What’s the difference between athletes that succeed in swimming and those that don’t reach their goals? This podcast explores the differences.
If you haven’t listened to part 1 of Truths About Swimming, click here…
A group or squad can fast track your success.
If you are doing your training all by yourself, there is a good chance that you’re not pushing yourself as hard as you can. Studies show that if you are training with someone else your effort typically increases approximately 16%.
When you train with others, the sessions go faster, you have a lot more fun and you get a good gauge of other swimmers’ pacing. If you can find a friend or squad to join…even just once or twice a week, that is going to make a huge difference to your swimming.
A coach might be the answer that you are looking for.
Without some sort of guidance from a coach, you are probably missing out on a wealth of experience. A coach can shortcut your learning when it comes to what to do in your workouts, your technique, mindset and pacing.
When I began training for an Ironman I had no idea about cycling technique. Having a coach explain to me what I should focus on, what I should be thinking about, and the numbers to look for in my training sessions, I’ve got that fundamentals of cycling to think about. Now I’m not just going to each session clueless about what I should be doing.
Having a coach keep an eye on what you are doing and give you a couple of things to focus on can be the difference between a good race and a bad race. If you don’t have a coach looking over your shoulder you might want to consider The Effortless Swimming Membership.
In the membership:
- You can upload a video of yourself swimming for a detailed analysis
- You get exercises and drills to follow specific to developing your stroke
- You have access to workouts to improve your fitness, speed and technique
- You will learn how to develop pacing
- You learn about open water swimming skills for better racing
Having a coach help you in the lead up to your ‘A’ race for the season can save you time and improve your results.
Do you know your numbers?
You should have a good idea of your numbers. Depending on what you are training for, you should have a good idea of:
- Your PB’s
- Your target times
- What pace you should be holding in training for different sets
Have you written your goals by hand?
A lot of us keep our goals in our head. We’ve never written them down on a pen and paper.
It’s easy to type these things out or keep them in our heads. But as soon as we write it down on paper, then it becomes real.
I know people who do this every single morning.
They know exactly where they want to get. If they do this every morning, they are reminded why they are doing all those trainings.
Sometimes training can suck. Sometimes training hurts. Sometimes you don’t want to be there. But as soon as you remind yourself what your bigger goal is and why you are doing it…it’s much easier to ‘get it done’.
Write down your goals on a piece of paper and they’ll become a lot more real.
You are not going to enjoy it all the time.
If you are training on a regular basis, there are sessions that you don’t want to do. You might be fatigued, you might be sore, you might have better things to do, you might want to go to the movies instead, you might want to hang out with friends…
That’s the reality of working towards something big. It’s not going to be fun the whole time. As soon as you learn how to ignore that, that’s when the results are going to start to come.
See you next week for Part Three.
