Over-Thinking?

An excerpt from a recent post addressing the concern that you’ve possibly felt, or someone has accused you of having…

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The goal behind our TI training – our mental training, specifically – is to learn how and where to direct our attention to maintain the highest level of efficient performance and the highest level of enjoyment. The two go hand-in-hand.

When our attention – that agent of thinking – is directed upon the features of the swim that achieve and maintain our desired level of performance, then we should keep it there. It would be foolish to turn it away. When the focus of attention no longer supports our performance we should change where we direct attention. In reality, there is no stop-thinking, there is only change-thinking. There is no thinking-too-much, there is only thinking-in-the-wrong-direction.

In TI we learn all the areas of skill in swimming that need to be attended to, and we learn in what order and in what priority – just as an aircraft pilot would learn how to keep an aircraft flying safely and smoothly to reach the desired destination in all sorts of meteorological conditions. Some areas needs less attention, some need more. Some are harder to master and to maintain than others. At different times in the flight/swim we tune in to different areas. TI teaches us how to pilot our vessel with high efficiency (energy-management) and high enjoyment (mind-management).

We might define over-thinking as the state of keeping attention in a direction that is no longer producing positive results – working on the wrong problem at this moment, when focusing on another one would allow better progress. It is when the thinking is out of order, or off priority with the needs of the moment.

Another way to define over-thinking is when the swimmer is focused in the right direction but using the wrong type of thinking. Let me explain…

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To view hundreds of articles of coaching advice and answers to swimmer’s questions on training and technique please visit Coach Mat’s Smooth Strokes blog.

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