The start of an open water race can be considered daunting for even confident swimmers. The intimidating feeling of a mass of people, a scrum of flailing legs and attacking elbows can lead many swimmers to feel anxiety. Evidence states that how you appraise a mass start will affect how you feel about it. In a pressure situation we can respond in two ways. One response that is good for performance and can help you, the other response that is not good for performance and will not help you.
HOW YOU RESPOND IS KEY
These two different responses are called ‘challenge’ and ‘threat’ states and research shows that swimmers who experience a challenge state perform well (better than normal in fact) than swimmers who experience a threat state (perform worse than normal).