Focus Daniel son..

I remember someone telling me about oxford and cambridge competing in the boat race a few years back.. I have no idea who were the favourites but I remember that the underdogs set out to row as close to the favourites as possible and clash oars.. they did this within the first mile and repeatedly continued.. as a result the favourites lost focus and lost the race.

It's interesting that both teams clashed oars yet one lost the plot and the other went on to win.. the reason for this is that for one team is was their game plan, so their race went to plan and they remained focused on their own actions. For the losers (who were the favourites), they did not expect this at all and they spent most of the time focused on what the other team were doing..

This is a perfect example of open water swimming success.. if people bump into you and you switch your attention to them.. or the choppy water, or any one of the other swimmers.. you are not focusing on yoruself! Block everyone else out and focus internally.. pick 2 things which you need to do well.. keep your head down and keep your body long. Focus internally on those 2 things and ignore your surroundings..

Research has shown that elite athletes tend to focus internally rather than externally and we can all learn something from that!

Here endeth theenduranceblog..