5 Ways to Make the Most of a Bad Practice
3 Hannah Saiz | October 17th, 2013 |
Let's face it: having a bad meet is
no fun, but the daily grind of practices is what can really bring us down.
What's the best way to deal when the going gets rough?
And then there are the days when if
you can finish to the wall without being lapped four times in a 200 free, you
consider yourself lucky. We’ve all been there, and every athlete has taken a
look at practice when they weren’t feeling their best and said, Nope. That’s
not happening today, coach.
But what can you do when you’re not
feeling your best in the water? Putting in two hours of dogged back and forth
grind focusing on how badly you feel isn’t going to be an effective use of
resources – you’re wasting your time, and your energy. So, aside from crawling
out of the pool and begging for a day off, what can you do?
1) Relax
For some people, this sounds like a
given. For others, you’re already too busy pounding away on your body, trying
to make it go faster for the word relax to make any sense.
Relax? you’ll ask. But I’m barely making the send off!
Thing is, there’s some truth to the
notion that the harder you try, the harder it is to go fast. Sometimes – often
times – 95% is faster than all out. That’s not saying that relaxation is a cure
for all evils of off days. Occasionally you will just have a day where you’re
not up to breaking world records in practice. Being able to relax and enjoy the
process anyway is key to getting yourself through workout, maintaining a
positive mindset so you don’t disrupt teammates.
2) Find a friend
Maybe there was a practice once upon
a time in some awesome alter universe where every athlete in the pool was busy
being at their all time best. Most of the time, that doesn’t happen. If you are
having an off day, chances are someone else is, too. If you are usually the
lane leader and suddenly find yourself displaced because today just isn’t going
your way, there may be a friend back in the ranks who can pace you out to your
100% effort that day. Whoever it is, cheer for them, and they’ll cheer for you
too. I can’t count the number of times where teammates have “gotten me through”
a practice, by cheering and being willing to help push me and themselves to
whatever our best is for the day.
3) Change it up
So you’re a breaststroker and all
your tempos and times are off today. Or maybe you usually do long freestyle,
but you can’t hold onto any water. Whatever your main stroke is, and whatever
speed you’re supposed to be going can act as a rut. If you find yourself stuck
doing mediocre times and can’t get your turnover to be “right,” try doing a
repeat of something else. If you’re supposed to be sprinting 50s of fly and
can’t manage today, try doing a 50 or two of backstroke. See if you can shake
yourself out of the rut by resetting the system. Occasionally your main stroke
just needs a day off.
4) Switch the focus
So you can’t relax. There’s no one
going nearly as slowly as you are today. Your breaststroke didn’t get any
better by trying some backstroke, and now there’s a killer aerobic set waiting
in the wings. You’re ready to give up and call practice what it obviously is
today – a waste of time.
Don’t. Sure, everyone else is going
to be going after 18x150s on 1:40 like bats from hell, but you aren’t
going to focus on making the time. If your body isn’t going to cooperate in
speed, you can find some other way to make the workout into a time to improve.
How many flip turns are there in 18x150s? 90. Time to focus on turns.
Focus on breakouts. Focus on not breathing into or out of the wall. You get
caught? Work hard to make the other person swim around you. Try to make every
third 150. Master three dolphin kicks off each wall. Pick something to turn
this into a game, and let a little automated video-game voice in your head
narrate what you’re doing.
If it’s not exactly what coach
intended when she wrote the set? Hey – at least you got something out of it.
5) Look forward
“How was your set today?”
How many times do you hear that and
want to say that practice today was worse than being forced to run a marathon
backwards in a snow-tornado-blizzard wearing a two piece and no socks? Better
than focusing on how not-your-best today was, look to the next workout, whether
that’s tomorrow morning or this coming afternoon and say, full of conviction,
“The next one will be better.”
Anyone have other ways to deal when
the going gets rough?
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