Quick Dip: Am I Still Improving If I Don’t Get a PB?

A short read for the car journey Category: Goals  | Read time: Under 2 minutes

A personal best, or PB, is your fastest time for an event. You have separate PBs for races in 25m and 50m pools. Beating a PB is worth celebrating. But what about the swims when your time does not improve?

Your time tells you how quickly you finished, but not everything about how you swam.

You might hold a tighter streamline after each turn, keep your stroke together on the final length or use a skill in a race that you previously managed only in training.

Those improvements matter, even if they do not produce a PB that day.

Imagine your coach has asked you to stop lifting your head as you finish. In your next race, you swim into the wall without lifting it. Your time is slightly slower, but you have improved that part of your race.

That does not mean everything went perfectly. Your coach can recognise the better finish and still help you understand where you lost time.

Look for improvements you can describe, not just a faster number.

There is also progress in doing a skill well more often. One good turn is a start. Repeating it throughout a race shows you are learning to use it when it matters.

Keep aiming for faster times. These skills help you work towards them, although no single change guarantees your next PB.

Ask your coach: What am I doing better now than I was a few weeks ago, even if my times are similar?

Created by Basingstoke Bluefins Coaching Team