5 Ways to Break Down the Season That Was

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer based out of Victoria, BC. In feeding his passion for swimming, he has developed YourSwimBook, a powerful log book and goal setting guide made specifically for swimmers. Sign up for the YourSwimBook newsletter (free) and get weekly motivational tips by clicking here.

Conducting a mini performance review of yourself (involving your coach in this review will only help you get a more crystallized idea of the progress you made, and what you need to do moving forward) is a great way to not only break down your year of swimming, but also provide you with a clear idea of your current standing, and where you want to go moving forward.

Here are 5 questions to ask yourself post-season:

1. Where did you end up in relation to your season opening goals?

The end of the season provides a clean bookmark for this chapter in your swimming career. It allows the moment for reflection in relation to your goals.

Where do your year-end performances rank according to what you set out to do at the beginning of the year?

2. What were the big wins and moments of the year?

There were a heap of times and swims where you absolutely crushed it this year. What were they? They don’t have to be strictly time-based or related to your championship season races, these moments can be a week of training camp, an in season meet where you developed a solid pre-race routine, or anything and anywhere else you nailed it this year.

There are critical lessons and reminders to be gleaned from those top moments. Things that you can use to piggyback your future swimming success. With each awesome moment write out the source of the positive surge of confidence to put words to the awesomeness.

Here are a couple examples:

Nailed the holiday training camp — > “I can train much harder that I previously thought possible.”

Swam a best time in-season — > “I can swim fast anytime, anywhere.”

3. What are the things you’ll improve moving forward?

If there were ups, there are going to be downs. Being aware of the dips and putting words to them will give you greater awareness next season so that you can better anticipate when you are about to fall off in the future.

Swimmers are creatures of habit, and you’ll learn that it’s often the same hang-ups that are knocking you off course each season.

What are the couple things you’d like to see yourself do better next year?

4. How on point was your mental game over the course of the season?

Yogi Berra once said that professional baseball is “ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.” All joking aside, Berra hit on an important fact of high performance sport, and highlights an area of our training that many of us do not pay much attention to.

If you are looking at a few different places to start in figuring out how you performed in terms of mental skills, here are some questions to ask that can lead you to finding some answers that will give you a starting point:

• How consistent were you with your training?
• Did you find yourself getting overly anxious prior to your races?
• Were you frequently losing focus during practice, in particular main sets?
• Do you find yourself getting caught up in what other swimmers are doing?
• Was the self-talk you used in practice and competition mostly positive or negative?
• Were you able to properly execute your race strategy at your big meets?
• Did you find it challenging to pull yourself into “the zone” when necessary?
• Insulate yourself from naysayers and negative-minded peers?

5. What’s next?

Whether you achieved all you wanted from the season (air high five!) or came up a little short (awkward side bro-hug), it can be tempting to sit back and bask in the comfort of a completed season.

Refocusing on new goals can help you maintain the momentum of a successful year, while also putting a less than successful year in the rear-view by focusing on something new.

About YourSwimBook

YourSwimBook is a log book and goal setting guide designed specifically for competitive swimmers. It includes a ten month log book, comprehensive goal setting section, monthly evaluations to be filled out with your coach, and more. Learn 8 more reasons why this tool kicks butt.

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