A mature athlete has the right mindset

Maturing as an athlete is a lot more than just getting faster or becoming more efficient.

I believe that what makes an athlete mature is a great mindset. 

From my own small-world perspective, my athletic attitude has changed dramatically over the years. I remember my first season that started in October 2011: I was restless. I wanted to train every day. The more the better. I was getting excited with every little success, from clocking faster 5K times every month to winning the smallest local race in town. I was also getting depressed easily: whenever my knee was hurting or my shoulder was pinching. I was becoming

really pessimistic if I had to take time off training in order to deal with smaller or bigger injuries. I remember I was crying for days when I had to stop swimming for nearly 4 months to rehab my left shoulder from chronic rotator cuff injury: I went to the 2012 Collegiate Nationals having practiced 0 swimming for 4 months (I finished 4th overall). The major issue that I had though was the difficulty to be able to see the bigger picture of my training. I was getting engulfed into the day-to-day training and racing and I was not able to look at my progress in the long run.

I consider myself lucky to have a great partner and coach who never stopped inspiring me and keeping me on track. Over the years, he has shared with me his experience and allowed me to borrow his brains, his hard-work ethic and understanding of the human body and human performance. It is not his relevant studies and his broad areas of expertise (exercise physiology and human performance, leadership and law) that make coach Dave Williams so special but it is his experience with managing effectively people and athletes for over twenty years, leading cross country teams (Div II) and swimming teams to Nationals, producing so many all-american, national top-25 and world-class athletes. 

This year, I have (finally) learned how to train more efficiently and how to recover smartly. I take my time with injuries, I do not rush, I do not get depressed. I know how to change my action plans no matter what is thrown at me: I can deviate from the original training schedule and still get stronger. I reflect on the past and see how much I have moved forward despite my injuries and despite my major setbacks (I missed nearly two seasons). I have not yet stepped up the way I had originally planned within a particular time-frame but this is because I got a lot of delays. The potential and the fire is still in, I am just buying more time!

As coach Dave says: "You gotta learn how to roll with the punches. You are not the first or the last athlete who goes through challenges".

Keep rolling!