By Temarie Tomley, Swimming World College Intern
It’s easy to see the great practices, times, races, and hard work of a swimmer, but what about their mindset? It is something underestimated in our sport and yet it is the basis for any swimmer’s success. As a new season begins, establishing a good mindset early on is key. It’s not just about being positive, although that is an important part of it.
A good mindset also involves what I like to call that extra something. It’s the thing that separates the good athletes and the great ones. It involves stepping up to challenges fearlessly, seeing failures as “yet” moments, and most importantly, having fun in the tough times.
This year, my coach gave our team a 6,000 long course meters threshold freestyle set…and I’m a sprinter. I was put on an interval of 1:25. With a set like this it would’ve been easy for me to start complaining and thinking that it was too hard or that I was too tired. But instead, these were the thoughts running through my mind:
1. I can do this because it doesn’t matter how I feel.
2. I want to do this set and am excited about it.
3. This set is going to make me better and help me reach my goals.
4. I’m strong enough to not only make this set, but excel at it.
5. And my last thought that took some courage was- I can do this set even harder and I’m going to go on a 1:20 interval.
The last bullet point may have you thinking I’m crazy and I promise you I’m not (okay, maybe just a little). Moving to 1:20, I knew that I could fail. But the key word is COULD because sometimes you surprise yourself, like I did, when I made the entire set an hour and twenty minutes later. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have made that set, let alone choose to go on a faster interval. The truth is that any swimmer at any level can have these thoughts about any challenge they face in or out of the pool.
But what if I had failed?
The fear of failure grips athletes in our sport more commonly than not. The solution I’ve come to is that in every failure there is a yet. Failure is not an end-all-be-all, but is rather an athlete’s greatest learning experience. For example, when I fail on a set I think, “I haven’t made that set YET.” This for me represents delayed but inevitable future success. Seeing failures as yet moments will keep you motivated and excited for every practice and can even give you a thrill for the tough workouts. Trust me when I say that I actually look forward to our hard lactate and threshold set days and you can too with this thinking.
When you aren’t afraid to fail, you learn two things: to love the hard practices and to push yourself harder than you thought you could. Eventually you come to a point where you can share that love and mental toughness with your teammates in order to help them succeed too. Some of my greatest memories this past year were the times in practice when we were doing a really hard set and my teammates and I would be yelling across lane lines encouraging one another or laughing at each other’s dance moves between hard sets. Challenges are something fun for my teammates and I because we see every practice as an opportunity to get better.
It’s also the best feeling in the world to finish a really tough set and turn to your teammates and smile because of what was just accomplished together. It’s something that I wouldn’t get to experience if I hadn’t discovered and taken on this new mindset.
But like physical training, you’re brain and mindset have to also be trained every day and in every practice. Once it becomes a habit though, it’s easy to do and you’ll find yourself using a solid mindset without even realizing it. The most amazing part of it all is that this thinking won’t just impact your swimming positively, but will change your life in the best and most incredible way.
An Inspirational article which has changed my approach towards tough main sets!
Nice article Timarie – I sent it to Denny – he will be very happy to know that you look forward to the hard sets ?
Way to represent! Roll Tide!
Wow! What an amazing woman…. A Positive mindset is a rare trait, indeed. Kudos to Temi for tackling such hard goals and finding her inner strength to reach (what seems to be impossible) insurmountable swimming goals with such an awesome smile and attitude. Keep up the good work! You rock !!
I’m so proud of Temi!!! I love this article and how beautifully written it is!!! Keep up the excellent work!! We miss you in cincy.