וואו, אוגוסט נגמר
מה שאומר שלאתלטים מוכי הכלור המכונים שחיינים – אוטוטו מתחילה עונה חדשה
לא משנה מה עברתם באליפויות הקיץ והדרך לפניהם יש מספר דברים שתוכלו לעשות לקראת העונה הבאה.
- נתחו את העונה שעברה
- הציבו יעד אתגרי
- בנו תכנית ויעדי ביניים להשיגו
- בידקו את עצמכם כל הזמן ואל תפחדו להתאים את התכנית "תוך כדי תנועה"
Ermargherd, it’s August.
Which means that for a lot of you chlorinated athletes it’s the little breaky-break you have between the end of last season and the beginning of a new season.
(It also means there is only a month left of summer…Sigh.)
No matter how championship season went there are some things you can do in the next few weeks to get ahead of your goals for next season.
Here’s where to start.
1. Do a post-season review.
There is a misconception that elite swimmers don’t screw up. That they magically hit the right notes every time they hit the water.
One of the sneaky characteristics of top swimmers is that they are simply quicker to learn from their mistakes. It’s not that they don’t screw up—it’s that they learn and apply the lesson faster than the rest of us.
That’s the power of reviewing your training and competition periodically. And in this instance, it helps give us a better idea of what needs to happen next season for us to crush it.
With that in mind:
Write out three things you did this year where you dominated the water. Was it changing up your diet? Showing up to more workouts? Doing your best to recover between practices? List the three things that you did that yielded big results for you. We are gonna double down on these things next season.
Write out three big areas of improvement. On the other hand, there are some things you know that you can work on. Maybe you avoided them because you weren’t good at them. Or you were inconsistent with them. Or you haven’t found the time and energy to put focus into them. If you could pick just three things that would have a massive impact on your swimming this season, what would they be?
2. Think about where ya wanna be next championship season.
Here’s the fun part. Going to Daydream-ville and whipping up some frothy, ambitious goals.
Don’t overthink this part.
Just pick something big and nasty and write it out.
Make it specific (time-based, not placing-based).
3. Start building a process for your goals.
The process. You’ve heard it a kajillion times on the ‘gram, from your swim coach (“Trust the process!”), and even from me.
A process gives you the framework to achieve your goals. It gives the day to day workouts meaning. And it also gives you something controllable to work on and tweak as the season progresses.
With one eye on your big and nasty goal, what are the things you are going to have to do in training to get there?
I am going to do an extra 500m of drill work after practice working on achieving *perfect* shoulder rotation.
Each night before bed I am going to pack my breakfast and lunch so that I am eating healthy meals more regularly.
Throw down an 8.5/10 effort every single day at practice.
Try not to get toooo carried away with this step (as easy as it can be).
Limit your little process list to no more than five items to start out. Just make them your five most impactful thingies.
4. Review and progress.
Doing the same thing over and over again isn’t going to give you improvement.
You need to be progressing each week in training.
Doing things just a tiny bit better.
It’s the same as lifting weights: if you want to get stronger you need to lift progressively heavier weight.
The markers of progression don’t need to be earth-shattering. Holding your breath off the walls for one extra stroke. Doing one extra dolphin kick off every turn. Dropping a couple seconds off your best-interval set.
Sure, this incremental progression doesn’t look like much from week to week, but accumulated over the course of a season?
Whoa, baby.
To recap:
Review the season that was.
Set yourself a nasty goal.
Start building a process for it.
Always be progressing and tweaking your process for improvement.
Rinse, repeat and smash some PB's!
See ya in the water,
Olivier