Personal Bests: 6 Things To Consider When It Does Not Happen

Courtesy and written by Andrew Beggs

With many swimmers well into the midst of their short course season, I thought a discussion about personal best swims would be timely. In a world where “what have you done for me lately” and instant gratification are common themes, and shortsighted focus seems to drown out the major benefits of long-term plans, here are 6 things to consider when you do not go a best time:

1. Did you try a new race strategy? 

It is all about trial and error. We will not know the best, most ideal way to swim a race until we have tried it, and often times we need to try it many times before we get it right. If you are someone who is afraid of getting tired in a race, chances are you might start the race too conservatively, and then finish with a surge. We see this all the time: sprinting the last 25 or 50 when you could have maybe put that effort into earlier parts of the race and spread out the effort. Although this might not be the best strategy physiologically, I think everyone should try at least one time to swim a 100 of stroke by giving it 100% right from the start; who knows, you might surprise yourself and be able to maintain that intensity longer than you think. If you never try, you’ll never know.

2. Have you tried a new technique? 

Many times you need to get slower before you get faster, and in order to take a big step forward we need to take a few steps backward first. When we change our stroke, we change the way we engage our muscles, and sometimes what muscles we are engaging; that in turn, also changes how well and how long we are able to maintain that stroke at a given intensity. The different muscles you are using to complete the stroke need to be conditioned for that specific technique and movement, and that takes time, especially if you are trying something new. Be patient. The big picture is always more important.

3. Learn how to deal with a bad swim! Attitude is everything. 

Sometimes when we are too wrapped up with our racing times and performances, we miss some really important learning experiences. No one is ever going to go a best time every time the step up on the block, so we had better learn how to deal with that, and set our expectations appropriately and accordingly so we can be honest with ourselves and our performance. Things are not going to go our way all the time, and we need to learn how to handle that in a mature way. It is hard to support your team when you are in tears. Everyone gets upset and emotional. If that happens to you, go to the warm down pool and swim until you can come back to your teammates and coaches, and support them with a positive outlook and/or the same way you expect to be supported.

4. You can control your effort; you cannot control the time! 

Worry about the things you can control, not the things you cannot. We cannot control what other competitors are going to do. Saying you want to win a race has a lot to do with the other competitors in the field. We can control giving our best effort in practice every day, in every race, in every meet. We can control our race strategies, our technique, how many underwater kicks we are going to execute, but not how many the person next to you is going to execute. When you get out of the water, as long as your effort was there, then you should be happy with yourself. Who knows, the coach may have had some really tough sets this past week leading up to the meet, and you may be tired. Regardless of that, your effort should still be the same.

5. Don’t we care more about going fast when it really counts? Championship meets? End of the season?

If I told you that you would be able to accomplish your goal at the end of the season, and achieve that personal best time, qualification standard, or motivational time, but in order to do that you would need to be slower for a few months leading up to the meet. Would you agree to follow the plan, or abandon it? Of course, you would agree. Many times, it takes a lot more than a few months of being slower and tired. Take a look at some of your Olympians. Sometimes, they go years without going a best time. Some people might quit if that was the case, but that is not what the best do; that is not what Olympians do. Resilience, commitment to a goal, and consistency are the keys to success. Remember why you started out the season in the first place. The path to success is never linear; there will always be ups and downs, dips and dives, that is part of what makes the success and accomplishment so great when it finally happens. You do not win a gold medal when you win a specific race or by winning the event, you win it in the hours, days, weeks, months, years you spend sacrificing and committing yourself preparing for the goal. The medal itself is just a symbol of the championship character.

6. Are you having fun? 

Do you remember your first ever race? Maybe it is your 7-year-old-self standing up on the block with their goggles on upside down? I bet you probably had a big smile on your face when you finished the race. And your parents were probably smiling too– happy to watch you swim. It was all about having fun at that point; finding joy in the simple act of swimming and racing. But somewhere along the way it started to become more serious; no more smiles and lot more tears. Sometimes that is all I see from some swimmers when they get out of the water these days. I think we all (coaches, swimmers, and parents) need to think back to why we starting doing this in the first place. There is a quote that I really like that is appropriate for this: “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become, the hours of practice, the coaches who’ve pushed you, the teammates who believe in you, and the fans who cheer for you is the little boy who stepped over the white line for the very first time; the boy who fell in love with the sport and never looked back. Play for him.”

Andrew Beggs is a recent Georgia transplant, originally from Brookhaven, Pennsylvania. He is currently the Associate Head Coach at the Columbus Aquatic Club in Columbus, Georgia.