulous dive. Now, I want you to think back over all the meets and training you've done in the past and remember the best 50m you ever swam in your life, in your favorite event (or you can even use an entire race, if you like). Then, write it down next to the word 'Race' (including the location and event you did this).
• Now, remember the best turn you've ever done (this might take some real brainwork to remember this one, but you can do it if you keep your mind focused on it). Once you remember your 'personal best turn', write down the location, date and event (naturally) next to the word 'Turns'. OK, we've nearly finished creating your dream race.
• Now, last of all, remember your most brilliantly powerful finish ever, think of one that really stands out - and write down the time and place of this next to the word 'Finish'. Your dream race is complete, and you are ready to use it.
• Now look at the paper and look at the best race segments you've ever swum - your best dive, your best laps (you use the 50m lap you wrote down for every single lap of the race), your best tumble turns, and your best-ever finish.
• OK, now close your eyes, and now join that race all together in your mind, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle of film and video clips. Put them all together as one race, and this is now the movie of you at your absolute best!

Mentally play this through your mind regularly, especially at training, and make this dream race your goal to achieve in training and the meets. Then, rewind and play it through your mind again, and again, and again until you know it backwards. When you can do this, you will soon notice your times coming down and the quality of your strokes improving. As time goes by and perform even better dives, laps, turns and finishes, add these to constantly update your dream race, taking out any old race segments which are no longer your best ever.

So if you haven't done created your dream race yet, go and do it right now. Use this as your 'benchmark', the peak of your swimming career that you aspire to achieve all over again. By remembering and using your dream race, it will bring you plenty more in the future!