The Peters Township Swim Club is a nonprofit organization in association with the Peters Township Recreation Board, operated by members and volunteers, dedicated to teaching competitive swimming in a teamwork atmosphere to young people aged 5 to 18.
Craig Townsend (Dip. Clin. Hyp) is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Director of It’s Mind over Matter in Sydney, Australia who has worked with National and State level swimmers for over a decade, teaching them various methods of improvement through mental training. In his article, “Visualization is the Key to Your Success,” Townsend describes the value of visualization as a mental training tool for swimmers.
According to Townsend, it is as important to mentally prepare for a meet by practicing visualizing the race as it is to practice your strokes. The visualization technique when properly employed will ease tension and allow the swimmer to “program” his or her body to perform at optimum levels in any race at any venue. To effectively visualize the race you should not only visualize swimming the perfect race, you must “immerse” yourself into the entire meet by seeing your competitors, the coaches, pool, and friends. Your visualization should be so complete that you can even smell the water and hear the crowd. Because Townsend believes that the mind controls the body, he proposes that proper implementation of this mental training technique can result in performances that you might not otherwise have believed possible.
For more information on what to visualize and how to use this technique effectively, please read the full article at: Visualization is the Key to Your Success – Mind Training Techniques for Swimmers
