By Michael Watkins

Seven-time gold medalist Mark Spitz may have said it best when he described swimming as "90 percent mental and 10 percent physical."

As one of the fastest and smartest swimmers in the world, Olympic and World Champion Anthony Ervin knows a thing or two about the cerebral side of the sport that he's excelled in since adolescence. In the mind of the tall, lanky 20-year-old from Valencia, Calif., his signature 50-meter freestyle race lasts no longer than the time it takes to hiccup.      

He stares into the wall of water before him with the sound of the second hand of the clock ticking in his head, and knows that it will all be over in a matter of seconds.

It's so quick, there isn't even time to think. But he knows there's certainly enough time and opportunity to fail.

"It's better for me to swim the shorter races, because then I don't have as much time to think and end up sabotaging my race," said Ervin, who won both the 50m and 100m free at the recent World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, as well as the gold medal in the 50m free at the 2000 Olympics.

"I function better when it's just me and the speed of the water,” he said. “I block everything else out, detach myself and approach the race as being more automatic. I make myself empty and pull myself away from worry. There's no emotion -- just an overwhelming calming effect. If I start consciously thinking up on the blocks, then I've already lost."

Ervin admits that sometimes if he thinks too much before or during a race -- a race that lasts somewhere between 21 and 23 seconds (24 and 26 seconds for women), depending on the speed of the swimmer -- it could spell disaster. Too much thought can result in anxiety and loss of focus, which can lead to a slow start, and in a sprint, that's immediate suicide.

"It's not automatic when I dive into the pool that I'm going to win, and it's important that I remember that when I'm preparing to swim," Ervin said. "If I let the enormity of the event get to me, then I'm not relaxed and calm. If I'm thinking about anything during the race, I'm telling myself to hold onto my stroke, maintain my technique and let my training take me forward."

Haley Cope, who won gold in the 50m back and was a finalist in the 50m free at Worlds, agrees that, for her, success in sprinting is a combination of remaining stress-free and focused and letting her race experience, training and talent do the rest. In fact, she admits she doesn't even remember her best races.

"I'm definitely not the most talented sprinter on the planet -- I know that -- but with my commitment to training, along with my desire, I more than make up for that," said Cope. "For me, what I'm thinking and feeling is different every time I swim. My best races happen when I'm most excited to see what I can do that day. When your race is around 25 seconds, you don't have a chance to make a mistake."

Cope, who didn't start swimming until 11, when she was already near her current height of 5-10, admits that unlike swimmers who start out young and have to adapt their technique to their natural physical development, she never had to change her stroke. She was able to concentrate on improving her focus before a race, so she wouldn't have to worry about those facets during an actual sprint.

Ultimately, she attributes this mental peace and preparation to her being able to progressively lower her times and improve her outcomes.

"Each time a swimmer competes in the 50 or any shorter race, it's basically a crap shoot, so you've got to be mentally as well as physically prepared," Cope said. "So many things can go wrong in such a short amount of time, that there's no way to recover once a mistake is made. I believe it's the repetition of the stroke, knowing what your body is capable of accomplishing, and focusing that keeps you in the race -- even before the gun."

Jason Lezak, who had a top-eight performance in the 50m free at World Championships, agrees that the mental side of sprinting can make or break a performance.

"For me, I just concentrate on getting a great start, because in some ways, if the rest of your race goes as it should, your takeoff can lead to success or failure," Lezak said. "Once I'm in the water, there's not a lot of thinking going on. It's mostly just a scramble to the other side. When I was younger, I would lose precious fractions of seconds because I was looking around to see where the other swimmers were. But, more or less, now I just focus on what I'm doing. I think that comes with experience and time."     

As someone well-versed in the unpredictable psyche of sprinters, Mike Bottom, associate head coach at California-Berkeley, as well as his own group of elite sprinters called the "World Team," has his own unique approach to coaching these often complicated athletes.

"Not all sprinters are the same. Some are introverted and keep to themselves, while others are more outgoing and social. But, it's been my perception and experience that they all have one trait that's pretty consistent -- they're very independent and, ultimately, confident in themselves," said Bottom, who coached Ervin and Gary Hall, Jr., last year when they tied for the gold medal at the Olympics.

"I am of the thinking that there's a universal, consistent way to get the best results out of them. I've always felt that with sprinters, you have to get them to focus on 'being' rather than focusing on 'doing.' I talk to my swimmers about who they are rather than on what they need to do. It helps reaffirm their self-confidence before they even step on the blocks."

A former world champion in the 100m butterfly who qualified for the boycotted 1980 Moscow Olympics, Bottom believes that affirmation is one of the best methods of achieving a higher level of performance from sprinters. Although he was a world-class swimmer, Bottom never received that much praise for his performances from his own coaches -- something he works to rectify with his own swimmers.

"No one ever told me that I was on the same level as the other top-caliber swimmers in the world, and I think that's one of the reasons that I'm coaching now," said Bottom, who is heralded by his peers as one of the top sprint coaches in the world.

"I take swimmers under my wing, so to speak, and tell them that they have potential and the ability to succeed. Natural ability is a just a piece of the puzzle, because there are a lot of people with natural ability. It's bringing their own pride and reaffirming who they are as individuals that, I think, ultimately lead to success."