The Importance of Frequent Reflections
The Biggest Mountain in the World
Picture this. You’re in Base Camp. Mount Everest, the camp where the journey starts. Already 17,598 feet above sea level, but still a monumental 11,431 feet from the top. And in between you are ravines, and gullies, and sheets of ice. However, you’re an extremely prepared climber, so you have your route and camps carefully planned out. You step out for your first day of climbing and… put on a blindfold. Your plans are all laid out, beautifully made, and tailored to your ability, so who needs vision?
Insane, right?
The Mountain of Swimming
So why do we approach swimming this way? Much like Everest, the season is a long journey. Maybe not full of ravines and ice, but certainly full of practices, meets, injuries, and hopefully, at the end of it all, glory. But, if you’re like many swimmers, you simply make a goal sheet at the start of the season, then strap your blindfold on and head up. So, when you take one misstep, a misstep you can barely even perceive, your path gets thrown off. Keep doing that over the course of a 6 or even 9 month season, and suddenly you won’t end up on Everest… you might end up on the neighboring peak!
The solution? Take off the blindfold! Check in each day, each practice. Make sure that the step you took that day is still on the plan, and if it’s off the plan- which some days it will be- check the map and make sure your next step gets you back on track. What’s the best way to take off this blindfold? A daily check in.
The Daily Check In
If you’re a mega pro, this might come from logging your whole workout, warm up to warm down, with careful annotations of your times and feelings. But you don’t need to start right away with this! A great place to start is to just rate each practice, on a scale of 1-5 (1 means you took a step back on the path, 2 means you took a sidestep or faltered a bit, 3 means you're on track, four means you took two steps that day, and 5 means “holy cow I took two giant leaps forward today!”). Then, as you get in a good habit, start to add some descriptions- “great on pace, but sloppy turns!”, or “good effort, but gave in on the last rep”. As you really get into a groove, make sure to add in something that tells you what to focus on for next time- and then the next day, see if you did it or not!
Want More Help?
We all know that swimming can be really hard! And you may need help getting started with implementing little habits like these. That’s where we come in to help. At College Swim Connect, we connect you with experienced mentors: elite college swimmers who have figured this stuff out. They can guide you through and give you access to their own arsenal of tools that they’ve carefully created over the years. Enter your email on our site and get started today with a free meeting!
