It’s a common paradigm. You get a “bad time”à it’s a bad swim. You get a “good time”à it’s a good swim. B = B and G = G. It’s a simple approach, but I’m going to tell you why it’s not only a lie, it’s an approach that can ruin swimming for you.
I base the quality of a race (good vs, bad) for a swimmer by three values:
- Effort: These are kids I see swim day in and day out. I see you on your best days, your worst days and everything in between. I know what your best effort looks like and I certainly know what it doesn’t look like. It comes down to looking at the simple mantra of “are you trying your best.” I always want to see you trying your best whether you love the event, hate the event, are tired, or whatever. Trying matters.
- Execution: That is, are you executing the specific skills or strategies that we have been working on in practice. For example, if we’ve spent time that week talking about the importance of getting into the wall fast, over quick, and off the wall strong in a 500 and you go out and float 19 turns, I don’t really care what your time ends up being. It’s poor execution. Conversely, if you stick 19 turns and add some seconds, it’s good execution. Good swim. I know now and you know now that you can do it in competition. #win
- Attitude: Are you going into the race with confidence and regardless of the result, are you moving on? I teach a lot about race prep, since it’s one of those things that can either set you up for success or spell doom before you hit the water. The right attitude before the race is important. Are you ready, do you have a plan, are you engaged?
The attitude after should be about:
- What can you learn from the swim, what did you do well, and what do you need to work on going forward.
- If it was a great swim, take five minutes and bask in it.
- If it was a crappy swim, take five minutes to go off by yourself and pout about it.
- Either way, you get five minutes and then it’s time to move on.
Now, you’re probably thinking…if I have good effort, good execution, and good attitude, then I should get a good time. That would be nice, but not always true, though it increases your chances. There are so many factors that go into a result.
Maybe you’re broken down from practices, maybe you made one adjustment to your stroke, but something else was neglected because you were focusing so much on the other thing. Maybe you have other stresses in your life, maybe you didn’t eat well, maybe you didn’t get enough sleep, or too much sleep, or it just isn’t your day. All these things are valid and OK.
This is all part of what we call the process of swimming. It’s identifying opportunities to improve, working on them, trying them out in a competition setting and either working some more on them or picking something new to work on. It’s slow, it’s methodical and it’s sometimes thankless for a period. It’s what makes this sport challenging, it’s what makes this sport not for everyone and it’s what I think makes this sport awesome.
So do yourself (and your swim parents) a favor: judge your swims by what really matters and not just by the time. You’ll get farther faster, and you’ll enjoy this wonderful sport so much more.