SWIMMING SCIENCE BULLETIN

[Extracted and condensed from Rushall, B. S. (1995). Personal Best: A swimmer's handbook for racing excellence (Chapter 5). Spring Valley, CA: Sports Science Associates.]

Pre-race strategies contain all the thoughts and actions that need to take place to prepare an athlete to start a race with the best form of race readiness. The main outcomes of these preparations are to:

• Minimize the effects of distractions on the swimmer's appraisal of preparations for racing.
• Focus the athlete's attention on the race.
• Control the development of race readiness so that it will peak at the race start.

The content of this discussion is limited to actions on the day of a race. It recognizes that some athletes start their preparations as much as two days before important contests. When that is the case, the suggestions here should be extended and repeated to consume the total time-period between the first instance of race-awareness and the race start.

Research has shown that how one feels when waking in the morning markedly affects that person's perceptions, mood, and attributes of that day's events. When waking on the morning of a race day, initial perceptions should be positive and enjoyable. If perceptions were negative the rest of the day's events would be biased towards a negative appraisal. That negative "attitude" would have detrimental effects on race preparations and subsequence performance.

Individuals can learn to wake positively after a night's sleep or long rest. The aim of a wake-up procedure is to establish a positive mood in the athlete so that ensuing events will be interpreted positively. Features of a positive wake-up procedure are:

• Wake slowly. Sudden changes in posture and activity levels have shock potential. Reactions to such a shock vary and may be inappropriate. Slow waking, where one lies in bed and controls the sensations that are experienced, can be the basis for producing a positive mood.
• Engage in positive self-talk. The first thoughts that are recognized are important for mood setting. The athlete should self-talk with positive statements, such as, "I feel great", "It's going to be a great day", "The sleep felt good", and "Now I am fully rested". A repertoire of positive statements aimed at producing a positive attitude for use in the waking procedure will have to be developed.
• Do slow stretching. While still in bed, a slow stretching routine that exercises as many muscles as possible should be performed. The intensity of such activities should not be great. It should be at a level that produces pleasurable feelings.
• Smile. The act of smiling is conditioned to pleasant feelings and associations. Thus, simply smiling while waking will add to the development of a positive attitude.
• Make oneself feel good. The aim of the process is to feel good. Thus, the athlete should continue the above activities until a positive attitude is achieved.

Waking and deliberately developing a positive attitude can be learned. Normally, this is achieved in five to eight days. To develop this control, the following actions should be followed.

• Place some unusual object next to the bed to serve as a signal to start the wake-up procedure as soon as it is noticed upon waking. It should be positioned so that it is likely to be the first object that is recognized.
• Practice the procedure on successive days. The first interaction of the day between the athlete and another significant person should be for them to inquire about the adequacy of the wake-up procedure and what mood eventuated.
• Use the wake-up procedure for both night sleep and extended rest periods.

This simple procedure influences an athlete's attitudes for the day by producing a positive approach to daily events. Although it may seem trivial, no event is too small to be considered and/or used if it will assist in producing the best performance of which a swimmer is capable.

The major period of time between waking and racing should be devoted to following activities that avoid upsets. The most influential events are psychological in nature. Activities during this time should be planned and monitored. Some of the major events of this period are discussed below.

• What and when to eat. Prior to race day and when away from home, food service availability should be determined. Features such as rush times, length of lines waiting for service, service speed, and extent of menu, should be investigated. As a coping response, alternative-eating places should be found. For very important races, it probably is wisest to take one's own food. This would place this potentially upsetting event under the athlete's complete control.
• Rest or mild activities. A large proportion of the pre-race events is devoted to consuming time. Planned activities should be enjoyable and non-stressful. Minor diversionary activities should be tolerated. No matter what is done, the athlete should always have the upcoming race in the back of his/her mind. Impulsive or silly actions could produce distractions and possibly injury.
• Equipment preparation and list. The swimmer should ritually attend to his/her equipment before leaving for the race site. This serves as a way of focusing the athlete's attention on the importance of the race.
• When and how to travel to the race site. This should be scheduled and adequate time for it to be achieved planned. It is also necessary for an alternative route and mode of transport to be determined. If a problem was to arise with the "normal" transport, a coping response would be to use alternative arrangements.
• When to do performance-enhancement imagery. This assists the athlete to keep the principal purpose of the day in mind. If it is done periodically, it will focus the athlete on pre-race preparations and the assessment of their goals.
• Group activities. Stress reactions are reduced in groups. If some athletes wish to participate in group activities they should be encouraged to do so. Group activities should be monitored particularly if there is a potential for personality conflicts. The group atmosphere must be positive, light, and active.

Two psychological problems often arise during this time.

• Loss of confidence. This causes a change in an athlete's appraisal of achieving race goals. Symptoms may be any or some of the following: reduced activity, lethargic movements, unhappy appearance, isolation from others, answers to questions do not contain much information, a reluctance to talk to the coach or others, does as told without enthusiasm, and a lack of attention to equipment. As an attempt to overcome this problem, several actions can be followed.

• Use performance-enhancement imagery to rehearse sections of the race.
• Describe to others or to oneself what will be done in various scenarios that could occur in the race.
• Say out loud the positive self-statements that will be repeated during the race.
• Simulate parts of the race by using a longer than usual warm-up. Once confidence is regained the planned pre-race strategy should be recommenced at an appropriate stage.
• Perform assertive and/or aggressive activities such as mild forms of wrestling and pushing. Fast movement contests produce sensations that are incompatible with reduced enthusiasm.

Some or all of the above activities should be repeated until confidence is restored. It is helpful to include some of these actions in pre-race strategies to serve as "insurance" against a loss of confidence occurring.

• Increase in tension. This problem usually is a pre-cursor to the onset of anxiety. It results from becoming too aroused without appropriate mental control. Tension needs to be dissipated through diversionary activities that have some energy cost. Activities such as walking, easy running, table tennis, playing cards, or games in groups are useful. Activities such as reading, writing letters, and watching television may be too passive to be of value. The level of activity has to moderate the level of tension in the athlete.

The main challenge for pre-race preparation away from the competition site is biding one's time so that no detrimental events occur. Little can be done at this time to enhance performance, but much could happen to detract from performance. Events should be planned so that activities are purposeful.

Everything undertaken at the race site should be planned. This is where race performances can be affected dramatically by seemingly insignificant events. Initial activities after arrival at the race venue will "set-the-stage" for the activities that follow. Undertaking deliberate activities immediately upon arrival will set the pattern for the remainder of the pre-race strategy.

A major task for achieving control over race readiness is to produce a constant reference point for preparations to occur irrespective of the race site. One way of doing this is to perform enhancement imagery while moving around in the open-air as the first activity. This produces a focus of attention on the race in the environment in which it is to occur. The scope of imagery in this early stage of preparation should encompass the whole race. This contrasts with what will be imagined later because as the race approaches the scope of imagery should narrow to the early segments of the race.

Some individuals prefer to start the real preparation for a race by completing a relaxation session with mental imagery immediately before leaving for the competition site. Others prefer to engage in relaxation as the first activity when they arrive at the race venue. The purpose behind these activities is to develop a consistent starting point for the planned routines that lead to the start of a race. It is good practice to have a consistent comfortable activity as the first at the race site. From that consistent reference point, all planned activities should start on a predictable path.

Warm-up should be as close as possible to the race start. If it occurs well before a race, It is possible that benefits may dissipate before the event starts.

There are three major effects to be achieved through a warm-up. First, the core temperature of the body should rise to the point where the skin is moist because of a light sweat. Second, the neuromuscular patterns of the skill activities that will occur in the race should have been practiced through some race-intensity specific activity. This second feature means that the skill patterns exhibited in the warm-up should match those that are likely to occur in the race. Third, it is the first opportunity to focus on features of the physical and mental dimensions of the race.

When deciding on warm-up activities, the athlete must:

• justify the purpose behind each activity;
• have the content, quality, and intensity of the activities eventually be the same as those of the race;
• perform some activities at an intensity that matches the highest effort levels that will occur in the race; and
• have a warm-up that is open-ended; that is, it is not completed until the athlete is "ready".

Once a warm-up is completed, the effects developed should not be allowed to wear-off. Layers of clothing to preserve the elevated body temperature should be worn and repeated precise-skill activity should occur in the period between the finish of the warm-up and the race start. There is no need to worry about expending energy that otherwise might be used in a race. During this time fluid levels should be maintained. Drinks should be permitted although some individuals should not take those with sugar in the last two hours before the start. Coaches and parents should offer no new information or instructions, should elicit responses from the athlete by questioning him/her about some part of the race strategy, and only focus on the early segments of the race.

During this period it is also advisable for athletes to start to isolate themselves from others (e.g., well wishers, competitors, media, advisers). That facilitates focusing on the upcoming race and reduces distractions.

Stretching is another valuable activity that can be useful in the last phase of race preparations but should not be overdone. Exercises should involve all joints to be used in the race. However, each exercise should have a purpose to achieve some feeling of warmth and/or looseness. Stretching exercises should be performed alone so that there is no reliance upon another being. At this late stage of preparation, unnecessary second-party dependencies (e.g., rubdowns, massages) should be avoided.

As the race approaches, the content of the pre-race strategy should be such that the athlete relies more and more on events and actions over which he/she has total control. By keeping active and warm and focusing on deliberate and practiced activities, a state can be developed that is incompatible with psychological problem states, such as anxiety, loss of confidence, and increased tension. The warm-up signals that the "race" has begun and that the final preparations for racing have started.

At some designated time prior to race start, an athlete should enter a phase of pre-race preparations that serve to heighten his/her responses and readiness to perform. This concerns a physical and mental build-up that is to peak and coincide with the race start. A variety of activities are possible in a race build-up routine.

The routine should start with the athlete isolating him/herself from all personal interactions, even with a coach. The role of a coach or adviser at this time is one of purely monitoring what the athlete is doing and being a resource if required. This isolation allows the athlete to concentrate on planned physical and mental activities.

Physical activities should increase in their intensity as the race approaches. Bursts of activity become faster but cover shorter distances. Stretching exercises become fewer but faster and more violent. The amount of physical activity also increases over time so that just before the race, the athlete is in constant motion. That motion will facilitate the control of physical arousal, which needs to be high if the athlete is to start well.

The athlete should engage in positive self-talk. If it is difficult to concentrate on covert self-talk, then the positive statements should be muttered aloud. Muttering requires more concentration than thinking and may have better potential for self-control effects.

Task concentration changes as the race approaches. The closer the start, the greater the concentration on the start and the early race segments. The last thoughts before the start should be of how to do the best start possible. Thus, as the race approaches, distant and final segments of a race strategy drop out of the athlete's sphere of concentration.

A procedure used by some of the greatest athletes in the world is called "emotional build-up." It consists of selecting some aggressive or assertive emotion (e.g., being furious or angry, hating some object, being wild or mad, wanting to attack the pool). This emotion is deliberately imagined. It usually occurs quite close to the race start, possibly in the last 5 to 10 minutes. As the race approaches, the intensity of the emotion is increased so that at the starting line, the athlete controls optimum emotional and physical arousal through concentration on perfection of the start. That state constitutes the development of a maximum race-readiness state.

Performance-enhancement imagery should be used frequently as a procedure for maintaining focus on the race. As the race approaches, segments rehearsed should increasingly be those of the early part of the race. Distant segments will lose their effect as the race start becomes imminent. The last imagery should be of the starting segment.

A pre-race strategy requires an athlete to achieve certain outcomes.

1. Minimize the chances of distractions or problems occurring that might interfere with the production of a perfect race.
2. Emotional control and intensity should peak in the seconds before the start.
3. Never lose deliberate control over the emotional states that are created.
4. Control thinking so that it is on the task of racing and proper preparations.
5. Thought control should narrow to focus on the race as the race approaches.
6. Time the highest physical arousal (developed through physical and emotional activities) with the narrowest focus of attention (the start) just as the race is to begin.

The above features require an athlete to perform a pre-race strategy that will produce the desired outcome of maximum race-readiness.

Pre-race strategies should be developed on strategy planning sheets. Each item should be justified on the basis of its producing a desirable outcome. Phases of the pre-race strategy should achieve pre-determined goals.

Pre-race strategies should be learned. Some training sessions should be devoted to the total practice of at least the race-site activities. The first pre-race strategy will serve as the basis for future strategies. It will be altered with each successive race as new elements are included and tried and others discarded. In time, precision and competence for developing the ideal race-readiness state will improve. Too much detail in a pre-race strategy is better than too little.

Written strategies should always be taken to races. Should there be difficulty in concentrating on what should be done or thought, then the strategies should be read. That will serve to focus the athlete's attention on the task at hand.

Much learning is involved in the development and deployment of strategies. Practice at training and experience in races will contribute to the development of their desirable effects. They need to be worked on with the same intensity and importance as is given to any activity surrounding racing.

1. Rushall, B. S. (1995). Personal Best: A swimmer's handbook for racing excellence. Sports Science Associates, 4225 Orchard Drive, Spring Valley CA 91977.
2. Rushall, B. S. (1995). Mental skills training for sports (2^nd ed.). Sports Science Associates, 4225 Orchard Drive, Spring Valley CA 91977.

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