Becca recently attended the USA Swimming National Select Camp at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. Here is her blog. - Thanks Becca
Day 1
Quite honestly I didn’t really know what to expect when I
was invited to the National Select Camp.
I told myself that hey this could be a lot of fun and it’s a great way
to take that step that I need to move forward in the sport. I kept reminding
myself that you worked your way to be at the camp so you should not doubt
yourself.
After the shortest flight of my life we arrived in beautiful
sunny Colorado Springs. Let me tell you it was HOT that first day I mean I had
to change into shorts. Once we arrived on Campus Ian went one way and I went
another. I was shuttled into a meeting about the campus and the honor code.
After that meeting the speaker went into goal setting and leadership. I learned
the 10 steps to creating a goal:
1.
Be decisive
2.
Stay focused
3.
Write your goal down
4.
Plan thoroughly
5.
Involve others that understand your goal
6.
Welcome failures
7.
Take purposeful action
8.
Inspect what you expect
9.
Reward yourself
10.
Maintain personal integrity
I also learned that 77% of all self-talk is negative. To
overcome this you need to put yourself above everyone else. Your mental
attitude is almost more important than your physical fitness.
One of the main speakers today was the head coach of the
Olympic Team and the National team. He talked to us about how swimming is the
most mental sport in the books, I mean staring at a black line for 3 hours
isn’t something other sports do.. He told us that you have to focus all your
energy on you and how to make yourself better, you can’t let your mind wander.
He told us that “the pool is our sacred ground” and that the minute we step
onto the pool deck that you come with the intent to do something. Swimming is a
mental sport that has only one boundary: your own mental attitude. Swimming is
the only sport that is an honest sport: what you put in is what you get out.
After a long practice we had a team
meeting, the coaches talked about standard house-keeping things, but there was
one quote that had me repeating it all night: “Be happy, but don’t be
satisfied.”
Day 2
Today the topic of discussion was motivation. Throughout the
day you heard basically the same thing over and over again, but you heard it
from different perspectives. I thought that these meetings were the most
important of the whole camp. Talking about motivation throughout the day really
made me analyze my team back home and how we motivate each other… I couldn’t
think of anything.
During the 1st
practice towards the end of our main set the pain really started to kick in.
The girl next to me picked up on it and told me to push through it and to keep
it up. That made all the difference in the world, I sucked it up and pushed
through the pain and finished the practice strong. I realized that teammates
are just as important as coaches, and even though swimming is an individual
sport that teammates are everything.
The 3rd meeting of the day was with a National
Team Athlete. She told us that what you put into swimming is exactly what
you’re going to get out of it. She stressed on the fact that when you are tired
is when you should work the hardest, and when you are tired is the time when
you improve the most. She really emphasized that encouragement is one of the
most important thing if you want to succeed. She also told us that we shouldn’t
get stuck in a routine and that we should spice it up a bit.
The next meeting really made me think. The meeting was based
around how to deal with race day anxiety. He drew out a funnel and told us the
when at a stressful meet that we have to “funnel” our thoughts. We go from
stage 1 (The questions turn to answers) to stage 2 (find a focus), and to stage
3 (execute your SIMPLE focus). He emphasized to go simple, you have trained
hard so your body already knows what to do, and your mental status is what gets
you places.
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten my
butt kick as hard as it did today (literally). We kicked for half the practice.
Boy do my legs burn!!!! I’ve tried to take time to think about what I will
bring back to Stingrays and I have come up with these: motivation- we will
encourage each other in practice no matter what, team goals- I think we do a
really good job of this in the beginning of the year, but I think we need
checkups on how we are doing so far, and last but not least have fun- I think
we have done an amazing job with picking up the team bonding outside of the
pool, and I think that this needs to continue for a long time. I have learned
so much and look forward to this last day of learning and for hard practices.
Day 3
Today was an awesome day. We had an extremely hard (but
really fun) practice that really tested me physically and mentally. Our
meetings went well and my favorite meeting of the entire camp happened today.
Aaron Peirsol talked to us at the first meeting (this was my favorite meeting).
He asked us why we swam. This really made me think. I thought of all the funny
answers like “I can’t do anything else” or “I have no hand eye coordination”,
and then I thought about it some more and realized I haven’t done any other
sport, and oddly I felt ok with that. I realized that I truly love the sport,
it challenges me and the practices are different every day.
After we talked with Aaron they turned on the 2008 and 2012
Olympic Team videos. I lost it. I started to cry so hard. It made me realize
that my goals and dreams are just within reach. The videos spoke to me in a
different way; they made me realize that with hard work and the love of what
you are doing anything can happen.
