When you’re involved with competitive swimming, there’s a lot to worry about beyond your competitive swimwear. Whether you swim on your own or you’re part of a swim team, you may feel some anxiety before your races. In fact, many swimmers report they feel anxious either the day leading up to the race or even just hours or minutes before. Regardless of when your anxiety strikes and to what degree you suffer from it, the following tips can help you overcome it.

Keep Your Mind Busy

If you’re solely thinking about your upcoming races, it’s only natural you’ll start to worry about things. This is why it’s important to keep your mind busy leading up to your next competitive swimming race. Read a book, binge watch your favorite television series or do anything else that can help keep your mind busy and off your race. While it’s important to mentally prepare, it’s also not good to solely think about swimming.

Focus on the Bigger Picture

It’s easy to stress about just one race. However, when you’re part of a swim team, there are many more races to come. Finishing at a lower position for one of them doesn’t mean you’re going to do poorly the entire season. Therefore, it’s important to remind yourself not to worry about a single race. Learn from it and make changes going forward so you can do better in the next one. If you don’t focus on the outcome of one race, you’ll have less anxiety on race day.

Find Your Ideal Emotional State

Everyone is different and no two swimmers will be comfortable in the same emotional state. Some individuals prefer to get worked up, almost to an angry state, to give them the energy to get through their next race. Others do better when they are in a calm and relaxed state. Figure out what works best for you and how to get into that emotional state so you experience less stress and feel more confident in your performance.

Don’t Swim for Someone Else

One of the reasons many competitive swimmers feel anxiety and stress related to their races is they worry about letting someone else down. It may be your swim team, your coach, your parents or anyone else. The key is making sure you are swimming for yourself first and foremost. The bottom line is the individuals who care about you won’t be disappointed as long as you perform your best.

If you’re looking for the best competitive swimwear, contact us. We carry all the best brands so you can find just what you need to perform your best.