Psychology

[Pete]

As a part time coach I have very little time to prepare swimmers for important events. John Hoggs book; Mental Exercises For Competitive Swimmers is great in the ideal world. How do you deal with swimmers and their preparation for competition?

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Looking forward to hearing from fellow coaches and keen swimmers needing help.

[Conrad Cawley]

The little time we as coaches spend with our swimmers due to the constraints put upon us by lack of water time or swimmers not attending for any number of reasons, means that the physical side has to take priority. In a perfect world each swim team would have a psychologist, a physiotherapist, a dietician as well as a coach.
Many talented swimmers breakdown under the pressure of competition. Many swimmers who have a strong desire to do well are unable to succeed because they don’t have the swimming ability or (training) background.
The quality time spent with swimmers on poolside at Open meets/Championships is a time for coaches to try to get inside the swimmers head. The key word today seems to be focus. Swimmers should be focused when training as well as when they compete. Over a period of time a coach will learn a great deal about a swimmers physical and mental characteristics. This knowledge can be used to try to obtain the desired result.
Of course much can be done on poolside in the period leading up to the swim. Different swimmers respond to a pre-swim talk in various ways Some need a long comforting chat to calm and reassure them, while others need just one or two kind words or a joke to put them at their ease. Many swimmers need to “get up” for their swim so a few well chosen key words may stimulate them sufficiently, of course there will always be the swimmer who doesn’t want to talk (or listen). Thinking positively is not something that comes easy to us British, but I believe a lot can be achieved by positive focusing, especially at the top end of our sport.



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Conrad