Swimming: Train your mind to be confident in 120 seconds

If I were to be honest, as a coach, I am not a big fan of swim meets for a few reasons: One – they last forever, two – they are normally more than one session and three – being around that many people drains my energy and I start to lose my marbles.

I try my best not to be Dan the Downer and instead focus on the highlights, like watching swimmers have mental breakthroughs or playing a losing round of Mother May I with the 10 & unders. One of my newfound time killers/hobbies is reading the body language of swimmers behind the blocks.

If you are any good at reading body language, then you know how entertaining this process can be. I often see fear, uncertainty, relaxation, apathy and arrogance, but rarely do I see a strong display of confidence. That’s a bit unfortunate, isn’t it? Out of all the emotional states listed above, confidence is the most likely to help a swimmer tap into their potential, but it is the one that I see the least.

Confidence is the key to transform potential into reality. I don’t care how many mad skills you claim to have as a swimmer, if you do not believe in your ability to perform those skills, then your potential will remain exactly that…potential.

I believe that everybody can use a little confidence boost in pressure situations (except maybe for Usain Bolt), but before I tell you about the 2-minute confidence booster, let’s take a look at your body language.

What is your body saying about your brain?

The not-confident swimmer

When you see this swimmer behind the blocks, they tend to appear smaller than they are because of their crouched posture. Sometimes they touch their neck with one or both hands and exhibit some nervous tick, like fidgeting with their goggles or hair. In extreme cases, these swimmers will shake with nerves and all plans go out the window once they hit the water. Sound familiar?

The confident swimmer

One of the most notable features about a confident swimmer is their balance of relaxation and focus. They are in control of themselves and you will normally find them quite composed and going through some sort of stretch routine or other pre-race ritual.

Change your body, change your mind

It is no secret that your mind controls your body. But it’s not exactly common knowledge that your body language can affect your mind and believe it or not, your posture behind the blocks can determine the outcome of your race.

To test the extent that body language affects our mind, Dana Carney, PhD, and Amy Cuddy, PhD, designed an experiment where individuals assumed specific body poses for two minutes. The poses allowed were variants of either a “high-power pose” or a “low-power pose”.

Although the poses were simple and only held for 120 seconds, the participant’s body chemistry was significantly affected. Those holding high-power poses had elevated testosterone levels (aggressiveness hormone) and decreased cortisol levels (stress hormone), and the opposite was true for those that held the low-power poses.

Take a second and think about the significance of that. A simple pose held for two minutes changed hormones, which configured the brain to be assertive, confident and comfortable, or stress-reactive and dejected. This is a natural recipe for confidence and it also puts you, the athlete, in control; not the swimmer in the next lane. Your confidence, or a lack thereof, is simply a matter of your belief in your skills and nothing external should affect that, not even the fact that you are in lane 8.

Never forget this: My body can change my mind, which can change my behaviour, which determines my outcome!

How to swim in confidence

Let’s take that principle to the pool. If you find yourself not feeling confident about a particular race, it’s time to change your body language. Strike a pose!

Two heats before your race, change your posture. Assume a high-power position or simply stand tall and square your shoulders. This may seem silly, but it obviously works! Test out a few high-power positions and pick one that makes you feel invincible. Try spreading your arms wide and high like you are on the medal podium or placing your hands on your waist like wonder woman.

Train your mind to be confident one race at a time, and you will realise that you are becoming better at executing race plans. Don’t get too crazy though; high-power poses were also found to increase your likelihood to take risks.