Excited to have Dr. Jim Taylor back to talk about the mental aspect of the race and some excellent practices for approaching races in a healthy way.
02:43 How To Get Mentally Prepared Before The Race
05:03 Three Key Goals To Follow
06:48 Embrace The Suck
10:56 Physical Intensity
13:05 Music Is A Powerful Mental Tool
13:28 Have A Pre-Race Routine To Ensure Total Preparation
15:48 Review Your Race Plan
18:19 Perceived Effort Sets In Training
20:47 Don’t Be A Victim In The Race
21:45 You Can’t Finish Strong If You Don’t Have The Fitness
24:32 Make Sure To Fuel Well
28:36 User Power Words/Phrases
29:58 Smile And Make Fart Noises
33:49 Post-Race Reflection
37:06 Start With A Positive Attitude
38.33 Get In Touch With Dr. Jim Taylor
Get in touch with Dr. Jim Taylor
https://www.drjimtaylor.com/4.0/
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https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/
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Transcript
Read the full transcript
Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here’s your host, Brenton Ford.
Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast. My guest is a return guest who was on only probably two months ago. Dr. Jim Taylor, welcome back to the podcast. Great to be back, Brenton. I always a lot of fun chatting with you. I had a lot of great feedback from our last episode from people who I met at clinics. They said they listened to it and they took a lot away from it. And even myself when we were recording the podcast, this is really helpful stuff. So I wanted to get you back on and on today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how to have a strong swim from start to finish. So those of you that are racing and competing, this episode is for you. And there is a lot that goes into the mental aspect of a race. And especially at the very top end, they said 99% mental, 1% physical at that point, where most people have done all the training or similar training. And it really comes down to who’s got the right mindset on the
day, which is very true on many occasions. So we’ll dig into this topic. And for you, Jim, how does this, how does this sort of play out in the work that you do with athletes all over the world? Like how much focus would you normally have on this side of things, the mental performance on race day? Yeah, well, certainly, everybody will say that the mental side is as or more important. But you certainly need the physical side, you still have to do the work. Okay, so I’ve still got to train. Alright, but it is the final piece of the puzzle, and one that’s quite often neglected as we talked about in the last podcast. And so so much, especially this time of year in season, and this applies to me as a triathlete, I just returned from nationals, and I’m getting prepared for Worlds in Abu Dhabi in November. And also my work with triathletes that being prepared mentally on race day, whether it’s a long distance swim, a swim meet
or a triathlon anywhere from a super sprint up to an Ironman, it’s so important to be mentally prepared, because really, whatever level you’re at, you’re competing against people of similar capabilities. That’s the nature of age group and so on. And so so if you can have your mind in shape the way your body is, and how it can be well trained that way as well, you’ve got a much better chance of taking whatever fitness and whatever good technique you have in your swimming and applying it to the race and having a successful race. Because as you all know, Brent, just being fit, just being technically sound doesn’t mean you’re going to go fast, or you’re going to handle all the unique aspects of competition on race day. It’s exactly right. One of the things that I noticed early on when I was swimming as a teenager and competing at a national level was that the mental side of things for me started during training. I’d often visualise myself in a
set thinking, all right, this is the last 50 of my 400 freestyle. This is how I want to feel. This is how I want to come home. And so setting it up from within training made such a difference. And there were so many times where I’d be racing and it’s like I’ve been here before. I know what I need to do. I know how it should feel. And that I feel set me up so well as just picturing myself or visualising myself in the race throughout training at least a couple of times a week. Yeah, it’s a great observation, Brent, and absolutely true that it’s just like you wouldn’t start working on technique or fitness in a race. You do it in training to prepare you for the race. And unfortunately, many athletes, many swimmers and triathletes have this idea that I just need to get mentally prepared for the race just before the race. And as I talked about in the last podcast, that I want swimmers and triathletes to approach mental training the same way they do
their conditioning, their input training, their technical work. And so it has to be done beforehand. So when you get to the race, it’s like, as you suggest, I’ve been there before. And hopefully maybe in another couple of podcasts, we can focus on using visualisation and mental imagery because it is the most powerful mental tool.
Yeah, I’m a huge fan of it in anything from sport, competition to things outside of that as well. I think it’s such a powerful tool. So let’s dig into before the race, how should people start to approach the race? Let’s say it’s race day, they wake up. Where should we start to drive or angle our thinking when it comes to on the race, on race day? Well, the thinking about the race should start well before the morning of the race. And I know you know this. And a lot of it has to do with the sort of the attitudes you have as you approach the race. Because I found that you can be pretty good and well together mentally in terms of mental tools and your mental muscles that I talked about last podcast. But it’s it’s the attitudes that you have going into the race that can really make or break a race even before you get in the water. And so there are three goals that I have that I encourage swimmers and triathletes to embrace before a race. And these
are three goals that have nothing to do with results. Because we spend so much time preoccupied about results, times, splits, who we’re going to beat, what place we’re going to finish, are we going to be on the podium, all these other things. And let’s be realistic. If we’re competitive swimmers or triathletes, we’re competitive and we’re in a competitive sport in a competitive culture. So results matter. Yes. But to get the results we want, you can’t think about the results. And so these three goals, I think are a great way to approach the race. And by the way, if you accomplish these three goals, the chances are you’re going to get a good result. So goal number one is before the race for you to be able to say to yourself, I’m just prepared as I can be. Because ultimately, Brenton, that’s all you can do. I mean, things happen in the pool, things happen in open water. And but if your feet, if you feel like you’re totally
prepared, well, then you’re going to be able to probably do the very best you can, given whatever circumstances you’re faced with. So in total preparation involves obviously your conditioning, your technical work and having a race plan, being mentally together, making sure you have your goggles, all those other things going. So so goal number one is for the race for you to be able to say, I’m totally prepared to swim my bath. Goal number two is during the race, bring it. And there are a lot of expressions dependent upon what sports you’re in. There’s bring it, there’s full gas, full send, go for a charge, attack, whatever it might be, that make sure that in the race, you’re putting everything you have into it. Now, obviously, if it’s 100 free, you’re going to it’s going to be like full truly pedal to the metal. But if it’s an Ironman 2.4 mile swim, it’s going to be a little different. But you still want to make
sure that you put everything you have into it. You put your fullest effort, your fullest intensity, your fullest focus into the race nonstop. And just a brief little aside on that, and then you can chime in, is that a lot of times, you know, I didn’t grow up swimming. So I don’t think I’m not a particularly strong swimmer, but my mind used to turn against me because I’d be in the middle of the race and it might be, you know, like a mile swim. And I’ll be thinking like, I don’t want to be out here. This is no fun. This is hard. And there you’re done with that attitude. And so if you can just go in thinking like, you know, however long it is, I’m putting everything I have into it. That’s I like Chris McCormack saying he’s his mantra was embrace the suck. And I think that’s especially for triathlon, especially for an Ironman, there’s going to be a lot of suck happening during the race. Like it is a grind. So I think that’s a great one for those
longer distance events where you’re just going to be right at the edge for a long period of time. Yeah. So yeah, and just kind of like as well that total knowing that you’ve got in with your best preparation, it just allows you to then focus on the race, because if you’re going into the race thinking, oh, okay, I missed a session here. I feel like I haven’t done enough volume. It’s like, well, you’re distracted from what’s in front of you. So yeah, just accepting where you’re at. And then it allows you to focus on the race a lot better. Yeah. And I think it also gives you confidence that you I can achieve my time goal. I can swim the pace I want, because I’ve done the work. Whereas if you like you suggested beforehand is like, I don’t know, I’ve been swimming that much. I’m not as fit as I can be. I’m not sure I can put it out there. And if you can’t say that, then goal number two is kind of out the window as well, because you’re not going to
bring it. If you don’t think you can bring it. So and then goal number three, after the race, no regrets. This is a big personal value for me, Breton, as well as professional this idea of no regrets in my life. So on my deathbed, when I’m 156 years old, I want to look back at my life and say, you know, things didn’t always work out the way I want because that’s life. But I left it all out on the course and I left it all out of my life. Every opportunity I took every shot I went for because ultimately, you don’t always get the result you want. And if you follow Lionel Sanders in Canadian Open, he didn’t have a very good race. And he’s really struggling with that. But and he has a lot of regrets. But if you can just look back and go, even if it didn’t work out, I couldn’t have done anything else. That’s a great way to live your life. And it’s a great way to approach a swim. Because all you can do is whatever you have at that
moment. And you can’t go back in time. You can’t rewind it and redo the regrets. But you can move forward and go, if I had regrets this time, well, the next race, I’m going to make sure I don’t. So so three key goals there before the race, total preparation on course, bring it after the race, whatever happens, good or bad, no regrets. I like I really like that last one because so so many of the important lessons that I’ve learned in swimming or sport, it’s come from not having a good race. So and it’s very hard to say at the time, you know, mostly you might be tied up in it, you might be frustrated with your performance or how it went. But then when you get a few days of space in between, you get to look back and go, OK, well, I realize I didn’t do this. Like, for example, I did the there’s a 20 K swim brought this channel over here in Australia. And I was going great up until about 15 Ks, 14 Ks into the race. I was I think top 10, I might
have been seventh and I was swimming really well, exactly how I trained. And then I started to get a bit hypothermic and my pace dropped. I think it was like from like a 120 something pace to like a 145 pace. Like it dropped off massively. I just could not move and there’s a bit of a blur the last six Ks. And I was disappointed with my time at the end. It was I think about 40 minutes slower than what I was expecting. And I was disappointed with my place as well. But I just didn’t know how much how cold I’d get throughout the race because I’d never done it before. I’d swum for that long, but not in those sorts of conditions and temperature. And so I look back and go, OK, well, I might have needed to have a little bit more fat on me. Maybe I needed to get a little bit more cold water prep. And there’s a few other things that I could have done better. But I just wouldn’t know that without having gone through it. So if I were to do the race
again, I’m going to be so much better prepared. And yeah, now I can use that knowledge to help others to not make the same mistake as I did. So yeah, it’s you just learn so much from those failures, so to speak. Yeah, more so than the successes. Yeah. And Brenton, a 20 K swim. That is some serious suck embracing. I can’t even begin to imagine swimming for that long. Anyway, so so having those goals and having that attitude about just I’m just going to do everything I can to have the best race I can is a great attitude to go into rather than worrying about whom I get to beat, you know, what my, you know, time per 100 is going to be where I’m going to finish things like that. So then on race day, getting yourself ready, a couple of key areas I think you want to tune in on. First of all, is your physical intensity. So this is range of physical intensity you experience on race day and you can be really relaxed to terrify and that
could be cut because it’s a race or because you’re not comfortable in open water or whatever it might be. And there’s an ideal level of physical intensity that each of us races best at. And this is a whole nother podcast, but I’ll give you the summary here. And so if you are we are physical beads, and if we’re not at our ideal level of physical intensity for the event, we’re not going to be able to swim the best we can, however technically good we are, no matter how mentally strong we are. So so being really first of all, figuring out what is my ideal level of intensity and it can depend upon the event. So for example, a super sprint is in triathlon. It’s like full gas start to finish about 250 to 400 meters dependent upon the length. So there you need more intensity because you’ve got to put the put the gas pedal along a race like like a 10 K swim or an Ironman triathlon. You need to chill out more. You need to be more calm
because you’re burning fuel. And so figuring out what your ideal intensity is and then race morning, checking in on it, like where am I at now? Well, I didn’t sleep that well. So I’m a little flat physically. So I need to I need to psych up or I’m really kind of nervous here. So I need to calm down. And so that getting yourself physiologically at that place when you and so when you enter the water, you’re at that ideal intensity. That’s really I find music is huge, it’s huge. You have a benefit or a way to be able to go up or go down with that intensity. And I was my event as a teenager was 400 I am. And I had the stock to dry still dry was my like my song that I’d listen to every time before this 400 I am. And yeah, and I’ve just every time I hear that song, I link it to to this event because that would sort of get me fired up in the right way. It’s 400 meters. You’re all my you’re not quite full gas for that the whole thing, but you’re
right on the edge. And that for me was like a great song just for that kind of event. And yeah, music is just so powerful because it just you can tune other things out. See, that’s where so many athletes with headphones on prior to a race is it’s it is just such a good way to get that right level of excitement. Yeah, yeah, I think music is an incredibly powerful mental tool because there’s been tons of research on this. And we all know at first from our own experience that it affects us psychologically, it affects us emotionally and affects us physiologically. And so I know a lot of the work, the world class athletes and Olympians and professionals I work with they’ll have their playlists depend upon where where they’re at. And and for me, I’m into ACDC and and Def Lepper. And so some pretty good metal there. And that just gets me super fired up, super confident and super happy. So music’s a great thing to have on race morning.
Another key thing is to have a pre-race routine. And so have a process that you go through to ensure that total preparation. That’s that goal number one. And so it starts with what you have for breakfast, what your morning warm up is, how you lay out your stuff, who you interact with is important. I remember the triathlon 80 years ago. I’m kind of an introvert. I like to keep to myself on race morning. And I had a friend who’s wonderful woman, but really outgoing and energetic. And before the race, he grabs him by the shoulders and go, Jim, isn’t this great? And I go, back off. And it was like a real mismatch in terms of energy. So so having really having a clear idea about what you want to do to get ready, where you want to do it, who you want to do it with and what you need to do it. Whether let’s say you need to roll out with a roller or a tennis ball and laying that out clearly because routines are so powerful because not
only do they get you ready. They’re also very powerful psychologically because they make you feel comfortable wherever you’re competing. Like I’m going to Abu Dhabi in November. I haven’t been to Abu Dhabi. It’s a very different environment than Northern California. And so and yet if I’m going through my routine, it’s just this is familiar territory for me. And so that’s the messages your body and your mind get when you have that good structured routine. Yeah. Yeah, so important. So I covered a couple of things so far. It’s getting yourself in the right level of excitement before the race. You can use music as a tool to do that. Having the pre-race routine that you’ve drilled in and you’ve refined over time. And I hear a lot of top semis and I mean triathletes as well. They’ve kind of refined it over time where they can pretty much like wake up. Let’s say it’s five o’clock you wake up if you’re doing it. An Iron Man might be super
early, but then they can almost switch off in a way where they’re just going through this routine. Right. And then they just get into the swing of things. And you’re not going to do that first time you try a routine. It’s going to come with the practice. And I think it’s another reason why the more experience you have, the more races you do, you really start to see what works for you. And including food, especially for a triathlon, realize what you can and can’t stomach. And yeah, and just pick up all these little one or two percenters over time and just start to include them in your routine. So that’s brought us up to pretty much the race. So let’s get into during the race. What are some tools and strategies that we can use to make sure that we stay on during the race and we don’t. And mine doesn’t drift off. We don’t get into a negative headspace, which is I’d say one of the most common things that I experience as a coach from feedback from athletes
is it’s just so easy to get negative during a race and have one thing throw you off. And that really just creates this downward spiral where people they all this hard work’s gone in. But it’s one thing is sort of set them off. And they just go into this. Yeah, this negative spiral. Right, right. So well, where it really starts is just before the race starts to review your race plan. So program your mind about this is what I’m going to do. This is the kind of pace I want to maintain. This is how I want to feel because what’s really difficult is especially with mass starts or wave starts like in triathlon and a lot of open water events in fact as well is there’s so much excitement. There’s so much energy. It’s hard not to just tear out that first hundred meters. And it’s like, oh my gosh, I got to get ahead. I got to get in front and everybody else is charging. So I need to as well. And then you’re cooked after a hundred meters.
And so by having that that race plan in your mind right at the start and then really focusing on technique and pace. So so I use the expression you want to swim within yourself because if you get outside of yourself, you’re kind of done. And so just in that first hundred meters really focusing very deliberately on good solid technique and maintaining a good pace and good breathing. It takes a lot of discipline because everybody’s charging out ahead of you. But if you’re if you execute your plan well and you stay within yourself and you focus on technique and pace then and your discipline, then you’re going to be passing those people the last couple whatever the race distance is. So so setting the tone for a good consistent effort is really keeping that the way I explain it to the athletes like coaches, you want to just keep your heart rate in check. You’ve got to not let that heart rate get out of control at the start because it’s just so easy to do
with all of that excitement. And you know, an example here is when I did my one and only Ironman event, my goal was to lead the swim was to win the swim. And so I was going pretty hard during the swim. And there was another swimmer who kept with me for it would have been four, five hundred meters. And I could see he was right next to me and I could see he was going hard, his stroke rate would have been high 80s, close to maybe 90 strokes a minute. Looked like he was going hard. And then after four or five hundred, he dropped off and he finished like a couple minutes behind me. And I just saw you. There’s no way that’s going to be sustainable for you. And that’s especially in an Ironman event. That’s really going to be a disadvantage later on. So yeah, just keeping the heart rate in checking it again, takes a lot of practice to sort of know where you can be with that. And I really like perceived effort sets in training. We’re talking about the form
goggles before we jump on this call and now so good at knowing your pace. And you can use, like, say the form goggles to know what your pace is. But you also, you know what your effort is when you’re doing that too. And it’s just being able to tune into where am I actually at in terms of my real effort. And I think people really struggle that when they’re new to the sport, if they’re a year in two years in, they don’t really have like a great measure of it. But they certainly do get that with more time. But yeah, being aware of that and doing some perceived effort sets where you might build up your effort throughout a main set. And then you might dial it back down, developing those different gears. It’s just so so important to actually knowing, yeah, if you can sustain the pace that you’re swimming at. Yeah, without a doubt that and that only comes from experience, know what you’re capable of for sure. And so then let’s say you
move to the middle of the race. Again, really important as you suggest to monitor your physiology. Are you out of breath? Is your heart pounding? Are your arms getting tired? Are you at a pace that you feel like you can sustain? And so really being aware of that can keep you within yourself and help you to, you know, get to the end where you want to finish strong. Another thing you alluded to is in the middle of the race, that’s when it gets hard psychologically, because it’s getting hard and you’re starting to hurt and stain positive. And it’s easy in swimming because you don’t have a lot of distractions around. You just have to site maybe if you do an open water. And so it’s easy to go to the dark side. That’s an expression I use from Star Wars, where you start to become your own worst enemies. Like I said, what used to happen to me is like, what am I doing out here? This is no fun. I wish I could get this over with. And it’s like, you’re
turning on yourself. It’s like everybody else is trying to beat you. And now you’re beating yourself. So I’ve practiced with a lot of open water swimming and long sets in the pool of just staying positive, like keep at it, keep going. And I’ll touch on that a little bit when we get to this talking about the end of the swim. And depending on the distance, just having an aggressive mindset. Like again, I’m still developing as a swimmer. And I think technically I’m pretty strong now thanks to your the effortless swimming videos. But I have not able to able to fully translate that into speed. And so like I focus on having a really aggressive catch and an aggressive pull. And that helps me maintain my pace. So so this idea of being positive and aggressive within the context of your pace is is a really good way to sort of stay in it and get to the place where now you can see the finish. And you know, in triathlons it’s usually the big round
and exit area. And then you can start focusing on what do I need to do to finish strong. Yeah, I like that. It’s you don’t. Again, I think this is I heard this from Chris McCormack as well. It was like, don’t be a victim out there because people are going to be swimming their own race. You might get swam over. You might get whacked. People are probably most people are not going to do that intentionally if they if it does happen. But if you become a victim and you sort of worry about what everyone else is doing, you’re on the back foot from the get go. So be out there. Be assertive with things. You’re not out there to swim over the top of people either. But don’t become the victim out there. It’s just so so important. It just comes down to you have so much more confidence in the water, in your race, when you have a sort of mindset and in terms of the like translating it into into pace, like the effort into pace, it’s just it’s one of those things
that it really comes down to to experience there. So what should we be thinking as we approach the end of the swim? Well, I want to back up to you start preparing for the finish of the swim in the days and weeks and months before you begin the swim. And so, for example, you can’t finish strong if you don’t have the fitness. So you have to make sure that you do the work in the pool and in the open water to make sure you’re fit enough to achieve your pace and your time goals and what you want to achieve that day. So clearly, you know, I often say how you can’t fake swimming. And like you can only go as fast as you’re capable of going. And same with biking and running. You know, other sports like maybe golf or tennis, you can fake it for a little while if you haven’t played in a while. But swimming, if you haven’t swum in a while, you’re not going to go fast. So so having that fitness is key. Also, another thing that I’ve been really
focusing on myself and suggesting to my the athletes I work with is practice finishing strong in training. So if I have, you know, a bunch of sets in the pool, even if I’m just doing a recovery set of let’s say 2,000 yards, I’ll make sure in that, let’s say the at 1600, I’ll pick up the pace and get used to finishing strong before I do my warm down set. And so you so basically you’re conditioning your body to go to be strong at the end of the race. And in my open water swimming, especially I put in my mind that that last 200 meters before I get to the end of the swim that I push it a little bit. So again, you’re conditioning your mind and your body to finish. That’s great. There’s, I love these sets. I just call them crescendo sets where like within the main set you sort of you’ll start at an easier pace and you’ll gradually build up and build up. And at the very end of the set, whether it’s 100 or 200 or 400, that’s going to be your fastest effort.
So you pretty much just leave it all on the table at the end there. And just that ability to finish strong and sustain the effort level through a whole set. I think I really like those kinds of sets. And the other thing that you mentioned before just about making sure that you don’t get into that negative spiral of thoughts like you used to have when you were early on in your swimming days, it’s I know in a race if I’m really going for it that there’s going to be a point where my mind’s going to say, you should slow down, you like, this is hurting, just back it off. All right. There’s nothing wrong with going easy. And that little voice in your head is going to tell you that it’s okay to just take your foot off the pedal. But I find that if I prepare myself for that, say, I know this is going to happen, probably around this mark. And this voice is going to be in my mind wanting me to slow down, but that’s when you’ve just got to acknowledge it.
Say, okay, isn’t that interesting? It came up here and then you just keep going. And I find that comes up a lot in training if I’m doing a hard set. And I might be three quarters through it and especially when in training, when there’s like I might have some other friends that I’m swimming with, but I’ve got an excuse to get out. I could say, I’ve got to go get the kids. I’ve got to jump out. And it happens all the time when I’m training hard. And yeah, it’s just about pushing through and just knowing that little voice is going to want to say something. And yeah, but it’s on you just to know that it’s going to happen and then to make a decision from there. Right. Yeah, that’s great. That’s great. Another really important thing sort of in preparation is make sure you fuel well. Meaning you’ve got the food in you. You got the liquids in you. So you’ll have the energy to go the distance. And one thing I love watching the Olympic 10 K for example
about they have the poles out from the boat and they pass the liquids out to the swimmers along the way. And obviously that doesn’t happen in most open water swims but making sure you’re fuel. And another thing that you sort of tied into late in a race when you start to get tired is that I’m sure you’ve experienced this. You feel like the tank is empty. You’ve run out of gas. But there’s been a ton of anthropological and human performance lab research that has shown that when you think there’s nothing left in the tank, there’s always something left in the tank. And it’s a purely evolutionary thing because back in the Serengeti 250,000 years ago when we first became humans, what the anthropologists found was that when cavemen would go hunting for gazelle, they’d sometimes track a gazelle 15, 20 miles before they finally killed it. And they sold to bring it back 15 miles. And so if they didn’t evolutionarily develop the ability
to have fuel in the tank to get home, they died and they didn’t pass on their genes and so on. And more recent research in the Human Performance Lab has shown that when cyclists, for example, think they’re out of gas, when they’re told that they don’t have to go as fast the next time, but they’re actually sort of deceived into actually going fast, they can. And so so much of it is about tapping into that, that reserve in your tank. And you can’t do that until you recognize that there is fuel in the tank. So let’s say you’ve got three or 400 meters to go and you’re really, you’re tired, you’re hurting. And if you go, I’m done, because my tank is empty, well, you’re done. But if you remind yourself, wait a minute, this still fuel in the tank, I just need to tap into it. And that’s where your mind has to take control of your body and say, you know, body, we’re finishing strong. And then your body will listen, it’s gonna resist
because it’s been taught through billions of years of evolution that it wants to stop because it thinks that it’s gonna die. But if the mind can send that message very clearly to body, the body will go, oh, okay. And then you’ll have that fuel in the tank. And then you have the energy to get to the end, even though you’re hurting. Because as you all know, Brenton, you’re not the only one hurting out there, right? Everybody’s hurting.
Yeah, that’s right. That’s such a good thing to know. It’s again, it’s one of those things where it’s like, okay, I’ve got the knowledge. I know that I’m built to have this reserve tank to pull on. And so if you can think of that as you’re racing, then it just allows you to bring it home strongly. It reminds me of when I did a breath, it’s kind of like a breath control course, like a big wave surfing, breath control course. And one of the things the teacher mentioned there was that when, if you’re underwater, then you can’t get up and you’re getting to that point where you’re sort of like gulping and you’re wanting to take a breath. You’re only, I’ve got this number wrong, but you’re only like halfway there. You’ve still got 50% of your oxygen in reserve to go, but you think that’s the end, that you need to get a breath straight away, but you’re only halfway there. So yeah, it’s amazing what the body’s capable of
when it really gets pushed, when it gets pushed to that level. Yeah, and like the freedivers, it’s an amazing example of mind over body, especially the pressure going down deep. So a couple of other things is focus on your breathing. And it’s a little harder in swimming compared to biking and running. But if you really focus on your breathing, the chance are you’re out of breath and what’s difficult about swimming is you can’t breathe whenever you want. But focusing on your breathing does a couple of things, psychologically and physically. It ensures that you get as maximum oxygen as you can every time you bring your head out of the water. Also makes you feel more control, which is something that we humans don’t like being out of control because on the Sarangedi 250,000 years ago, if we were out of control, it probably meant we were gonna get eaten or killed. And so again, we’re wired not to like that. So anything you can do
to increase your sense of control with your breathing, with focusing on technique, all those things are really… The last thing that’s probably most powerful for me at the end of a race is to create what I call power words or power phrases. And these are little one or two word sayings that you can repeat to yourself that’s basically sending the message to your body to keep going. And for me, it’s dig deep and finish strong. So that last 100, 200 meters of a race, I’m just constantly saying that to myself, dig deep, finish strong, finish strong. And in a way, it’s drowning bad use of the word I apologize, but it’s drowning your body’s messages in these positive, powerful words and phrases. And it’s like the body wants to go, wait a minute, excuse me, I wanna stop. And, but your mind, if you’re keeping using these power words, then you’re not giving the body a chance to chime in. And it’s gonna just do what you say
because they can’t get a word in edgewise.
That’s good. I think we talked about the cues and trigger words on the last podcast from memory. It’s, yeah, it’s such a powerful thing to have. One of the most commonly used ones, I think in swimming is easy speed there. And it’s that first part of the race, you wanna go out fast, but you don’t wanna, you wanna conserve a lot of energy. And it’s easy speed where, yeah, where you feel like you’ve just got a lot coming home. So I like dig deep and finish strong, especially when you said that, I pictured myself about 400 meters to go in a race going like, all right, this is hard work, but yeah, dig deep, finish strong and you can last the last 400 meters. That’s interesting. Yeah, one last little tidbit. And it’s a little bit more of a challenge in swimming than certainly biking and running, but it can still work. And that’s smile.
Smile. So we don’t think about smiling as a mental tool, but it’s actually a really powerful one. And there’s a ton of research that shows how powerful it can be that when you smile, a couple of things happen. First of all, we’re conditioned that when we smile, it means that life’s good and things are fine. Just through life experience. Also, there’s been some really interesting brain research that has shown that when we smile, it releases our bodies endorphins, our natural, our bodies natural relaxants. And so I try, I do this now swimming and it’s a little awkward, but I find when I breathe, I’ll go like this. And it doesn’t have to be every stroke, but by forcing yourself to swim to smile, we’re fundamentally physiological beads and it’s difficult to think and feel in ways that are inconsistent with the messages our body is sending. So if you’re frowning like this, then your mind is getting the message that I don’t wanna be here.
This sucks. But if you’re smiling, then that sends the message like, oh, things aren’t so bad, I guess. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be smiling. And it seems incredibly goofy at first, but I assure you listeners, and you can try this next time you swim, just when it gets hard, just every couple of breaths, force yourself to smile. And you’ll find that it hurts less and it still hurts, of course. It’s not like a pain killer, but it just makes everything more pleasant and that can carry you to the end. This podcast is brought to you by Form Goggles. Form empowers swimmers at every level to reach their goals, whether they wanna get stronger, faster, swim further, or be more efficient. Get lap by lap motivation with real-time metrics and workout instructions right in your goggles. And Form’s recently released Form Plans, which included progressive series of workouts to help you achieve your fitness, skills, or triathlon goals.
You can follow along with the plan and your weekly swims will be automatically synced to your goggles. So you’ll swim through your workouts with real-time metrics and workout instructions, all in your goggles. So it’s like having a coach right there with you. And I’ve had a look through these training plans and I think they are excellent for people who want to train for certain triathlons or reach certain fitness goals. It will build on each week and a really good way to progress, progressively build up your fitness. So if you’d like to follow along with some plans to help you reach your specific swimming goals, then check out Form Goggles at formswim.com forward slash effortless. And this will give you $15 off your purchase of Form Goggles. So formswim.com forward slash effortless to get your pair of Form Goggles. I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow in training towards the end of the session. That’s a good one. It reminds me of a tip I heard from a surf coach.
He said, when you’re in big waves and paddling out, there might be high levels of anxiety and fear. Make a fart noise because it’ll do two things. It’s going to make you exhale, it’s going to make you breathe out and it sort of relax that way. But it’s also going to make you laugh and it’s going to allow the levels of anxiety. That’s always stuck with me. So yeah, smile and make a fart noise. I think they’re two very powerful things you can do. I’ll have that laugh to my list from now on. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah, before a race, if you are nervous, maybe you could use mine and then smile towards the end and you’ll be set up well. Let us know your result. Well, it’s been in the start before a race and somebody goes like this. Everybody goes like this. That’s right. And by the way, I mean, consumer is also a phenomenally great tool for stress because if we’re happy, if we’re having fun, if we’re laughing, then we’re going to be more relaxed
and it’s going to produce different emotions, different physiology, different thoughts. And if you’re sitting there before the race going like, oh my gosh, the water’s rough, the water’s cold, I’m going to get beat, you know, levity is just a really healthy way to approach anything. And especially something that’s maybe a little scary or a little stress producing for people. Yeah, absolutely. And that takes us to the end of the race. What about post-race? What are some ways that we can go about maybe reflecting on the race or our performance? So we come out of it, we take the positives and take those learnings and don’t get into that negative downward spiral that we’ve talked about earlier. Yeah, yeah, great question, Brenton. And here’s my perspective. Don’t look at the results at first. Take some time and just think back and reflect and enjoy the experience, first of all. Cause obviously if it’s not enjoyable, why the heck do it?
And so remind yourself like, oh, that was so cool being out there and I felt really strong. And then also just do a little self-analysis of how did my race go without the time? Because the time can also be inconsistent with what you feel. And if you feel good, you know, technically I was really strong, I had a really good pull. I cited well, I stayed within myself. All these things are positives. And maybe yes, maybe you can add some things in. Oh, I needed to increase my kick a little bit or I needed to do a little better DPS, whatever that might be, but basically start off with just what the swim meant for you without all the external things that then pinch upon our judgment and go like, oh, disappointment. And so all of a sudden, if you look at your watch right away and it didn’t go as well as you wanted, then you’re just like wrapped in this cloak of disappointment. And that’s not a good way to be whereas if you focus on the positive stuff,
you create sort of an initial positive filter that when you see the clock and it’s not as good as you wanted to go, I did some good things, but it’s disappointing, but I can learn from this and go faster. And then if it was fast, it’s like, I felt great and I had a great time and I was fifth or whatever. And it’s like score. So it’s better to start off with just stay within yourself, your reflections, your evaluations before you start getting the objective stuff. Yeah, yeah, definitely. It reminds me of the race I did in March. It was probably the first, it’s first time I would have raced in about two years and I hadn’t trained that much up to it as a 400 freestyle and hadn’t done the training. I was sort of a little bit injured going into it and I did the race and I thought, okay, didn’t feel too bad. You know, that was all right for the first one back and I looked at the time and it was horrendous. And I was, yeah, I was disappointed at first,
but then I thought, hang on a minute, this is the first one in two years, it’s you haven’t done the training for it. Just be happy that you’ve managed to blow the cobwebs out. And it felt okay, considering the work that you’ve done, but you’re right, as soon as I saw that time, because you only look at the scoreboard when you’re doing a swim race, that’s where you get the elation or the frustration with your performance. Yeah, and I think one of the dangers there is you probably went in with some expectations based upon when you were fit and how you normally are. And like we said, you can’t fake speed in the pool. And so you probably went in thinking like, oh, I got this, I’m a great swimmer, but it’s better to go in like, I haven’t done the work. And so I’m not gonna, this is my first race back in two years, I’m not gonna crush it. And so I’m just gonna go out there and do the best I can and use it as a gauge of where I need to be
if I wanna go faster. And I’m just gonna have some fun because ultimately that’s why I’m doing it. Yeah, yeah, exactly right. And any other final sort of words of wisdom or tips that you’ve found have helped the athletes that you work with, post-race? Yeah, post-race is, and then just enjoy yourself with your community. Because it was swimming, triathlon, that’s one of the great joys of doing them is that you get to hang out with your friends and people you know and you get to hear their stories. And any one race, unless you’re a professional and even to a degree when you’re a professional is not life or death, it’s just a part of life. And if you can keep it in perspective, not only will you enjoy it more but you’ll actually go faster. So a whole other conversation about the dangers of expectations but go into races. Again, as I talked about how you enter the race often will dictate how you leave a race. And so if you go in with good attitudes
and good habits and good practices and good training, then overall the chances are most often good things are gonna happen. And Brenton, that’s an expression I use often because I can’t say you’re gonna win or you get a PR, but good things are gonna happen if you approach the race the way you want and the way that’s healthy and positive. And so if you’re struggling that way then you probably need to do a little re-riggering of how you approach races and your attitude and the importance of these races. And maybe you should seek out a sports psychologist or a mental coach even. And so because a couple of things is that most of us are in the game for two reasons. One, we enjoy training and we enjoy competing and we wanna see how good we can be. And so to do that, it starts with that attitude and some really good practices of approaching races in a healthy way. Jim, I’ve really enjoyed this. Thanks so much for being on the podcast again.
Those people that are listening, what’s there, DrJimTaylor.com Your website and for anyone who’s thinking, maybe I could get some help with this kind of stuff. What’s the best way to contact you? Is it to email you or through the website? Just through my website, I’ve got my email on there and I’ve got all the usual social media. And so even if people don’t wanna hire me they just have a question or a comment. One thing, the reason I like doing podcasts is not to generate business but to just engage with people and share ideas and hear their stories. And so I love it when people reach out to me and ask questions and tell me what’s going on with them. Yeah, that’s fantastic. And I mean, second episode, you’re gonna be a regular guest on the podcast because I’ve found that it’s just so knowledgeable with all of this stuff and it seemed to know it back the front. And also like you’ve got the experience as a triathlete
and came across you through the swimming through our videos, which is terrific. So I appreciate you sharing all of your knowledge on this episode. And yeah, looking forward to getting you back on talking about another topic. I think visualization would be good to focus on next because I just love that as a topic. So I think we’ll pencil that one in for the next episode. That’s great, Brandon. Always fun. I really appreciate it. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming podcast. If you’d like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com.
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