It’s an inherent quality that we want to be able to control all of the outcomes in the pool. We want to think that because we crossed all the T’s and dotted all of our I’s that we can completely control the outcome of the race.
Unfortunately, as the above example shows, this isn’t always the case.
We cannot control everything, and this isn’t just limited to the competition. A random illness. A freak injury. There are a myriad of things out of our control that can and will happen within our swimming.
Does this mean we should abandon our goals? That training our best and giving our all at race time is pointless?
Of course not.
But it does mean we need to consider focusing all of our energy on the things which we can directly influence.