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.
For many swimmers the reflection and review process is informal and infrequent. It tends to happen at the end of the season, which acts as a natural bookmark in the evolution of a swimming career, and is generally viewed in simplistic terms.
Either you have achieved the end of season goal or not. And that is it.
An entire season’s worth of training, of effort, of sacrifice and time invested boiled down to one simple question.
Regardless of whether or not the end of season target is reached, opening and closing the evaluation process on this one question is a waste of a massive resource. Within the context of that season is a wealth of information and results that can help the swimmer realize even more success, more consistently, and with less instances of repetitive error, moving forward.
Instead of taking this limiting and basic approach to evaluating your swimming, do it consistently and with some depth.
Here are 4 reasons that reviewing your swimming will pay big-time dividends with your swimming:
1. From review comes purposeful swimming.
There are fewer things more dispiriting than swimming without purpose. Without a clear objective or purpose a swimmer will train half-heartedly, without focus, without any urgency or desire to make the most of the training opportunities presented to them.
The purposeless athlete allows their environment to be much more influential in outcomes as well. Instead of directing their attention and focus inwards, this swimmer will looks outwards for causes and reasons for why they are disinterested.
The workouts are boring. The coach’s instruction is bland or meaningless. The pool is unsuitable. And so on.
By reviewing your workouts and competitions regularly you gain a sense of direction, of purpose, and of meaning with your swimming.
2. Reviewing your performances gives you consistency in the pool.
Reviewing your performances on a consistent basis keeps you on track and swimming with greater consistency. It reminds you where you want to go, what you need to be doing, and gives you that clear-headed commitment that keeps you focused on your own swimming and your goals.
3. Evaluating your swimming opens your eyes to patterns and habits.
From review comes the recognition of patterns and habits – both good and bad. Noticing these can be difficult when we are locked in the day-to-day bubble of training, with the longer terms patterns in particular being hard to put a finger on.
Having the bird-s eye view of your swimming gives you the chance to see where things are truly working, giving you a chance to leverage the positives, while also allowing you to see where your performance dips.
4. It’s a record of progress.
There are fewer things more motivating than seeing how far you have come along on paper. It’s one thing to feel progress, but it’s another to see the escalation written out in cold, hard numbers.
Having the record of progress before you reminds you that you are indeed on the right track, while also giving you a quick jolt of motivation to continue pushing on.
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.
NEW: We now have motivational swimming posters. Five of ’em, actually.
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