A short guide to mental training

Herbert Benson has discovered a physiological state that he terms the "relaxation response". He describes this state as being the antithesis of the fight or flight response that our body exhibits when encountered with stressful events. His work has shown many benefits from eliciting this response, but for athletes I see one benefit: Preparing the mind.

The relaxation response can be elicited in many ways and generally should be tailor-made to the individual. Some common ways might include:

• the focus on the breath and diaphragmatic breathing
• progressive muscle relaxation
• yoga
• tai chi
• swimming
• walking/running
• prayer

The two keys that Benson repeats in all of his books is that this activity must be: repetitive and the individual must keep a passive attitude towards distractions.

I would say that both of these are very true. The most common times that I work on this is during an easier run, on technique focused swims and at the end of a yoga session. I particularly like to work on this during my runs because I can use the repetition of my foot strikes and my running form as a focus. Then if things get in my way and I lose focus, as a runner, I have found it relatively easy to refocus. This is not always the case with swimming.

While I said that this practice is only good for preparing the mind, if you are a competitor that has a great deal of anxiety before a race, this may be beneficial for you in bringing yourself down so that you are able to perform at a normal level.

After you are ready:

After ten to fifteen minutes, the mind (and you) are probably ready to move on to the next step. Improving your performance!

Visualization or Imagery? There may not seem to be a difference, but I believe there is? The thought of visualization, to me, means picturing yourself performing an activity or event. Kind of like watching yourself on television. Imagery is the process of trying to place yourself in the event. With imagery you use all of your senses and actually create the event within your mind. To me there is a real difference.

Some practical examples:

I have had the opportunity of working with a swimmer lately. I have been teaching her pilates in an effort to increase balance, stability, strength and flexibility. But I have also been asked to discuss some aspects of preparing mentally for an event and how to use mental practice to improve performance. The following are some ideas that I shared with her. Maybe they will be beneficial to others?

How to use this information:

You do not have to take separate time outside of your swim practice to do this. You can begin this by focusing when you are doing your sets. I suggest that a good time would be during warm-up or rest intervals.

What to focus on: just like we did today, Do Not focus on the race or aspects of a race. You should focus on a specific portion of your technique. This probably isn’t hard because coaches are generally willing to suggest an aspect to work on.

The focal point or focused movement should be repetitive. In other words, you want to try and focus on only the small aspect of your technique you are working on and let other parts of your swimming be automatic.

When ready: this section is the practical part of the mental practice. This is where you want to begin focusing on the specifics that you want to improve.

In your case today you focused on the feeling of having the necessary energy and strength to swim the first 100 of your 200 fly. You can focus on whatever you or your coach wants you to do for each race, heat or meet.

Quick Steps:

1. prepare to do mental training (it is practice by itself!) – The relaxation response/meditation