What it Takes to Become a Great Swimmer

In this article, we’ll provide advice, hacks and tips on what it takes to become a great swimmer.

The competitive swimming world is full of many good and talented swimmers.

• However, to become a great swimmer requires a lot more than just talent.
• It requires a swimmer to acquire and develop a set of key attributes, characteristics & traits, which are common in all great athletes.
• These are often beneficial to a swimmer’s life out of the water, many of which are listed in detail below.

Work ethic

To be a great swimmer takes a lot of hard work over a long period of time.

• Great swimmers have a strong work ethic.
• They know that it’s impossible to have swimming success without putting in the hard work.

Dedication

To become a great swimmer requires a huge amount of dedication and self-discipline, over a number of years.

• The world’s top swimmers are required to adapt their lifestyle.  This is in order to train and compete, in the pursuit of swimming excellence.
• This entails several weekly pool training sessions, usually conducted first thing in the morning and in the evening.
• There are also frequent competitions, usually taking place during the weekend.
• There are also land/dryland training considerations.
• A great swimmer also needs to take care of their ‘invisible training’. Ensuring that they have the proper nutrition and are able to relax and recover from the rigours of competition and training.

We have produced a related article on swimming dryland relaxation. Which you can view by clicking this link: swimming dryland relaxation

Determination

Great swimmers are extremely determined.

• They need to be determined, to dedicate their time to train and compete at their optimum.
• Great swimmers also need to be determined, while making the self-sacrifices required in order to achieve their swimming goals.

Self-motivation

Self-motivation is the internal drive all great swimmers have to succeed.

• Being self-motivated allows the swimmer to self-evaluate a situation.
• It helps spur themselves on to their optimum performance.
• This can be extremely useful during a tough training set or during the pressures of competition.
• Many great swimmers practice self-talk and visualisation techniques to help them with their self-motivation.

We have produced related articles, on both swimming self-talk and swimming visualisation. Which you can view by clicking these links: swimming self-talk | swimming visualisation

Consistency

Great swimmers consistently perform to the best of their ability at all times, even if they don’t always feel at their best.

Focus

Great swimmers have the ability to focus on the technical aspects of swimming

• They also have the ability to focus on their performance under the pressures of competition.
• Many of the world’s great swimmers practice self-talk, visualisation and relaxation techniques to help them to focus.

We have produced related articles, on both swimming self-talk, swimming visualisation and dryland swimming relaxation. Which you can view by clicking these links: swimming self-talk | swimming visualisation | dryland swimming relaxation

Competitiveness

All of the world’s top swimmers are extremely competitive, not only in competition but during their training in and out of the water.

• Their competitive nature often drives them on to ever-higher levels of performance.

Positive mindset

All great swimmers have a positive mindset.

• Having a positive mindset is a psychological attribute which enables swimmers to face situations in our sport with a positive attitude.
• Developing a positive mindset helps a swimmer to improve their performance and increase their control over their attitude.
• This enables them to be more positive, focused and optimistic.

We have produced a related article on developing a positive swimming mindset. Which you can view by clicking this link: positive swimming mindset

Coachability

For a talented swimmer to become a great swimmer, they need to be able to learn to become more coachable.

• They need to be able to take constructive criticism and be open to trying new training methods and swimming techniques.
• Great swimmers develop a great rapport and understanding with their coach, which helps drive them both to higher levels of performance.

We have produced a related article on swimming coachability. Which you can view by clicking this link: swimming coachability

Perseverance

During the long journey to becoming great, the swimmer will inevitably experience the disappointment of things not going the way they would have liked.

• This could be a poor performance, defeat, illness, injury etc.
• Great swimmers don’t give up in these circumstances.
• Instead, they learn to overcome their disappointment, evaluate the situation, try to learn from the experience.
• They often become determined to try again, but this time only better.

Goal setting

The world’s top swimmers are consistently setting, evaluating and re-setting their swimming goals.

• Setting swimming goals helps to establish and focus on clear targets, priorities and expectations.
• They are a useful tool in enabling both the swimmer and the coach to gauge the swimmer’s progress and development towards achieving their swimming aspirations.

We have produced a related article on the benefits of setting swimming goals. Which you can view by clicking this link: swimming goals

Time management

Great swimmers need to manage their time.

• Not only do they have to dedicate themselves to their swimming training, but also their land/dryland training and competition commitments.
• They also have to balance their diet and ensure they allow themselves enough rest and recovery time.
• On top of which many swimmers have either educational, work, social and family commitments that they also have to balance.
• Therefore, great swimmers become expert in managing their time effectively.

We have produced a related article on the benefits of swimming time management. Which you can view by clicking this link: swimming time management

Evaluation

How well a swimmer performs in training has a direct correlation to how a swimmer performs in competition.

• Many swimmers spend many hours of hard training in pursuit of their swimming goals.
• But how many of them know whether they are on track to achieve them?
• Swimmers are only human. Sometimes they have good training days and sometimes they have poor training days, but why?
• The world’s top swimmers regularly evaluate their training performances over a period of time.
• This can give both the swimmer and the coach an insight into their training performance.

We have produced a related article on the benefits of evaluating training performance. Which you can view by clicking this link: evaluating training performance

Love of swimming

Last, but certainly not least, all of the world’s top swimmers, have become great because they love to swim.

• It’s their love and enjoyment of the sport that underpins their ambition to become the best swimmer they can be.

Takeaways

The competitive swimming world is full of many good and talented swimmers.

• However, to become a great swimmer requires more than just talent.
• It requires the swimmer acquiring and developing a set of key attributes, characteristics & traits, that are common in most great athletes.
• These are often also beneficial to a swimmer’s life out of the water.

We have produced a related article on 20 ways to improve your competitive swimming. Which you can view by clicking this link: 20 ways to improve your competitive swimming

We produce a growing range of publications on a wide range of swimming subjects.

• These include competitive swimming drill publications for backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
• Which are now available in both Amazon Kindle and paperback formats.
• For information regarding our portfolio please follow our link: Swimming publications. 

We have provided a swimming resource library, containing links to all of our publications and blog articles. To access any article simply click on the attached page link: Swimming resource library

The Competitive Swimming Exchange is a Facebook group to help exchange ideas and information to collectively improve the sport we love.

• It’s an international group for all swimmers, coaches, teachers, masters, triathletes and swimming parents.
• It’s for all those who are interested in competitive swimming, either in the pool or in open water.