Ready to take your swimming to a whole new level? Here’s how a swim log can increase motivation, consistency, focus, and lead to faster swimming.
There’s nothing better than improving in the water. Swimmers constantly dream and fantasize about these breakthroughs in the water. And they work hard for them in training.
But securing those little wins can often feel frustrating and out-of-reach.
That’s where a swim log steps in.
This old-school training tool is a personalized roadmap to success in the pool, including better swim workouts, increased motivation, and smarter training.
In this article, we will look at the main benefits of a swim log and offer some tips for getting the most from your practice journal.
Let’s dive in.
What is a swim log?
A swim log is a personal training journal where swimmers document training sessions, results, goals, best times, and reflections.
Usually a notebook, a swim log is a place where swimmers jot down the sets they did, intervals, distance swum, stroke counts, type of training, and comments on how they performed and felt in practice.
Swim logs can be used for periodization, charting progress, identifying patterns, and making adjustments to their preparation to achieve excellence in the pool.
If there is something you want to improve, a swim log can help you do it.
How a Swim Log Will Help You Swim Faster
Here is a look at the main benefits of keeping a swim log:
1. Goal setting
Swimmers all have goals in the pool. Whether you are a novice or Olympic-level athlete, there are things we want to achieve.
A swim log is your platform for setting and charting your goals in the water.
Daily, you see the work you are doing in service of your goals, identify opportunities for improvement, and build upon the work you’ve done to get closer to your goals.
- Set long term goals. Write them prominently in the pages of your logbook so that you are reminded daily what you are striving for.
- Set training goals. Set short- and medium-term training goals and keep churning forwards by focusing on daily improvement in the water.
Beyond being a record of your times in the pool, a swim log helps you to hyper-focus on improvement in the water.
2. Increased consistency
Writing down your swim workouts encourages consistency in training.
By logging the work you are doing in the pool, and seeing where you are consistent and identify the gaps in training, it reinforces a higher average performance in the pool.
The birds-eye-view that a logbook provides helps you spot the dead spots in your training where you can be more consistent.
Use your swim log to grade your consistency, either by grading your workouts (e.g. “9/10 effort today”) or score your attendance on a regular basis (e.g. “Made 100% of practices this month”).
3. Improved mental focus
The act of logging and reflecting on your swim training encourages you to be more intentional with your swimming.
You see the moments where you excel in training, the mental skills that promote success, and how being present can yield big-time results during the main set.
Writing out your workouts can help swimmers to be more focused during future workouts by reinforcing the mental skills that help them perform best.
Often, the awareness that a less-than-stellar performance would find its way into my logbook would be enough to push me to get focused and find a higher gear in practice.
4. Boost motivation
Nothing motivates a swimmer better and faster than progress. Seeing the gradual—and sometimes not so gradual—improvements in time, endurance, or technique, can be a powerful motivator.
We all remember the firsts in training. The first time we attend nine workouts in a week. The first time we break 1:00 for 100m freestyle. The first time we outperform a faster teammate.
These firsts are wildly motivated and should be logged for future motivation, especially on days where maybe the confidence isn’t there and you need a jolt to get back on track.
American distance superstar Janet Evans, who won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the 800m freestyle and went undefeated for five years of international competition in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyles—used a logbook to track her training and staying motivated.
- “The process itself is therapeutic and motivating,” said Evans.
Looking back on your record of achievements will be a source of motivational fuel in the days ahead, so log them!
5. Personalized Insights
A swim log is a way to get personal insights into your swimming, learning what works best for you, what you need to perform well, and of course, truly learn the things that don’t work.
For example, you might learn:
That even though you felt lousy and cranky when you got to the pool, that you could still perform at a high level during the main set.
A specific drill that really helped you to catch more water, giving you something to use in the future when your stroke is slipping.
A form of self-talk that helps you to persevere during brutal threshold sets where you are barely holding on.
The personalized insights can be learned in theory but are only truly learned in practice.
Olympic champion Cody Miller logs all of his swim training in a regular old notebook. He recognizes the value in seeing what it takes to excel as it relates to him and his goals.
- “I write down the highlights of each practice, things I did better, things I could have done better,” said Miller.
A swim log is the best place to stockpile these personalized insights, allowing you to leverage them over and over again in the future for better informed, faster swimming.
6. Overcoming adversity
Swimmers train a lot. With all of those swim workouts, all those main sets, and all those laps, there is bound to be adversity.
We feel great in the water… and yet crash and burn during the main set.
We have a bad workout… that turns into 3-4 bad workouts.
We work hard… and then get dusted on race day by our competitors.
Adversity and setbacks are part of the process. And a logbook can help you to navigate these moments to help you bounce back stronger than ever.
Use your logbook to objectively assess your swim workouts. I’m not talking about dwelling and endlessly ruminating but being analytical on what happened so that you can come back stronger.
Often, a logbook can be helpful by simply being a place where you can vent and flush a bad workout so that you can move on.
Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel, who has been keeping a logbook since his age group swimming days, uses it to let go of frustrating swims.
- “Once I put pen to paper,” said Dressel. “It almost helps me get rid of it, whether it’s good or bad.”
7. The story of your swimming
The most underrated benefit of logging your swim workouts is that you craft the story of your swimming. It’s the literal record of your time in the water, but it also charts your growth. Your story.
Flipping through the pages of your workouts, from the beginning of the season to today, will show you the arc of progress.
All the meters and yards. All the effort and energy you’ve put into the pool. All the growth and maturation of your skills and character.
While it’s great to have all the times, sets, and workouts on paper, it’s even more rewarding to have a document that shows how far you’ve come.
Wrapping Things Up
Ultimately, a swim log is the best way to become proficient at self-coaching.
You discover what works best for you. Build legendary resilience. And understand, truly understand what it takes to excel.
Instead of waiting or relying on your swim coach to instruct you on how to be a motivated, focused, and excellence-oriented swimmer, a logbook gives you the information necessary to swim your best.
Not just at practice today, but tomorrow, next week, and at the end of the season, when you step up on the blocks under the bright lights.
Happy swimming!
ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY
Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national-level swimmer, author, swim coach, and certified personal trainer. He’s the author of YourSwimBook, a ten-month logbook for competitive swimmers.
He’s also the author of the best-selling mental training workbook for competitive swimmers, Conquer the Pool: The Swimmer’s Ultimate Guide to a High-Performance Mindset.
It combines sport psychology research, worksheets, anecdotes, and examples of Olympians past and present to give swimmers everything they need to conquer the mental side of the sport.
Ready to take your mindset to the next level in the pool?
👉👉 Click here to learn more about Conquer the Pool.
