Many young athletes often under perform when racing in a heat with one of their mates or a specific rival. Somehow, that athlete in their heat throws them off and they end up under performing.
Such races are a great opportunity to provide feedback on mindset and suggestions on how it can be adjusted.
This is a race feedback I gave to Joleen, a young 11-year-old at the regional level after her 200 back race.
“Mrs. Joleen!” I said enthusiastically.
“How was this for you?”
“Not good!” she answered feeling down.
“What? Says who?” I replied trying to point out to her that “not good” was only one way, one perspective to look at her race.
“I increased my time by a second.” She said justifying why it was not good.
“Is that really gonna help you learn anything?” I said re-emphasizing that it is the lessons in the races that are meaningful, not their times.
“No”
“That’s why I never talk about best times.
What’s more important is, did you give it your best shot?” I said looking at her. (We always say give your best shot as opposed to try hard)
“I don’t think so?” she answered in a question form.
“I don’t know that, only you know, so this is a yes or no.”
“It’s a no, I didn’t do it.” she answered lowering her head.
“Okay, no problem, so how did that happen?”
“Well, I think I was worried about how the race would go and then when it came to the race, I was like just forget about it.” She said nonchalantly.
“Pardon?” I said loudly wanting to hear more about the worry and forget about it.
“When it came to the race, I thought that just forget about it, nothing’s going to happen, you’ll like go slower than you actually want.”
“So okay, now that’s not really a racing channel, is it?” The racing channel is the mindset each swimmer experienced when performing their best race ever.
“No.”
“So how you got yourself to that? I have a feeling that being in the same heat as your mate Sabrina might have had something to do with this.” I’ve noticed their rivalry in practices and also how Joleen is often letting Sabrina beat her before she even gave her a go.
“Yes, it did a lot.” She confirmed with some relief.
“It did? Okay, so run me through this.”
“When I thought about it, that Sabrina was in the same heat as me I got super worried.”
“Worrying about?”
“Like, oh she’s gonna beat me, she’s faster than me and all of those things.”
“Now was it with you yesterday that we talked about at the very least, wait until the race is over before letting somebody beat you?” I wasn’t sure because this is not just Joleen who is calling forth this kind of feedback after her races.
{Swimmer nodding sheepishly}
“It was right? So, you kind of did that today in this race. You told Sabrina without using words huh? That you’re gonna beat me cause you’re better, and your braces are better than mine.” I said funnily to loosen her up.
She giggled realizing she had done this. She had told Sabrina, inside her head, that she would beat her. And the race had not even begun yet!
“So does that work for you, letting your opponents beat you before you even give yourself a shot at it?”
“No”
You’re sure it’s not working for you?
“No it’s not.”
“So, what are you gonna do about it then?”
“Don’t think about who is in my heat.”
Well, that seems simple and a good idea, but in practice, is it going to be easy for you to do? Instead, what you could do is every time you think about Sabrina you could say something like this:
It’s alright, Sabrina, she’s a good swimmer, she’s tough. Maybe she can beat me, but if she wants to beat me, she’s gonna have to go hard cause I’m not gonna make it easy for her. So come on, let’s see what she’s got!
Okay? And now with this approach, you have more chances to get the best out of yourself and Sabrina will have to swim and sweat to beat you.
So does that help?
{Swimmer nods}
Actually, I have another thing to ask you.
How does what you just shared with me relates to you having the challenge of getting your right spot in your lane? Do you see a relationship? (Joleen is frequently not in her rightful position in her lane. Slower swimmers often go before her. And she is hesitant to confront the slower swimmers to take her rightful spot.)
“Yes!” Surprised to see how the two relate.
“It’s related right? You have a tendency to be not where you belong in the lane, be behind people you should be ahead right?”
“So, do you see how that works together? It’s the same kind of attitude.”
“So, I think by working on taking the right spot in the lane and telling people like: “no, no I’m faster than you, I’m going first” you’ll also be working on not letting people beat you before the race has even begun.”
“Ok? That makes sense?”
“Alright, very good!”
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