The four D's

What makes a swimmer trully great?

What makes him/her be ahead of the pack?

In this blog I will try to answer these questions. All elite swimmers have about the same levels of fitness (endurance, flexibility and speed mainly), feel of the water, pacing and about the same anatomical characteristics. So, what makes the gold medal winners at the Olympics and World Championships differ than the rest. The answer is the four D's, which are psychological qualities that help swimmers set higher goals and keep the focused during the long and tiring (and some times frustrating) training periods.

These four qualities are:

• Desire: It's the action of longing or hoping for something. Effort is required for success in swimming, and "no desire" means no effort. And this desire must come from within the athlete, not from outside sources, such as parents or coaches.  Desire help athletes set higher goals, it's a fire that burns into the heart and soul.
• Dedication: It's described as "devoting or setting aside for a particular purpose". How dedicated are you, as a swimmer, to being successful and accomplishing goals? Dedication is a determining factor in how far, and how fast you will go in the sport of swimming. Dedication evokes the emotions of connection between and your goals. 
• Discipline: This is not the discipline that comes from your parents when you do something wrong, this is about self-discipline; behavior that helps a swimmer accomplish his/her goals. The definition of self-discipline  - "the correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement"- will help you understand that when you gain control over your physical and mental behaviors, and create a constructive pattern of behavior, good things are sure to happen. Just remember that the greater the sacrifice the sweeter the success.
• Determination: It's the ability of the mind to achieve whatever it wants to achieve. It is the will power to accomplish whatever the mind conceives. It is the inner strength drawn from the mind to accomplish your goals.

The bottom line of this blog is that if you want to accomplish something, you will do it, if you think that you can't, than you won't. Both situations are correct, it all depends on which side you fall in.

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