My Masters Swimming New Year’s Resolutions

I like to set personal goals and track my results. It has always been an effective method of personal growth for me. Year end is always a fun time for me to reflect on my year’s achievements and set goals for the new year.

New Year New Beginnings

I’ve learned and tried many different strategies to set goals over the years. The method I have used that I find most effective, is a simple one. Here’s what I do:

  1. State my goal
  2. List 3 specific activities I will do to achieve my goal
  3. Give myself a time frame to complete it
  4. Read my goals every day

Here are my Masters Swimming New Year’s Resolutions (to be accomplished by March 17th, which is the New England SCY Championships)

  1. I will improve my turns.
    1. I will focus on fast, clean turns with proper technique in every practice, including warm up and warm down
    2. I will work on turn drills at least once during every practice
    3. I will stretch every day to increase my lower back flexibility
  2. I will improve my backstroke (my weak stroke)
    1. I will do at least 1 backstroke-dedicated practice a week
    2. I will work on my underwater dolphin kick in every practice
    3. I will work on building my core through dry land exercises
  3. I will break 2:15 in the 200 yard IM 
    1. I will do more IM sets in practice
    2. I will do more sets to work on my backstroke / breaststroke endurance
    3. I will make sure to not overtrain and to have 2 recovery days / week

I find that sharing my goals with someone else is helpful to hold me accountable for my resolutions. Although you don’t have to tell the world, like I’ve done in my blog post here.

What strategies do you use to achieve your swim goals?