I've briefly mentioned that I have a background of serious confidence issues that negatively impacted my performance in swimming for several years. Recently, I've mostly gotten past those issues - I don't throw up from nervousness before races anymore, I don't tremble like a leaf in a hurricane, and I'm generally just really relaxed compared to 18 months ago. My coach played a large part in this, but I would like to attribute the majority of the change to a newfound ability to focus. Being able to concentrate or something - a goal, a task, whatever, is generally a beneficial skill to have, and I believe that it's helped me in life in general. I can shut out my nerves and the voice in my head that used to tell me "You have no chance, your opponents are better" non-stop until I couldn't perform up to even 50% of my potential.
Music is crucial to this process, for me. I'll put on my headphones, close my eyes during warmup and shut the world out completely. I don't talk to anyone during warmup. I kind of shut off my surroundings to be able to shut out my nerves as well. A team mate who is also into Starcraft compared me to this guy just a few weeks ago, at the nationals:
To me, almost all music is beautiful in its own way. My spotify is a mishmash of everything between heaven and earth, from Macklemore and Flux Pavillon to Digital Summer and Imagine Dragons to Johnny Cash and Empire of the Sun and a million other artists and bands across almost all genres. I love variety, and I don't really have any particular preference when it comes to music, though I normally avoid really heavy black metal and hip hop artists like Lil Wayne - sorry, I only like music.
Most athletes I talk to usually warm up/focus with kind of intense house/dubstep kind of music, but I don't necessarily follow that trend. Below are some of the songs I listened to before the 200 butterfly National Finals.
I've become quite the fan of Imagine Dragons as of late. In fact, I think Night Visions is one of the best albums I've ever listened to. This song, the intro specifically, makes me feel pretty good. Something about it let's me forget any negative thoughts and just feel good.
Very relatable for any competitor or athlete, in any kind of sport. Swimming, and sport in general, is a fight - not just the race itself, but everything leading up to it.
Despite most of The Heist having been played to death everywhere, I still greatly enjoy Can't Hold Us. I do hope the ceiling will continue to hold us, though - ceilings falling in can be such a nuisance.
One of my favorite songs in the genre, and also the only song I quietly sing along to, every time. I'm a terrible singer even in the best cases, add to that my sub-par Bosnian/Serbian and it makes for a very terrible experience for everyone but me. But hey, it lets me blow off some steam.
I found this song through Borderlands, I won't lie.
The centerpiece of any warmup. I start off every warmup with this song, and I always make sure to listen to it right before any important race. This, more than any of your bread-and-butter house bullshit, will make you hyped. I'm not usually a big believer in lucky charms and that stuff, but this song really is it for me.
Also I haven't slept for 33-something hours but I need to get up in five hours. Do I pull an allnighter and suffer or go to sleep and suffer anyway? Decisions, decisions.
Although I haven't found any black metal that I like, I don't see how it doesn't qualify as music. It has structure, progression, interwoven patterns, details that form relationships with each other, and so on.
Maybe you mean something along the lines of extreme/experimental metal? Black metal as is, while not really my thing at all, seems like music through and through. Just a little more satan-y.
Black metal is a pretty diverse genre. While I do agree that most of it is trash there are a lot of exceptions. I grew out of it a while ago but I still like a few bands that can loosely fit into the genre, such as Agalloch ("The Mantle" in particular is amazing), Falkenbach, Ulver and Sigh. Even some recent ones like Alcest and Deafheaven are okay.
On December 07 2013 10:18 vOdToasT wrote: Although I haven't found any black metal that I like, I don't see how it doesn't qualify as music. It has structure, progression, interwoven patterns, details that form relationships with each other, and so on.
Can you elaborate?
What I'm talking about is the extremely heavy metal (that unfortunately also tends to come with very, shall we say "negative" lyrics) that makes it very difficult to discern anything. There are a few songs in the genre I can appreciate, but a significant majority of black metal sounds like trash to me.
On December 07 2013 16:57 lichter wrote: Black metal is a pretty diverse genre. While I do agree that most of it is trash there are a lot of exceptions. I grew out of it a while ago but I still like a few bands that can loosely fit into the genre, such as Agalloch ("The Mantle" in particular is amazing), Falkenbach, Ulver and Sigh. Even some recent ones like Alcest and Deafheaven are okay.
The Mantle is hardly black metal but is still one of the best release ever.
Also, that was pretty ignorant from OP to disregard black metal as music. I would like to hear your opinion on the aforementioned Agalloch and these below: + Show Spoiler +
Black metal classic:
Depressive black metal classic:
This is not a black metal song but is there only to show you that black metal artists have a lot of talent:
Well it is not the purest of black metal, but he seems to dislike the vocals so I rec'd something with similar vocals. Like I said most of the ones I like aren't pure black metal but rather some genre mix of it
To be honest, I don't just think it's necessarily just the music that helps focus, but it's it blotting out external noises. Our immediate environments, especially for city dwellers are perpetually loud. I find even white noise pumped through headphones can be good for focus
I don't know what I'd recommend personally, I'd check out 'Bilo 3.0', which I'm enjoying a lot at the minute. Just general proggy goodness. there's a stream of the whole album/EP on Youtube. Can't godamn hyperlink on my phone
EPT
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