Ex-British champion swimmer Cameron Brodie talks about the importance of psychology training in professional sport
For any athlete being in the best physical condition possible is always important.
The many hours spent in gyms, pools and tracks all add up to put every individual into the best possible shape to compete at the highest level that they can.
And for Cameron Brodie this is no different. Swimming up to 90,000m a week put his body in a position to compete for international and world medals.
His diet of 8,000 calories a day also helps perfects his recovery to ensure the endless hours in the pool are not wasted.
But it’s his commitment to improving psychologically that gives Brodie the extra edge to push further for glory.
Scottish Swimming are dedicated to the role that a psychologist can play in the advancement of an athlete and the Commonwealth silver medalist explains it’s importance and how it works with the association.
He said: “Psychology is an advantage to the better swimmers.
“Once you reach a certain level you get into squads with Scotland and within the gold team you get psychological help.
“Towards the end of my career - in the last couple of years - I’ve relied on the psychological help probably more than any other help. As you get older you realise you’re not always on an upward trend.
“To negotiate these bumps you really have to be mentally strong. It’s easy when everything is going well but you’ve got to manage your life outside of the pool.
“As well as this you can’t let that affect what’s happening in the pool and you can’t let what’s happening in the pool affect your outside.
“I worked incredibly hard and I’m forever in-debt to Simon Petrie who was helping me personally.
“I was training upwards of nine sessions a week. All my competitors are doing the same so where am I making the little differences?
“I may be 1% better technically than everyone else but if psychologically I am in a better place than someone else then I am probably going to beat them. I will be putting in an extra 5% if I’m not distracted.
“Psychology doesn’t just help towards race day it also helps towards every single day in training and outside of the pool so it’s a massive factor at the top end of sport.”
Read Cameron Brodie's diet plan as a professional swimmer here