Music To An Athlete’s Ears

Feature by Michelle Berman, Swimming World intern

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey, November 9. TO some, music is a way of passing time, a way of drowning out background noise, or a way to get a party started. For athletes however, music can have a very different meaning.

For Margaret Spach, a junior swimmer at Johns Hopkins University, music is a way to let her body do its thing.

"A lot of people consider swimming to be boring and mindless. For me that's just it—it's mindless. Before practice, I like to listen to the same song on repeat until I have the lyrics engrained into my mind, and that's all I focus on throughout practice," said Spach. "It keeps me from over-thinking, and prevents me from tensing up so I can just swim. My body already knows what it's supposed to do, I don't need to think beyond that."

For Spach, music is not about the actual song, it's more about letting go and doing what she knows how to do. For Jane Kim, a former swimmer at Yale and Louis Vayo II, a former California Golden Bear, music is much more than that.

"Music can do many things: calm the nerves, be a distraction, provide additional focus, a superstition, or a ritual even. It does all these things for me, depending on my state of mind," said Vayo II.

For Kim, the music is her tool to get ready to race.

"Music was instrumental in getting me psyched for my races. Not only is music a large part of gearing up for competition, but it also serves as a huge motivator and aid during long workouts," said Kim.
So what do people listen to? Common songs seem to be, Flo Rida's "Club Can't Handle Me", Jay Sean's "2012", numerous Nelly songs, and Van Halen's "Right Now".

So what do peoples' playlists look like? Vayo lets us into his personal playlist.

"A tune like ‘Peace Train' or ‘Wild World' is enough to get me dancing. I also got in a phase where I had to listen to Boston's: ‘Don't Look Back' before every race," said Vayo II. "Also, in training during the longer endurance sets, I would sing Pink Floyd's ‘Comfortably Numb' in my head. Somehow, that song helped me get through."

Spach's playlist is quite a bit different.

"Vamos a la Playa, Canzone di Discoteca, Crystal Castles, Tim Berg's Bromance, and anything Taylor Swift," said Spach.

A big question surrounding the music scene is does it have a psychological factor for swimming or athletes in general? Can listening to music change your mood, make you swim faster, or give you the feeling that you can do anything?

Kim thinks that music does not have the ability to do those things.

"Though I know that music can be a crucial part of getting ready for a race, how you perform in a race is ultimately determined by how hard you have been practicing, not just by having your favorite song playing on your iPod," said Kim.

For Spach, the answer is yes.

"I know there have been times that I would freak out if I couldn't listen to a 30-second clip of my current pump-up song. Sometimes, listening to music even took precedence over warming up," said Spach. "If I had to postpone my warm-up in order to listen to my song, I knew that that would prepare me better for my race than warming up another 50."

Is music in fact the best motivator? Or are there things out there that make even more of a difference?

As many may say, music is a huge motivator, regardless of what genre of music it is. But what about symbols such as the Olympic rings, or even family-related symbols? Do they make a bigger difference?
Everyone is different, and no one motivator is better than any other.

For many athletes, music may be the one thing that gets them through a long set, may make them feel better about a bad race, or even help them get ready to compete in a really important race. Every person likes different music, and likes it for different reasons.

For Spach, she barely remembers the best race of her life because she was singing to herself. For Kim, one of the most important things to her, like making the NCAA championships, became a little more realistic after an amazing race that led her to an NCAA B cut. She cites this is all due to the fact that she was listening to a song by David Guetta before racing.

For Vayo II, his best race was from when he was much younger. But regardless, music made the difference.

"My best race was at the Junior Olympics in Belmont Plaza Long Beach when I was 13 years old – the 200 yard backstroke. I was swimming with a broken arm (though I didn't know it at the time) but I was going for my junior national cut. My coach didn't think I could do it because of my complaints about my arm pain, so I was set to prove him wrong," said Vayo II. "I out-touched my fierce, 13-year old rival by one one-hundredth of a second (I think we went 1:54.61 and 1:54.62) but both had cause to celebrate being under the junior national cut by about 2 tenths. I had the ‘Rocky – Eye of the Tiger' song in my head the whole race."

So whether or not you like soft rock, hardcore, pop, or R & B, it is hard to doubt that music is instrumental in an athlete's life. Sounds like the big rise in music sales and downloads can at least in part be blamed on athletes.

Michelle Berman is a junior swimmer at Rutgers University who is serving as an intern at Swimming World this semester.

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