Extraordinary by Choice

EXTRAORDINARY BY CHOICE

Marica Stražmešter

I

n Kikinda, a provincial town in Serbia where I grew up, there were few organized sports for children. When I was nine years old, I had a childhood sweetheart old, who was a swimmer. Even at that age, love was motivating me, so I decided to quit taking dance classes and give swimming a try.

I knew the Cinderella story, but I didn’t want a glass slipper — I wanted Nike sneakers. That was when I got my first summer job.

I grew up in single-parent household, so I quickly learned that the only way to get the Nike sneakers I wanted so badly was to help my Mom Ljubica.

She taught me my first important lesson: if an opportunity showed up, then I had to recognize it, focus on it. Then results would come.

I was lucky. Swimming was escape from the harsh reality of my childhood circumstances.

I wanted a better life, and I knew that I could choose what I wanted to become.

Slobodan Bokanić-Boda, my first coach, taught me up to my first Olympic Games in Sydney 2000.

By the time I was fourteen, he had taught me deep breathing exercises and focusing techniques; he taught me how to visualize my races and how to concentrate.

In other words, he introduced me to mental training for athletes.

In 1999 when I was seventeen years old, I got an opportunity to go to Spain, so I took it. I focused on my dream to participate in the 2000 Olympics.

My Mom showed me what love meant when she gave me the freedom to choose how I wanted to live my life.

She allowed me to spread my wings, to explore, to travel, and to transform myself from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

After the 2000 Olympics, I knew I wanted to be a coach, so I took a six-year break from competitive swimming.

During this time I completed an undergraduate degree from the University for Sport and Physical Education in Novi Sad in Psychology and Mental Training and Skills for Athletes. This prepared me for the future.

I can sum it up this way: Be brave. You can do it!

In 2007, I got an offer from the Ondarreta Swimming Club in Madrid to join their staff as a swimming coach.

Juan Camus, the Athletic Director and Swimming Coach, recognized my sports psychology skills.

Once again, love was my engine: my Spanish friends showed me that if we shared joy, happiness, and laughter, then we could achieve our goals much more easily.

I wasn’t satisfied with my performance in my first Olympic Games, so I knew that if I got a second chance, I was going to give it all I had.

I accepted the challenge and applied my newly acquired skills. I changed my diet and my work-out program. I refined my mental training skills. I stopped living a normal life: it was wake up, work out, rest, work out, and go to sleep.

The results were amazing. In the matter of only eight months, I qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

“Be brave. You can do it!”

After I broke seven national records in Serbia, I knew I had it.

The results were one hundred percent mine. I was living proof: the right mindset and mental training could help an athlete make the leap from ordinary to extraordinary.

My mission is to share my knowledge by guiding parents, children, non-athletes, and coaches.

I traveled, worked, and competed in Australia, China, Thailand, Europe, and Africa. My encounters with different cultures had made me more flexible.

I was able to adapt to my students by understanding their backgrounds, which prepared me to work with children all over the world.

After I moved to the United States, I became a USA Swim Federation Certified Swim Coach. Now I’m working in Chicago at Northside Aquatics (Northside Prep College) and the Chicago Athletic Clubs. I’m expanding my scope through the Nike Summer Swimming Camps.

I’m trying different approaches to mental training in my work with children.

The one technique I truly love is this: instead of speaking to the children after a race and telling them what they did wrong, I speak to them before race and advise them how to focus and how to race better.

If they do certain thing

s incorrectly, I don’t mention it to them after the race. Instead, I keep the criticism to myself until our next practice session, when I add drills to improve their skills.

Children respond well to this approach. I help them achieve their goals, participate in sports, build healthy habits, and develop clarity of thought.

We need to keep encouraging them even when they make mistakes. Children are a work in progress!

Winning is terrific, but when we praise children and support their efforts with a smile, they feel even better.

My goal is not limited to coaching swimmers. I envision a Mindset Academy, similar to a Summer Camp, but open to athletes and non-athletes alike that will focus instead on mental as well as physical training. I discuss this, among other things, at greater length in a book I’m preparing for publication.

Coaching is my passion!

I don’t want to be a leader; I want to inspire people to follow their passion. By instilling the right mindset, we can guide athletes to achieve improved performance levels with less effort. They can be greater, faster, stronger, and calmer.

Be Extraordinary by Choice!

I like a pair of glass slippers as much as the next person, but I’m ready to take off running in my Nikes through the open fields.

Who I Watch

I never idealized a famous athlete. I kept my eye on people who were part of my everyday life, and I learned from their mistakes.

Marica Strazmester is a 2-time Serbian Olympic swimmer. She represented FR Yugoslavia at the 2000 Summer Olympics in 100 and 200m backstroke. Eight years later, she represented Serbia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in 100m backstroke.

She has 6 National Records for Serbia in swimming and competed in Semifinals at European swimming championships, World championships.

Now, as a US Swimming Coach, she travels speaking to athletes and kids about mindset and creating winning habits.