Working Toward Your Goals

This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week was submitted by Sharon Power of the Portland Porpoise Swim Club in Portland, Maine. Power offers some advice on working toward your goals daily.

Power’s Tip:
One of the best things swimmers can do to enhance their performance is to set daily goals for their practice sessions:

Before you hit the water, have in mind at least one thing that you want to achieve that workout. For example, if your goal is to work on fast turns, take advantage of each turning opportunity to hit the wall at the full extension of your stroke – without gliding into the wall. By the end of the workout, you would have practiced an element of your turning skill that would make your turns faster in a race, over one hundred times!

It will make the workout more interesting if you are concentrating and focusing on an important element of your race.

You have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the workout knowing you have been successful in working toward your larger goal.

If you are in doubt about what your daily goals should be, talk it over with your coach. He or she will have lots of ideas about what you could work on to improve your swimming.

Remember, the trip of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Add up all of your “daily steps,” and you have taken a huge stride towards achieving you larger goals. And above all, achieving goals is FUN! Have fun with your swimming and enjoy working towards your goals.