Like all sportsmen and women, swimmers have their own good luck rituals, superstitions and habits that they keep on repeating like a mantra before their races.
So what are a swimmer’s worst nightmares?
Forget about fear of the dark, the bogeyman, insects or confined spaces, what I’m about to talk about are the real nightmares that keep swimmers awake at night!
1. FALSE STARTS! You are ready, you have trained hard and prepared everything right down to the most minute detail. You have practiced your start over and over again, hundreds of times, and you have never made a “false start” in training.
On that day you stand in front of your starting block, then you climb onto the block when you hear the long whistle as if you wanted to smash it to bits, but…. just after the command to “take your mark”, something goes wrong, why is the starter taking so long to start the race?!
Then something goes haywire, your legs are ready to explode off the blocks, you move and you are now off-balance and….. you make a false start! NOOOOO!!
You fall into the water as clumsily as a beginner. And as you climb out of the water the race official is already ordering the other swimmers to step off their blocks. How embarrassing!
Don’t worry, though! There have…
