6 Things To Do After Swim Season Is Over

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Photo Courtesy: Thomas Agostini

By Jacob Riley, Swimming World College Intern.

Swim season is beginning to wind down for swimmers across the country. Whether your last meet has already happened, or it is yet to happen, I hope the results you get are what you’ve been working towards since the beginning. Regardless of whether you come out of the season feeling good or bad, there are some important things to do and remember for the offseason. Here are six of those things to remember:

1. Refresh your mind and your body in the weeks you take out of the pool.

This one is something that is really important to remember when you finish with your season. We all get the post season motivation, but you have to remember that your body needs some time off. You also need to remember that your mind needs to take some time off to get ready for next season.

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Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr / Swimming Australia Ltd.

2. Take some time to reflect on the pros and cons of your last season.

Whether you swam like you dreamed about, or you were severely disappointed about how you performed, you need to look back at your season as objectively as possible to figure out what went well, and what went wrong. You should take this pros and cons list and write it down. This can be used for next year when you’re trying to figure out how to get the most effective training you can.

3. Celebrate your successes.

Even if you were disappointed in the end result of your previous season, there has to be something to celebrate! Maybe it just has to do with being a better teammate this year than you were last, but the point is that something in your season had to have gone well and you should celebrate this fact.

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Photo Courtesy: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

4. Write down some goals for next season.

This is the point in the season where you are most in touch with what you can do, so you should use that to set some goals for next season. You should also revisit these goals at the beginning of next season, and try to refine them as most as possible.

5. Get mentally ready to start the grind again soon.

Use your break to get ready to start the process all over again. We all know how good that first day without practice feels, but you have to remember that to accomplish the goals you just set for next season you need to get ready to start grinding again. Swimming is a sport where you have to love the grind, and every season hits a point where every practice hurts. Get yourself ready to hit training hard again soon.

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Photo Courtesy: Annie Grevers

6. Have some fun.

You worked hard for the past months, have some fun in your offseason.

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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