Chris Ritter is a former college swimmer at Cal State-Bakersfield, and is the founder of RITTER Sports Performance. He has trained two Olympic Gold Medalists along with numerous other national and international level swimmers. He has used his educational background (a degree in Exercise Science) and swimming experience to develop the RITTERFAST, RITTERLIVE, and RITTERSURGE training systems. Follow him on Twitter at @RITTERSP.

4 Lessons from the Super Bowl for your Championship Swim Meet

As many swimmers start to compete in their championship meets what better way to gain some valuable lessons than from the Super Bowl? Whether you’re a football fan or not you can always take away lessons from athletes competing at the highest level in the sport. Train well for your meet and good luck!

Don’t panic at the start

From the Patriots point of view the first quarter went about as bad as it could’ve played out. I mean when was the last time a team’s first play in the Super Bowl resulted in a safety? But they stayed patient and persistent and came back to at least make it a competitive game.

A lot of times, especially in championship meets, you have so much tension built up for this moment it can take control of you. If something goes wrong, especially at the start, your confidence can fall like a house of cards. It might not play out like the perfect script you had in your head but just because it doesn’t start well doesn’t mean it’s over. Whether it’s in a singular race or in your meet overall. Stay patient and stay persistent. Swimming is one of the most “honest” sports there is. In other words, if you’ve done your training then the results will show it. Stay with it until the end even if it gets off to a shaky start.

Discipline and fundamentals create success

Both teams made a couple of dumb mistakes in the game. From having 12 men on the field, to wasting timeouts unnecessarily because the play clock ran out and even other miscues like holding penalties in critical moments. As usual the team that made fewer mistakes won the game. Especially mistakes in the critical moments.

Swimming is a much simpler sport than football, for better or for worse. The simplicity allows you to focus in on the fundamentals so you don’t get DQ’ed or make a mistake that’ll cost you extra time. But in the simplicity it’s easy to overlook what you really need to do. You can get caught focusing on the wrong things. Instead of finishing strong to the wall on every fast set, or touching with 2 hands on short axis strokes you get a little lazy. And in the critical moments, in your big meet, you’re body resorts to how you’ve trained it over and over. You have the power to train it to perform how you want. Take advantage of the simplicity of this sport and drill down on the fundamentals each day. Create disciplined habits that’ll lead to success, especially when it’ll matter the most.

It rarely turns out as predicted

The “experts” vastly picked the over for the 54.5 under/over and the Patriots were favored as well. Neither prediction turned out to be true. And that’s why we watch the games – we want to see what’ll actually happen when they take the field.

Now I will admit that upsets in swimming are less likely but I do believe a lot of swimmers sabotage themselves, especially at the end of the season. Swimming as a sport constantly reminds you of your best performance and everyone else’s, ala the psyche sheet. What you can’t allow yourself to do is to let the psyche sheet swim the meet for you. This isn’t a contact sport. Your opponents have no power over you, unless you allow them to by getting too involved in the seeding of an event or who’s swimming next to you. Swim your race and let your training and performance determine the outcome, not a printed sheet of times. The experts are often wrong and you always have a chance to prove them wrong when you take the blocks.

Finish strong

Players make plays. We saw it in the Super Bowl and it’s what makes the difference in a game. On the Giants last possession is when their best play of the game happened. It’s not a coincidence that they ended up winning, as the Patriots best play didn’t happen at the end of the game.

Whether it’s at the end of your race or the end of your meet make sure to finish strong. It’s what separates the good from great performances. Don’t ever give up or concede anything in your mind. Swim out the race as hard and smart as you can. Let your training stand up for you and finish strong.

Bonus Lesson: If you try to do too much it just doesn’t work

See the halftime show for further examples.