what percentage sport is mental? What percentage is physical? Oh jeez, wow, because honestly at the top level, it's almost all mental because everybody has talent and everybody works hard. Um, but I think when you're talking about super high level or intense competition at an NCAA or Olympic level, those with the mental capacity to handle that are the ones that do the best. So I'm going to say at that level, it's 50/50 'cause everybody's got physical talent, but as you come down the ranks, uh, the lower you get, I think the more emphasis you put on the physical training, the better they seem to do. And then one last question, what's a good mental preparation? Well, the first thing is to try to never think of it that way. You never want to think about, Man, this is what I work so hard for, because that puts all of your focus on the end result, and you need to be totally focused on the process of success. I went to a great class one time as some kind of course, and they

showed these two figure skaters at the Olympic Games. It was kind of one of these years where there was like some American Girl, some Russian girl, you know, and they were going to duel for this gold medal. And they showed their coaches and athletes right before they went out for their last thing, which was going to decide who won. And the one came over and her coach said, This is what you've worked so hard for. And the girl was clearly really tight. And if you think about it, that focuses all your focus on the outcome, that tends to raise your arousal level. When you talk to an athlete about, We really need you, got to do win this event if we're going to have a chance in this meet, that'll raise their level. And maybe sometimes it's appropriate, but this girl was clearly already kind of nervous. And he said, This is what you work so hard for. And then they tried to high-five each other and missed. And that's a sign of being too nervous, is that you can't perform.

fine motor things or any kind of coordination. She went out and was terrible. They showed the Russian and her coach, and they came over and they were chitchatting about basically nothing, except for the coach that, uh, gave her a technical thing, said, Make sure that you have your foot in a certain place on the first jump or whatever it was. I don't speak the lingo, but it was very technically focused, and she was clearly relaxed because when you talk about the process, it lowers your arousal level, you know? If I wanted, if I had somebody's really nervous before they swim, and I want to kind of help them do better, I go over and say, Let's make sure that you really control your stroke the first 75 and nail that first turn. Make sure you get your toes over as fast as you can. So that's what they're thinking about, not who they're swimming or what the circumstances are or anything beyond their control, and I think that's how you work with the individuals at the top.

level um I think tety who's a very famous coach coach Alexander poof had a very good observation, and he says if you're talking to the athlete a lot, that means something is wrong at the competition. If you watch me in meets, said Michael, I hardly speak to him. All the coaching's done is here when we get to the meet. Everybody always ask me, what' you tell them before the race? I didn't say anything. I was like, you're in lane four, that's that's all we talk about. Or, you know, he might ask me, you know when do I go, go in 10 minutes. He knows what he wants to do, and he knows, and I don't want to interrupt that with anything except for his focus on the process of what he's going to do and how he's going to swim that race. So, I think in general, that's how we handle our athletes, and the ones who are happier and in a better mood and more relaxed always do better than the ones that are tighter and real serious.

mistake that I've made as a coach sometimes at the top level is getting to a big meat and getting real serious. Watch Eddie Reese said a meat, he's not real serious. Doesn't mean he doesn't want to do well, but you got to keep everybody kind of relaxed. And you actually have to work as a coach at the top level not to transmit nervousness to the swimmer. It's very hard to do and I'm only now starting to get pretty good at it. In my early years, you know, he going to break a world record, you know. But now you just have to treat it like a regular race. And you have to allow them to do what they do best without putting any added pressure on them. Does that make sense?

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