Race Day Preparations- Be ready for Race Day

One rule all swimmers and coaches agree with on race day is keeping your routine and sticking to strategies that you know work and lead to your best performance. Have a series of checklists that will help set you up to achieve your peak performance. In this blog, we will go through the different ways to prepare for that big race.

Competitions push a swimmer to their limit, adding additional challenges. Swimmers often have to warm up multiple times during the day, once at the beginning of a session and again before each swim. Most warm-ups in the water consist of a moderate level of swimming, maybe try 400 to 800 metres! This can include stroke drills and even high intensity workouts that last around 50 seconds. 

Here are a few things you can do to help prepare that little more:

• Finish your main warm-up at least 30 minutes before you have to race.
• Finish your pre-event warm-up as close to the start of the event as possible. Leave it to the last five minutes of when your race is to begin
• If possible, try getting back into the water 10 to 15 minutes before the race.
• Only work your body enough to warm it up! Don’t work so hard that you fatigue your body before stepping up on the blocks!

As important warming up in the water is for a race, you should also incorporate dryland training into your warm-up, especially if the pool space at a competition is limited and no warm-up pool is available. Dryland training can improve a swimmer’s power, athleticism and speed for when they get back into the water. 

Swimmers need a strong core to transfer force efficiently from one part of the body to another, to push off from the wall and essentially win the race. Good core strength enables the swimmer to accelerate faster and to carry more speed in a dive. Core training can help to improve your breathing flow in the water, improve posture and upper body strength. You can do many dryland workouts that help to improve core strength, such as using resistance bands or doing sit-ups. Dryland training has many benefits for a swimmer. Want to learn more on why dryland training is important to a swimmer? Read more here: https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/blog/why-you-should-begin-dryland-training-/ 

Although your physical ability and health is important for a race, being mentally prepared and ready for a race is also very important. Having a well-known routine that helps prepare your brain for the race is always a great way to have your mind focused and will help to increase your performance.

Having strong self-confidence is also important to being prepared for a race. When a swimmer is able to see future successes as part of their mental preparation, their confidence isn’t too far behind. Confidence is something you can train and sharpen and isn’t something you have to fake. Recognising what you have done well helps to boost your self-esteem and to appreciate how far you have come. Want to learn more on how swimming increases self-esteem and confidence? Read more here :https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/blog/how-swimming-increases-self-esteem/ 

Overall, preparing for your race on the day should be with workouts and routines you are familiar with. Have confidence in yourself and don’t tire your body during warm-ups! We wish you the best of luck with your next competition!