Hello!
Today’s email is gonna be shortish, and hopefully succinct with just enough oomph to get you moving in the right direction.
Been thinking a lot recently about the mentality of good practices. And how practice doesn’t get its due credit.
After all…
Competition is the thing we dream about, while practice is the thing we tend to have nightmares about.
But what if it was the other way around?
What if practice was the thing you set goals for?
What if practice was the thing where you tried to perform your absolute best?
What if you treated every practice the same way you’d treat your biggest race of the year?
If you let your imagination run loose for a second, your thoughts would land on a few of the following realizations:
You would work way harder, way more often. This is the most obvious benefit. (On top of the out-sized results that come with crushing it in practice on the regular.) When you stop treating practice as though you have a million of them at your disposal you get a sense of urgency to put in a good effort regardless of time or place.
You'd be more relaxed and calm at the big meet. When you treat practice like *everything* it removes the do-or-die pressure that comes with swim meets. The repeated times you go to practice eith high expectations will dull the pressure you heap on yourself when you are behind the blocks at the nig meet. This means you can actually relax and let your body do what you’ve trained it do instead of getting frazzled and over-thinking things.
You learn what it takes to be your best. When you show up ready to do your best you learn what it takes to perform like a boss. You learn and experience firsthand what leads to you swimming fastest. Kinda helpful things to know before you show up to the big meet.
The lifestyle stuff falls into place quickly. Are you one of those swimmers that waits until two days before the big meet to clean up your sleep and nutrition habits? Having a “practice is everything” approach helps you align your lifestyle habits to support better practices.
Is it time that you started rethinking practice?
Taking it a little more seriously?
If you are diggity down with attaining excellence in one form or another…
Then practice is everything.
See you in the water,
Olivier
