The first meet of the season is here! You may be a bit nervous about swimming at a meet for the first time in three months. That's pretty normal. You can make the most of your swims by being properly prepared for each swim.
Here are some tips to help you get ready - one event at a time:
- Make sure you're ready for the correct event! I've seen quite a few swimmers (even high school and college swimmers) dive in and start swimming freestyle instead of butterfly or breaststroke.
- Know your heat and lane and check in with the timer.
- Talk to your coach(es) before you go behind the blocks. Your swim may be a "strategy" swim and that strategy may change throughout the season. Often, the strategy will be more important than the time. Each event is a learning experience, not just a test of your speed. Maybe we've been working on a particular technique for your stroke in practice. Coaches are willing to sacrifice a best time to see a better technique that we know will pay off with a faster time later in the season. Be willing with us.
- Think your way through your swim. Swim the event in your head before you hit the water. Remind yourself what you need to do when you hit the water, off the turns, length-by-length, what your stroke technique focus should be, your speed by 25 and 50, and your finish.
- Look at your time. With everything going on, we may miss your time. Sad, but true.
- Think about what you had planned to focus on during the swim. Did you focus on your technique? What did you do really well? What did you do in practice that made it a success? What do you need to improve? What do you need to focus on to accomplish that improvement?
