By Katie Wingert, Swimming World College Intern.
Swimming journals are quickly becoming trendy, thanks to the likes of swimming celebrities such as Michael Phelps and Caeleb Dressel, who sing their praises. But you can do so much more this season with a notebook or laptop than merely logging yards or keeping your goals in a safe place.
Here are five ways to take your swimming journal to the next level:
1. Keep daily tabs on your goals.
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In the front cover or back cover of your journal, write down your major long-term goals for the season. Under each of those goals, write down a few short-term goals that, if achieved, will enable you to achieve your long-term goals. For example, if your long-term goal for 100 butterfly is to break 55 seconds, then one goal would be to figure out the tempo of your turnover necessary in order to go that pace and use that tempo for at least one set of butterfly every practice. Keep writing your short-term goals before swim practice to remember what your focus should be.
2. Write about how you feel, not just what you do.
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It’s one thing to record your yardage and the corrections your coach gave you, but it’s quite another endeavor to analyze your emotions during practice. Did you worry that you didn’t do enough yardage? Did you want to sit out in the middle of the kick set? Did you disagree with your coach’s critique? It is important to process your emotions on paper so that you aren’t wrestling with the same questions over and over again.
3. Start writing about your life off the pool deck.
Photo Courtesy: Masahiro Ihara
If you’re writing about what you do outside of workouts, you will be able to start collecting a larger set of data to analyze and consider in greater depth. How are your dietary and sleeping habits impacting your performance in workouts, both in the pool and on land? Begin keeping track of what works for you, and what doesn’t.
4. Write about your team, not just yourself.
Photo Courtesy: Tara Freeman
Before you become hyper-focused on yourself, think about how you can use your journal to consider the concerns and progress of your team. How can you be encouraging to that guy who never knows the set when it is in his turn to leave? How can you reach out to the competitor you lose to, race after race? Use your journal as a space to think about the kind of person you are, not just the kind of swimmer you are.
5. Take time to reflect on, not just what you struggle with in the pool, but also what you love about swimming.
Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Ultimately, it is most meaningful when you use your journal as a space to remember and to wrestle. Untangle those inner knots you’ve been fighting for years, whether it’s that nasty comment a competitor made to you behind the blocks years ago or your nightmares about a meet gone wrong. Celebrate the good races. What felt good about the best race of your life? What do you love about swimming, year after year? Cherish the words that flow onto the page, whether they are prose or poetry.
Each journal opportunity is a chance to reflect on each practice, meet, and thought process you have. Embrace it.
“Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.