trying to learn from experience!

banjobongo

hi guys,
IM a competitive masters swimmer, by way of background, my main events are the 100 and 200m fly.
I took part in the world masters in Italy this summer, and my times in the gala in Italy were very dissappointing, I swam faster in training than I did at the gala!

I have been trying to work out what went wrong since then...

At first I thought I went out too hard on the first let for both races due to overconfidence, but this argument went out the window over the weekend.

I did the Celtic Masters gala over the weekend in Dublin, its my first gala since Italy, and I went 6 secs faster for the 200m fly and 3 secs faster for the 100m fly, without any special training, and with doing 4 races in one day as opposed to 2 races over 5 days.

My first leg in the 100m fly was 1 sec slower allright in the Celtic Masters but my first 50m for the 200m was the same for both races, the big difference for both races was the final 50m.

I think its possible that "nerves" and excitment got to me....

As anybody at the gala in Riccione will know that is a lot of hanging around, so plenty of time to think and over think about your upcoming race, and I think I put myself under too much pressure in the water and possibly was not relaxed in the water, too tense, which led to getting very tired and underperforming in the final leg of each race.

Does this make sense or would be any other possible explanation?

Im encouraged by the fact that I went faster over the weekend, but still very puzzled by my poor times in Italy, so I could learn what I did wrong I can hopefully not repeat the same mistakes!

thanks in advance for any feedback!

fionn_mac

Chalk it down to a bad day(s)? Can happen in any race/sport. 3 secs for the 100, 6 for the 200, at least you were consistent!

Hard to say what it was, could have been the build-up - travel/sleep/food/water in few days before along with pacing and the pressure you put yourself under where as the second gala was closer to home and not such a big deal?

Can be useful after any race good or bad write few notes on how you felt, what you did in buildup, eat sleep etc and read over before subsequent galas. can help remember stupid little things you'd forget otherwise.

PS fair play on racing the 200 fly. horrible.

Kevski

banjobongo wrote: »

I think its possible that "nerves" and excitment got to me....

As anybody at the gala in Riccione will know that is a lot of hanging around, so plenty of time to think and over think about your upcoming race, and I think I put myself under too much pressure in the water and possibly was not relaxed in the water, too tense, which led to getting very tired and underperforming in the final leg of each race.

Does this make sense or would be any other possible explanation?

That's definitely possible. I think a lot of people underestimate how much of an impact that you're mental state can have on your performance. I swam my first competition in a few year in Feb. I wasn't expecting much of a performance so I hadn't put any pressure on myself to do well. I ended up swimming a low 32 for 50m breast (long course), which was actually a PB.

Contrast that to a few weeks later when I swam a short course gala. I knew that id swam a low 32 in a long course competition a few weeks before and therefore expected to do even better in the short course one. I ended up swimming a mid 34 :P