Swimming in the Zone, Your Peak Emotional State Mind Training Tips for Swimmers

You may have never noticed it before, but you are in a particular mood every time you swim at your best. All you need to do is find out what it is! Moods (or emotional states) are vital to your chances when swimming important meets. They are somewhat less important in training - as it's difficult to get as emotionally charged in training as you might in an important meet. Every swimmer possesses their own winning mood which will bring them with their own best possible performance. When you swim at this level, we call this mental state the zone - as mentioned in some of my earlier tips.

There are hundreds of different moods and emotional states, but I have narrowed them down to 4 main ones, which are important for swimming (or sport in general). They are:

• hyped & excited
• calm & focused
• nervousness
• anger (although this one is not as common for swimmers - it generally works better for athletics and boxers!)

It's important to try to find out what your own peak emotional state is, so you can try to 'get into' that mood before an important race. The way to do this is to create a Mood Chart, like the one below. This allows you to map out what your winning mood is over the course of 20-30 races.

All you do is simply write down how you feel emotionally before each and every race, and then 'grade' each swim afterwards on a scale of 1 to 10, as to how good the swim was. So (for example only) you might have a list of swims which look like this:

Date, Emotion Before Race, Swim, Best?
4th, Nervous, 6, no
5th, Hyped/Excited, 9, YES!
11th, Calm/Relaxed, 5, no
12th, Hyped/Excited, 8.5, YES!
18th, Angry, 3, no
19th, Calm/Relaxed, 7, no
25th, Hyped/Excited, 9, YES!

As the above example shows, this swimmer's three best performances were when they were hyped and excited, and their worst result came on the day that they were angry about something. Yet other swimmers might find that this is the exact opposite for them, everyone is different. This is valuable information worth knowing before you go into any race.

So, if the chart above shows that this swimmer is best when hyped and excited before a race, they might use motivational music from a walkman to help them get hyped-up and into their peak emotional state. As the chart also suggests that anger is their worst mood of all, they should probably avoid getting emotionally upset or angry before races - this could mean staying away from people who might irritate them before they go out for a race!

If a swimmer discovers that they are best when they are calm and relaxed before races, they could use relaxation techniques and /or music to help get them in their peak emotional state. For swimmers who swim best when they are angry (and there are some of them out there!) they can actually practice looking for reasons to get angry, such as pretending that everyone in the race thinks that they are the worst swimmer on the block, etc. Let me point out once again that every single swimmer is different - you have to find out your own peak emotional state, and only you can do it.

By recording this information for about 20-30 races, it will reveal your personal moods which give you your best (and worst) performances. Once you know this, you will have an advantage over other swimmers - because most swimmers do not have any idea about this at all if you ask them, and a vast majority are hugely surprised by the results of the mood chart by the time it is completed! So begin 'mapping' your moods, because they are constantly changing, and you need to know which ones will bring you the best performances. I also make similar charts for some swimmers which also map out their sleeping patterns and meals before races, so they end up compiling data which tells them how much sleep, what particular foods, and what emotional states will bring them their best swims!

Try it, and see if you discover some information about yourself you didn't know. Knowledge is power, and power wins races.