Why Swimmers “Choke” on Race Day ...Middle East

By Olivier Poirier-Leroy on SwimSwam

Frustrated with choking on race day? Here’s why it happens and some ways to stop so that you can swim fast when it matters.

The word is enough to make a swimmer’s freshly shaved skin shudder…

Choking.

A performance drop right when it matters most is one of the hardest parts of our sport.

All that training, all that hard work…

Down the toilet.

But here’s the kicker…

Not swimming fast on race day, after you’ve worked hard all season long, isn’t about not having the skill or not being motivated.

And it’s not because you don’t want it enough, or that you forgot how to swim, which can make the whole scenario feel even more frustrating.

Why Swimmers Choke Under the Bright Lights

According to a meta-analysis published in the International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, athletes under-perform…. or choke… when we do one of two things:

Get Distracted

Instead of focusing on the tasks at hand (e.g. the pre-race routine, swimming their own race, sticking to their pacing strategy) swimmers focus on irrelevant stuff like the crowd, external expectations, possible consequences (e.g. “I’m going to disappoint my coach”).

The distractions come from all angles. Internal distractions like self-doubt soak up valuable mental bandwidth that could be used to execute a fast race.

External distractions are also vying for your attention.

When attention drifts, we aren’t focused on swimming our best race, leading to under-performing.

Overthinking

Instead of letting go and doing what our body has trained to do, we “over-try” technique and movements that are well-practiced.

We tense up and force what should be smooth and automatic, turning into broken and clunky execution.

Micromanaging performance in this way may feel like we are doing our best to perform at a high level.

But it leaves our swimming feeling clunky, tight, or “off.”

Getting Better at Un-Choking

The most frustrating part about choking on race day is that it doesn’t happen because you lack skill, effort, or desire.

You do know how to race. You did prepare like a champ in practice. You do want it and you do deserve to be here.

You choke because pressure of the moment hijacks your attention.

So how do we manage these things when they creep up on us in the quiet moments before we step up on the block?

Some strategies include:

Pre-race routines. A pre-race routine is like a runway for performance so that you can take choke-free flight. Build out a pre-race routine that includes physical and mental components (e.g. a set warm-up, visualizing your ideal race 15 mins before racing, etc) that gives you a mental anchor in the swirling pool of pressure on race day.

Performance cues. Performance cues are short, specific, well, cues that direct your attention to controllable elements of your race. “Easy speed!” “Attack the walls!” “Long and strong!” These little cues are perfect for pushing a fast performance without getting into the nitty-gritty details of technique that can lead to overthinking.

Pressure training. As the old saying goes, you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your training. That’s why cranking up the pressure in training from time to time can help condition you for the pressures of competition. Time trials. Competing with teammates. Setting up small consequences. Get out swims. You don’t get rid of pressure on race day; you adapt to it.

Task-oriented goals. Choking often comes from worrying and stressing about potential outcomes and results (“If I don’t go a best time here…”). Task-oriented goals flip the focus to things you control and can execute (“Hit that first wall with everything you got!”). Task goals reduce anxiety by making success in the water about following the process and not a specific result.

Reframe pre-race nerves. And finally, we’ve got pre-race nerves, which can send us spiraling into overthinking and non-performance related distractions. Frame those sweaty palms, churning belly, racing heart rate, and clammy armpits as excitement, not anxiety, and you’ll free yourself to use that energy for faster swimming.

Wrapping Things Up

Choking is one of those mysterious and frustrating aspects of trying to swim fast when it matters.

It’s precisely because we want things to go well so badly that we spiral into getting distracted and overthinking.

Which can make choking feel doubly unfair.

But ultimately choking is a mental detour from the things that matter to high-performance swimming.

Build yourself a pre-race routine. Some performance cues. Crank up the pressure in training. Set task-oriented goals for competition. And reframe those pre-race nerves.

You’ve done the work.

Now go let it rip.

ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national-level swimmer, author, swim coach, and certified personal trainer. He’s the author of YourSwimBook, a ten-month logbook for competitive swimmers.

He’s also the author of the best-selling mental training workbook for competitive swimmers, Conquer the Pool: The Swimmer’s Ultimate Guide to a High-Performance Mindset.

It combines sport psychology research, worksheets, anecdotes, and examples of Olympians past and present to give swimmers everything they need to conquer the mental side of the sport.

Ready to take your mindset to the next level in the pool?

Click here to learn more about Conquer the Pool.

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