Your Competitive Edge

Helpful Tips from USA Swimming

Given that I work with a lot of swimmers in my practice and the USA Olympic Swim Trials coming up at the end of the month in Omaha, I chose to repost this article on performance anxiety management. 

The original article can be found here.

There are a couple things to highlight in this piece: first being the differences between somatic and cognitive anxiety-anxiety presents itself in both our thoughts and our physical sensations. It's important to know the difference and develop skills for addressing both types. Second, some potential causes are discussed. One thing I always try to emphasize with athletes I work with is to work to identify what may be causing unproductive anxious feelings in the first place. Once the source(s) is identified, a plan of attack can be implemented. 

Controlling anxiety takes some practice, but is a skill that helps not only in sports but in any other stressful situation. 

Source: USA Swimming.

Athlete's Audio: Streamlining the Visualization Process

..."For the next 15 minutes of so...it's mental training time..."

This is typically how the run-focused audio prompts begin voiced over by Bob Kinnison-the voice behind Athlete's Audio.  As simple a line as that might be, I find it to be a helpful in cueing a relaxed athlete get into their performance zone while seated in the comfort of their own home/dorm room/airplane seat, etc.

Some of you may have been already introduced to Bob through this interview posted a few months ago. Working in conjunction with practitioners all over the country, a series of sport-specific pre-recorded imagery exercises were created. As a practitioner, I find this concept very helpful and time-efficient. As much as I'd like to do so, it takes time and equipment to create quality recordings to provide to athletes. 

One of my favorite things about the AA series is that my mental training has been enhanced by using the exercises. While I nurse a bum leg, I'm able to visualize my run mechanics as I would like to see them in real life. I'm even able to feel the emotion of a late surge in a race and the recording provides prompts to review racing tactics and common scenarios in distance running. As the literature states-our brains see images as if they are actually present and happening. 

Some athletes I work with agree that these exercises are effective and time-efficient:

"These are really neat-you are basically coached the whole exercise but you provide the pictures in your head". -college swimmer.

"This taught me how to use imagery and helps me picture my performance". -HS athlete.

While imagery is just part of a complete mental game-athletes audio provides a helpful tool. I will likely use more of this in conjunction with athletes I see needing a "workout from the neck up". 

Thank you athlete's audio for providing the images. 

For more, see athletesaudio.com or contact Adrienne L.  for more info. or to set up an appointment.