Sporty Horse Jun 13, 2025 0 Comments

Rules of Game

Swiming

The transition into a new year is often a time of self-reflection, especially for athletes looking to take their performance to the next level.

Determining which habits to carry through to 2025, and which ones to leave in the past, is an important way of shaping yourself as a swimmer. Although each individual athlete will have different goals and focuses, there are some relatively simple resolutions that are applicable to a wide range of swimmers.

The first is, in reality, such a general one that it could be relevant to all aspects of life, not just your athletic career; positivity.

A change in attitude is a huge adjustment and sounds like an extremely ambitious objective, so it can instead be broken down into smaller resolutions. For example, simply vowing to smile more on deck and during practices can have a huge impact on your nerves, or the way you approach difficult sets.

Also, cutting out negative phrases such as “I can’t” and replacing them with motivational ones like “I can do this” can help towards building your confidence as an athlete. Additionally, vocalizing words of encouragement by cheering on a team mate, or pushing a lane mate to continue working hard can create a positive environment which is crucial to sustain personal growth for each individual athlete. Over time, and through the combination of small goals like this, becoming a more optimistic athlete is an extremely feasible resolution.

On the same note, tackling the bigger issues in the water such as a weak kick, or an inadequate lung capacity can be made easier by simplifying them.

Fixing your kick is a huge undertaking when you look at it from the big picture, but trying instead to do five butterfly kicks off of every wall on the turns instead of only three is something that will inadvertently strengthen your kick, and is also applicable to most sets. Over time this task will become almost second nature, and will be something that can be applied to kicking with a board, or to kick outs during a race. Another example is a low lung capacity, which could be helped by again focusing on the details.