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The challenges of swimming

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The challenges of swimming
The Challenges of Swimming Most everyone has been swimming at least once in their life, but competitive swimming is more than just floating in water. Competitive swimming, from the inception in 1896, has greatly evolved to the sport it is today. It includes four strokes which are; Front stroke, Back stroke, Breast stroke, and Butterfly. Swimming is one of the hardest sports in the world because of the mental and physical attributions. On the mental side of swimming, there are many factors that can make or break a swimmer. One factor is how focused you have to be to swim not only well, but outstanding. A swimmer has to clear their mind completely before entering the water. Mental toughness is defined as “having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to: generally cope better than your opponents with the many demands that spurt places on a performer” by Jones, Hanton and Connaughton, three authors (Jones, Handto, and Connaughton. 2002, p209). These three authors conducted research on thirty elite swimmers and concluded that “mental toughness” can be categorized into four dimensional framework, which included one general dimension, (attitude/mindset), and three time specific dimensions (training, competition, and post competition) (187). A swimmer’s attitude and mindset can control how they will do in the competition. If a swimmer is feeling low or terrible on how they will do in a race, the swimmer will actually do poorly because they aren’t in the correct mindset. On the other hand, if a swimmer thinks highly, or like they will be triumphant in the upcoming race, they will generally be great because they were thinking that way. Training is also a time for swimmers mental side to be used. During training, swimmers must remember everything they learn, such as what they did right and what they did wrong for future practice and meets. At practice, all swimmers have to realize what they’ve learned because they


Cited: Shunsuke Yamaji, et al. "Comparison Of Strength Values And Laterality In Various Muscle Contractions Between Competitive Swimmers And Untrained Persons." Health (1949-4998) 2.11 (2010): 1249-1254. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. Aspenes, Stian Thoresen, and Trine Karlsen. "Exercise-Training Intervention Studies In Competitive Swimming." Sports Medicine 42.6 (2012): 527-543. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. J. P. Vilas-Boas, et al. "The Influence Of Stroke Mechanics Into Energy Cost Of Elite Swimmers." European Journal Of Applied Physiology 103.2 (2008): 139-149. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.
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