In an earlier blog article, Coach Leah described synchronized
swimming figures for us – what they are, their overriding purpose, how they’re
scored, and how she manages practicing them with her team. In this follow-up article, Coach Leah reveals
her number one suggestion for improving figures:
ANA Synchro Head Coach Leah Pinette |
ANA Synchro: If an athlete wanted to improve their
figures, what’s the number one thing they could do on their own – stretching
splits, strengthening their core?
Head Coach Leah
Pinette: Flexibility and strength are
important, but I think the most important thing is your mind and what you’re telling yourself before and during a
figure. I think the biggest thing that
someone could work on if they’re trying to improve a figure is visualization of
that figure. When I was competing, I
clearly remember slipping into the water to get ready to do a figure and I
would visualize what I was about to do.
Maybe that’s why I excelled at figures and why I like them. Being in the proper mindset is huge in
synchronized swimming.
ANA Synchro: Do you actively work on visualization with your
athletes?
Head Coach Leah
Pinette: Yes, we focus on it a
lot. Sometimes they don’t even realize
they’re doing it. When a girl does a
figure for me, I’ll ask them “What were you thinking just now? What were you
telling yourself?” If they want to do
great in figures, they have to be able to calm themselves and be positive in
what they’re telling themselves.
ANA Synchro: Is this something that comes naturally to
athletes, or is it something that is taught and practiced, just like all the
physical moves of synchro?
Head Coach Leah
Pinette: It does take practice. I started at a young age. Probably high school is when I started doing
it for my figures. I remember going to
camps when I was on the New Canaan Aquianas, and Duke Zielinski would work with us
on visualization. And then, when I was
on National Team, we had a lot of sports psychologists who worked with us on
it.
ANA Synchro athletes do a "think through" of their routine before competition. |
ANA Synchro: Does visualization work for routines too, or
just figures?
Head Coach Leah
Pinette: It definitely works for
routines too. Although, it took me a
long time as an athlete to be able to visualize a routine. We would do routines totally as a “think
through” where we’d sit, listen to the music, close our eyes, and visualize the
whole thing. There are different
techniques to it. You can do it from the
point of view of what you’re seeing and what you’re feeling, or you can do it
as an outsider looking in.
ANA Synchro: Which way did you do it?
Head Coach Leah
Pinette: I’m a visual person, so I’d
always visualize my teammates and what I’m seeing. I could not visualize as the outsider looking
in. When I visualize a routine, I have
to do it as what I’m seeing as I do it.
I wouldn’t see myself flying, for example, I’d see what I see as I was
flying.
Coaching figures includes training athletes to visualize their figures going well. |
ANA Synchro: How do you know, as a coach, if your athletes
are doing it properly?
Head Coach Leah
Pinette: I guess you never
know. I don’t know if my coaches knew
what I was seeing when I thought about a routine. Sometimes I actually saw some bad things in
there! I’d often see a routine going
wrong! So that was a hard thing – to be
able to change my mind and do it correctly in my mind.
ANA Synchro: That’s so fascinating that you’d visualize
something gone wrong! Because that’s
just your mind making it up!
Head Coach Leah
Pinette: Exactly! It’s your mind making it up! That’s what I try to tell the athletes. If
someone tells me “oh, this will be bad,” I say, “yes, you’re right! If you think it will be bad, it will be
bad.” This is the power of
visualization. You have to think it’s
going to go well. You have to see it going
well.
ANA Synchro: Visualization seems like a pretty big topic!
Head Coach Leah
Pinette: Yes! Someday I’d like to run a whole clinic on
it. And maybe we’ll get an expert to do
a guest blog on the topic. Stay
tuned!
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