By Matthew Barnard, Swimming World College Intern.
With the college championship season just around the corner swimmers and divers up and down the country are trying to get the most out of their last few weeks of training. With heavy school schedules and high anxiety levels, athletes often forget to focus on the fundamentals to ensure they are on the top of their game for meet day.
To have the best results you can hope for it is important to talk to your support network. Most athletes only go to their trainers when they have a problem, but more often then not they are a great resource for planning ahead. Here are five things to focus on to give yourself the best chance come championship season from the University of Minnesota athletic trainer and former collegiate swimmer Julia Olson:
1. Hydration
“I always recommend that my student-atheltes have a water bottle with them at all times, and to make sure that it’s full at all times. A good recommendation is to try and get eight ounces every 15 minutes so labeling your bottle with eight ounce increments isn’t a bad idea. You should shoot for at least three or even four liters of water throughout the day. Hydration is important because it helps with recovery, it helps your body function and metabolize all the foods that you’re eating and really helps to flush out any toxins that would be in your system.”
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2. Sleep
“Sleep is important for all athletes not just swimmers. Research suggests that women tend to need more then men do, but on average everyone should be getting about eight hours of sleep a night. This is when your body rejuvenates, its where you get to metabolize your foods and your brain gets to rest. If you don’t get enough sleep you’re more susceptible to getting sick and your immune system will suffer. You will also see a decrease in performance and cognitive function if you don’t get the amount of sleep you need.”
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3. Food
“Nutrition is one of the largest components of performance. I try and stress to all my student-athletes that your body is not a human garbage disposal and that there is nothing that you can supplement that will substitute for good nutrition. This is a time of taper and reducing your workload so I often recommend to reduce the amount of sugar that my athletes are in-taking. That means looking at labels because everything has processed sugars in it. Eating more natural foods that you find at the outsides of the grocery store and avoiding the aisles is what you should aim to do.”
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4. Me Time
“I think that every person should spend 30 minutes a day to just take time for him or herself. That means time away from swimming or diving, time away from school, even time away from social activity where you just spend time in your own space. You can meditate, you can write, you can read, whatever you need to do to reduce your stress levels. It’s also a time to think about your performance and take time to visualize the perfect dive or perfect race, or reflect back on your goals. It really just gives your mind a time to rest throughout the day and just take time for yourself to refocus.”
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5. Routine
“Find a routine that matches that of competition season. Getting your mind to focus that ‘this is a competition time’ or ‘this needs to be a study time’ or ‘this needs to be personal space time’ and to train your body to do those things is really important. If you know that your competition is going to start and you need to be in the water at 7am, programing your body to get up at 5:30 and eat the right things at those times can be a great asset. This will make the transition into competition season a lot less stressful.”
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All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.
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