How to Conquer Fear of Failure and Swim Fast When It Counts

Learn why fear of failure affects swimmers, how it impacts performance, and actionable strategies to bounce back and swim fast under pressure.

Fear of failure is a normal part of being a swimmer.

We’ve invested a TON of time and energy into our training, so it’s natural to worry that a bad swim will pop out of nowhere and render all of our hard work for naught.

But there’s a big difference between the healthy pressure that pushes us to show up to morning practice, work hard, and stay focused—and the kind of fear that derails performance, crushes enjoyment, and shoves us closer to feeling burned out.

Yup, we are talking about the fear of failure.

In this article, we’ll take a lookie-loo at what fear of failure actually is, unpack what happens when it takes over, and you some actionable ways to kick in the rear end.

So you can worry less and swim faster when it matters most.

Let’s dive in.

What is Fear of Failure?

Fear of failure is a response that is driven by threats to our self-worth. Swimmers fear the consequences of losing and not the failure itself.

Under their cap and between the straps on their swim goggles, a swimmer’s potential failure is associated with threats to their identity, social connections, and future goals.

• “If I don’t hit a personal best time, I’m a terrible swimmer.”
• “My coach and teammates will be disappointed in me if I don’t swim well.”
• “This swim is going to ruin my chances of swimming collegiately.”

Fear of failure is a multidimensional model (Conroy et al., 2002) that includes fear of embarrassment, devaluing self-estimate, losing social connections, upsetting others, or jeopardizing our goals.

When fear of failure takes over, our brain goes into shutdown mode, causing anxiety, perfectionism, and overthinking—none of which are particularly helpful on race day. Or fun.

Swimmers who are swimming in fear of failure tend to feel higher levels of stress, are more prone to burnout, underperforming under pressure, and using maladaptive perfectionism in pursuit of their goals (Gustafsson et al., 2016).

What Happens When Fear of Failure Takes Over

Fear of failure isn’t just an uncomfortable feeling—it can cause significant damage to our long-term relationship with the sport and also crater performance in competition.

Here are some of the things that happen when fear of failure takes root:

Higher psychological stress

Gustafsson et al. (2016) showed that when athletes feared failure—particularly the kind associated with shame or embarrassment—they reported significantly higher levels of psychological stress.

For swimmers, this might look like:

• Tossing and turning like crazy the night before a big swim meet or race
• Feeling physically ill or panicked during the warm-up and pre-race
• Grinding through sets and workouts, not to improve or chase breakthroughs, but to avoid looking bad

Swimmers under this type of stress become hyper-focused on not messing up. And if you are a fan of paradoxes of high-performance like I am, you know that mistakes are more likely to happen when we “force” things.

We get tense and tighten up. Technique breaks apart. And we overthink stuff that should be automatic (turns, starts, tying our swimsuit properly).

Increased burnout risk

Fear-driven swimmers may appear highly motivated on the surface. Being fearful can be construed that you simply care this much. But on the inside, under the surface, they are burning the candle and burning it quickly.

Gustafsson et al. (2016) and Yıldırım et al. (2023) both showed strong links between fear of failure and burnout in youth athletes, particularly:

• Emotional exhaustion. Feeling mentally and physically wiped, even on recovery or off days.
• Sport devaluation. The sport brings less and less joy and meaning.

Fear of failure is tiring.

Constantly playing scenarios in our minds of what might happen or training for the expectations of others or being relentlessly under heightened pressure is anti-longevity and straight-up not fun.

There’s no room for exploration, risk-taking, or enjoying the moment.

It’s not hard to see how this can eventually lead to swimmers checking out mentally, skipping practices and withdrawing from swim meets, not because they are lazy but because the emotional connection to the sport has been thoroughly corroded.

Underperformance and choking

One of the most common reasons that swimmers choke on race day is overthinking. Performances that should be smooth, full of flow, and almost easy turn forced, mechanical, and hard.

Sagar et al. (2007) highlighted that young elite athletes frequently fear the consequences of failure, things like embarrassment, disappointing parents, or losing social approval, more than failure itself.

In the water, this can lead to stuff like:

• Paralysis by analysis on the blocks (“What if I screw up my dive?”)
• Abandoning race strategy to avoid “looking bad” and falling behind
• Back-seat driving technique instead of letting your training and instincts take over
• Feeling overwhelmed by pre-race nerves at swim meets

Choking sucks, and fear of failure is one of the mechanisms that make it happen.

Instead of racing freely and letting their hard work reveal itself, they are focused on not messing up.

Chasing validation

Fear of failure shifts our internal compass. We stop swimming for the attainment of mastery, enjoyment of the process, love of the sport, and swim for:

• Praise from coaches
• Social media likes and attention
• Team status/scholarships
• Not disappointing our parents
• Validation from peers/family members
• External rewards (cash, trophies, scores, titles)

Yıldırım et al. (2023) showed that fear of failure boosts extrinsic motivation (we swim for external reasons like rewards and praise) and this kind of motivation, in excess, is a lane middle lane straight to red-hot, flaming burnout.

A swimmer who is driven only by this kind of external validation is constantly chasing a moving goalpost. Even a PB is not good enough if they didn’t win or reap the attention they expected.

How Swimmers Can Deal with Fear of Failure

Here’s how to swim past those pesky fears so that you can swim fast when it matters most.

Be the “bounce back” swimmer

A study (Yildririm et al., 2023) showed that athletes who were more resilient were less likely to burn out via fear of failure.

Being able to bounce back when things don’t go your way, whether that’s going for a hamburger with teammates and laughing it off or reflecting on the workout in your logbook to mentally “flush” a poor performance, is crucial.

There will always be bad workouts, underwhelming main sets, and races where things don’t go your way. Your job isn’t to be perfect, but to bounce back and come back at a high level.

Use a journal  

Journaling is a tool for creating emotional distance between you and the fears circling around your brain. Writing them down forces you to slow down and process what’s really going on.

• Is the fear that my parents will disown me a little silly? Yup.
• Have I bounced back from bad swims before? Yes.
• Can I handle adversity? My track record would indicate yessir.

Seeing our fears on the page detaches them from us and shows them for what they are.

Focus on Learning > Dwelling

Mistakes and failures are essential to the process of improvement in the water. They teach and correct.

And yet, instead of learning from them, swimmers will constantly replay and dwell on them.

• “Failure just showed me, exactly, what I had to work on—my stroke, my dive, my turns. If I did the work, I had nothing to fear.” – Summer Sanders

Don’t ruminate, which keeps us stuck in fear. Be a student so that you can pick apart your swimming objectively.

Learn the lesson, whether it’s good or bad, and move on.

Recognize misplaced fears

Fear of failure is almost always misplaced (one study with chronic worriers found their fears were unfounded over 90% of the time).

Examine your fears, past and present, logically to see that they are almost always blown out of proportion so that you can get back to work on things that move the needle in the pool.

• What’s the worst-case scenario, really?
• Have you survived a bad swim/competition before?
• What did you learn from it?

Most fears never happen, and having a quick rational talk with yourself to recognize and ridicule overblown fears can help you get back on track.

Use controllable routines

Fear of failure loves uncertainty. How much? More than I love my favorite set of supple, silky-smooth training fins.

And because fear of failure grows like a weed when things are uncertain, swimmers can fight back by building consistency and structure around them.

Things like:

• A pre-race routine that can be done at any meet, under any circumstance.
• Self-talk designed specifically to help battle through hard sets.
• A daily process for training (“Give a 9/10 effort at practice, do ten minutes of core training after, and eat a healthy dinner”) that provides a simple, controllable structure you can rely on even when things get hard.

And so on.

There’s lots of things we don’t control in the water. (And trust me… your fears will zero in on them like floating hairballs find my fingers in the pool.)

Controllable routines and structure give you an anchor when those fears start to bubble up, providing some grounding.

Focus on execution instead of outcomes

Similarly, by focusing your attention on things you can do (“Stretch for ten minutes” or “Give my best effort no matter what”) you take control of your effort instead of worrying about potential outcomes.

Autonomy and a task-driven mindset are natural fear busters, so use them!

• “Attack the walls.”
• “Explode out of the breakouts.”
• “Accelerate the third 50.”

Ultimately, fears of failure can be a royal pain in the chlorinated butt when you are trying to accomplish greatness in the water.

It’s important to remember that it happens to everyone, that it can be a natural response to pressure, and that the tips above can help you navigate them.

The Bottom Line

Fear of failure is one of the most common and misunderstood challenges in trying to do cool stuff in the pool.

It doesn’t mean you’re weak, mentally soft, or not deserving of reaping the fruits of your hard work in competition. In fact, and this is probably the most frustrating aspect of it, fear of failure usually shows up because you care a lot about your swimming.

But left unmanaged, it can rob you of the enjoyment of the process and moment, crush race-day performances, and lead to burnout.

The good news is that there are plenty of ways to navigate fear of failure.

Use the strategies above when fear creeps in, quiet the noise, steady your focus, and swim like a boss.

Bye-bye overblown fears, hello new personal best times.

ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national-level swimmer. He’s the publisher of YourSwimBook, a ten-month logbook for competitive swimmers.

He’s also the author of the recently published mental training workbook for competitive swimmers, Conquer the Pool: The Swimmer’s Ultimate Guide to a High-Performance Mindset.

It combines sport psychology research, worksheets, anecdotes, and examples of Olympians past and present to give swimmers everything they need to conquer the mental side of the sport.

Ready to take your mindset to the next level?

👉👉👉 Click here to learn more about Conquer the Pool.