The (Real World) Power of Visualization: Goal Setting

We talk a lot about goal setting, visualization, positive self talk, etc with our athletes. The
psychological aspect of high performance in sports can not be stressed enough. This post is not
going to highlight the “hows & whys" of those important skills, it will rather highlight a real world
example of their true power.

This past weekend our club competed in an early long course season competition. The goals
were spelled out to the swimmers, parents and staff; let’s focus on technical gains, great splits
and let’s own the back half of our swims. It is too early in the training process to focus on speed
as we have not filled those gas tanks yet, so to speak.

The results were great teamwide. We have many technical improvements, we saw a lot of even
splits and the swimmers were in control at the end of their events. The last session on Sunday
was the 1500 free.

Before we started, one of our promising 14 year old males came up to me with a piece of paper
with some numbers written on it. He showed it to me and let me know that he spent some time
at home figuring out how he was going to swim his race. After doing his calculations, he put
down the splits and final time on paper. I was impressed and happy...as any coach would be
seeing that type of effort from their young swimmer. We sat down and went over his written
strategy and goals pre-race.

His best time last year was over 18:00. While the time he targeted was a significant drop, it did
not seem out of line with his current rate of progression. We talked about his race strategy and
the splits he wrote down seemed to be in line with his training to date. We both felt confident
that the goal and the strategy was sound.

Since the mile is a long event, I won’t get into the weeds and describe each split. Suffice to say,
he executed the plan with precision...and the results, well, were amazing.

His written goal time was 17:22. Throughout the course of the race, he held his paces again,
again and again. He never got sucked into whatever anyone else was doing, or not doing; he
knew his tempo and took each stroke with workmanlike precision. As you can see in the pic (he
was in lane three), he went a 17:22.01; just .01 off the time he set for himself.

I am not saying that whatever you visualize and write down you will achieve. It is just a part of
the bigger picture. You can write down whatever time you want, but if you haven’t put in the
work, it won't matter at all. We stress the physiological, psychological, tactical and technical
aspects of performance here at Florida Atlantic Aquatics. A high performing athlete needs to
address all of these aspects over the course of their career, in developmentally appropriate
ways. Fortunately, this athlete is putting in the work. Is he perfect? No. None of us are; but
taking the time to visualize, analyze and write down a specific race strategy AND implement it, is
an important step in becoming truly successful, in and out of the pool.

This summer we are offering a camp option for our RED+ swimmers. Will will have classroom
sessions each day where we will go over topics such as these to ensure that our swimmers
have the knowledge they need to achieve their goals. This, coupled with multiple in-water
sessions, video recording and analysis, stretching, nutritional advice, etc., will go a long way to
make events like this one more commonplace teamwide.

See you at the pool - Rich