Swimmer Angelina Köhler experienced many ups and downs. The world champion of 2024 is above all the challenge concentration. A documentary gives interesting insights.
The German swimmer Angelina Köhler only needed 25.55 seconds at the meeting in Rome to complete her track over 50 meters of butterfly. A best performance that the 24-year-old brought in a new German record about that distance. The world champion from 2024 had already set up a record at the Berlin Swim Open – in the Italian capital she was now more than seven hundredths faster.
But such top performance as from Köhler are only possible if the athletes find their focus and fall into a flow. “When you are in the flow, then you have the feeling that everything happens as if by themselves“, sports psychologist Prof. Dr. Julia Scharnhorst in the new HR documentary” describes my body. My concentration. How can I increase it? “And explains how it comes about:”Flow arises when the challenge and your own ability are at eye level.“
Low point Olympia
But for Köhler, not always everything in her floating career. At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the former world champion landed in the unfortunate fourth place in the final over 100 meters of butterfly. After the bitter end race, Köhler was very emotional, because behind the scenes she cried even more bitter than in the interview immediately after the setback.
“There are also days when I jump into the water and nothing can“, Angelina Köhler, who fights with ADHD in her everyday life, says.
Competitive athletes must reach their maximum within a few minutes. On a certain day, at an exact time under immense pressure, the body and the brain should work. Sports psychologists help here and develop routines together with the athletes.
Between Taylor Swift and Espenlaub
The swimming world champion has her own routine in competitions. Music and sing along, mostly to songs by Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan – Köhler brings himself to your personal flow. “Basically, all people are able to get into a flow when they experience what they do if they also do what they can do best“, explains neuroscientist Dr. Henning Beck. Before the race starts, Köhler experiences the atmosphere in the hall.
Actually, the 24-year-old is almost incapable of concentrating on a certain thing. However, the swimming athlete creates to focus by thinking of her favorite place with Espenlaub and a hammock.
“People who have a high physical stress, of course, also need physical relaxation“, knows mental coach Thomas Bashab. The other way around, people with mental stress also need mental relaxation. Köhler achieves this with a routine plan.
The digital world is also a concentration killer. “Digital devices are endless. And our brain never gets full“, Beck. Köhler shows her time on social media and spends more moments with reading and shopping.”I am a lot on Instagram and Tiktok. That’s why I’m trying to set a time limit“, says Köhler.
Find your own balance
“There is a lot of things about the balance we feel in our head, in our whole system and which we also feel physically“, says Bashab. A change between shorter and longer concentration phases can help professional athletes like Angelina Köhler to find exactly this balance.
But the 24-year-old is not the only one who fights with himself and her focus. E-athletes Dennis “Denninho” Malcherczyk-he plays for the E-Sports department of Borussia Dortmund-and the air traffic controller Jan Peter Konopinski have to face mental challenges. How do the two find in the flow? Three different people with different calls who strive for their personal flow.