By Coach Chris Da Sie

Pressure to Podium

Transforming the Mental Game of Competitive Swimming

The mental side of swimming gets ignored in almost every coaching conversation. Coaches talk aerobic base, stroke rate, and turn speed — but skip the part where a swimmer who has trained perfectly steps on the block and swims three seconds slower than they ever swum in practice.

This book is for that swimmer. And for the parent watching from the bleachers who doesn't know what to say.

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Available in paperback on Amazon

The Problem

You trained for this. So why did that just happen?

A swimmer trains for six months, drops time in practice week after week, arrives at championships in the best shape of their season — and swims two seconds slower than they have all year.

This isn't a fitness problem. It's not a technique problem. It's a pressure problem. And it's solvable — but only if you understand what's actually happening and have a framework to train against it.

Pressure to Podium is that framework. Built from the pool deck. Written for competitive swimmers and the parents supporting them.

Swimmer off the starting block underwater

Inside the Book

What you'll take into the water

Practical. Specific. Built for real swimmers in real competitions.

Why pressure breaks performance

The physiology and psychology of what happens when the stakes feel too high — and why it has nothing to do with mental toughness or how much you want it.

Building a race identity

Who you are at the wall when it counts is trainable. This is the framework for building that identity before the biggest meet of the season.

Pre-race architecture

The specific warm-up routine, self-talk framework, and focus cues that give a swimmer something concrete to execute — not just "believe in yourself."

What parents actually help with

The things parents do that kill performance without meaning to — and the three specific things that actually support a swimmer in a high-pressure meet environment.

Processing failure without quitting

A race doesn't go the way it should. What happens next determines everything. This chapter is about building the reset protocol that makes the next race different.

Training pressure — not avoiding it

How to build high-stakes moments into practice so that the meet doesn't feel like a different sport from what the swimmer has been training in.

“In every camp at The Race Club, we focus on five steps of mental training: goal setting, visualization, confidence building, focus and anchoring. All five steps are important to compete at your very best.

In Pressure to Podium, Chris Da Sie expounds on all five steps with great examples and stories of how they can work for you. If you want to become a 10/10 on the killer instinct scale, Pressure to Podium is a must read!”

Gary W. Hall, M.D.

CEO, The Race Club · Olympic Swimmer

Who It's For

This book was written for two people

The Competitive Swimmer

You train harder than almost everyone. Your technique is solid. Your conditioning is real. But something happens between warm-up and the final — and you're tired of not knowing what it is or how to fix it.

This book gives you the language to understand what's happening and the framework to train against it. Not mindset platitudes. Actual tools.

The Swim Parent

You want to help. You've sat through enough disappointing meets to know something isn't connecting between practice and competition. But nothing you've said has moved the needle — and you're not sure what would.

This book explains what's actually happening in your swimmer's head, and gives you specific language and behaviors that support — rather than undercut — their performance.

About the Author

Coach Chris Da Sie

Chris Da Sie is an elite head swim coach, founder of Between The Laps, and creator of the Podium Method™. He has worked with competitive swimmers across age group, high school, and post-graduate levels.

His writing on race psychology and performance training has been published through SwimSwam and the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA). He produces weekly coaching content on YouTube for 9,200+ subscribers.

Pressure to Podium is his first book.

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