Fat Men Swimming If you have any suitable news or details of fat men swimming please use the contact us pages. Here is an interesting article from John Shackleton - John is a top sports coach with a sports psychology background who shows international business audiences techniques to exercise the biggest muscle in the body - the brain.  His web site is www.johnshack.com  Never be afraid to fail. As many of you know towards the middle of 2003 I set myself a rather outlandish goal. To win a medal in the 100 meters fly at the World Masters Swimming champs in Italy 2004. Much to my wife's dismay I decided to dedicate 9 months of my life to my swimming despite the fact that she happened to be 2 months pregnant at the time. Maybe my next move was a bit stupid; I told a lot of people about my goal. I suppose that some people may say that it's rather big headed to talk to others about one's goals but I find I can gain valuable help and insights from people if they know where I'm going, so I've never had a problem telling people what I want to achieve and asking them for their assistance. I've also found it quite motivational knowing that a number of people are "on my case". The unfortunate thing about that is that you put quite a lot of pressure on yourself as everyone knows what you're aiming for. It's OK failing in private but when everyone seems to be watching you that's quite another story. Just imagine how it must feel to screw things up in an Olympic final with millions watching you on TV and your whole country rooting for you. So there I was standing on the starting block in Italy, seeded third out of 50 or more, in the fastest heat in my age group. I'd done the hard slog of training, I'd achieved the weight loss, I'd willingly sacrificed 9 months of my time, I'd done the mental preparation and was psyched up. I was relaxed but nervous, I felt apprehensive but I knew I was ready for the big test ahead. I thought about those 9 months of training, 5 or 6 mornings a week for an hour and a half each time. I thought about the 650 km I'd swum in that time, in excess of 20 km butterfly all in preparation for this 1 minute race. This was my moment, my one chance to make all that effort and sacrifice pay off and I blew it! Everything went according to plan for the first 75m of the race, a fast start, a strong but relaxed first length, a quick turn, a powerful third quarter and I was lying in third place ready for the final sprint. But when I put my foot down for the final 25 meters, I discovered the tank was empty, and I died a painful and embarrassing death! Even now after many hours of soul searching I still don't know exactly what happened. In the last 15 metres of the race I went from third to ninth and finished with a time at least 5 seconds slower than I KNEW I was capable of. A time which I had bettered in training many months before, quite frankly a rather pathetic swim! The closest I've come to an explanation is that although my body was out there in Italy my brain was back here in New Zealand with my 6 week old son! I expect some of you are asking why am I writing this? Well I'm not looking for sympathy and I'm definitely not making excuses. That's one of the great things about swimming as a competitive sport - there are no excuses. Even though there are others in the pool you don't really compete against them, because of the sensory vacuum we inhabit when we swim, it's you versus the clock, nothing else counts. So what is my message, what can we learn from this experience? Do I consider what I did as failure? I didn't achieve what I set out to achieve, I didn't get my goal, so yes I failed but does that make me a failure? I don't think so. Over the 9 months of training I grew as a person, I'm fitter, stronger both physically and mentally and I feel about 10 years younger. I also know there will be other occasions, other races, even other World Championships for me to shoot for. I believe that the failures in life are not the people who don't achieve everything they set out to achieve. They are the people who never have the guts to set the goal in the first place. The people who are so afraid of failure, that they never put themselves on the line. Having no goals is a safe and secure place to be and you won't experience the pain of failure but it won't bring you the great joy of marching towards an achievement either. As one of my fellow competitors said soon after my race "I don't think you can really experience life's ups without knowing what the downs feel like". 3 days after my swim I started to understand why I spend so much time swimming. I watched the first heat of the 50m backstroke. All the competitors were in the 85-89 and the 90+ age groups, the oldest competitor at the championships was swimming and he was 94. They all appeared to be fit and healthy, some of them almost skipping around the poolside in their excitement to get to the start. It was obvious that they all had a reason for getting up in the morning, for living, they had their own goals, they looked forward to their future, they all had something to shoot for. And then I remembered something I heard on a motivational tape, the speaker had said: "You know you are old when your memories become more important than your dreams." No matter what you do or what standard you are, no matter what level you perform at, you can still have dreams and goals. Perhaps your goal would be to exceed your company targets, become the number 1 sales person in your team, to fit in that old pair of trousers or to run 3k without stopping. It doesn't matter what level your goals are, what's important is that you are not afraid to set a goal. Don't let your memories become more important than your dreams and don't be afraid to fail. Thanks to John Shackleton for permission to use this article