Opening Up To Stronger Open Water Swims

Summer is the season of open water swims! Open water swimming can be challenging, exciting and fun. Yet many triathletes struggle with mastery of the open water swim. Speed in the pool and proper technique often gets lost when the wetsuit is on and the lane lines are gone.

Open water swimming is as much about technique as any other stroke in the pool. It takes proper form, skilled technique and frequent practice to transfer your strong pool swims to the pond, ocean or lake. Here’s how to troubleshoot some of the frequent mistakes made with the fundamental skills and techniques for successful open water swims:

Neglecting the Warm Up

How often do you stand at the start of a race without completing a warm up? During a typical masters swim practice, warm up distances often cover close to 1000 yards. Just as you would in the pool, take at least 5 – 15 minutes to warm up before every race. The shorter the swim, the longer the warm up to prepare your body for higher intensity. Even with Ironman, a short warm up will go a long way. A warm up allows you to get comfortable in the water, make goggle adjustments, let water into your wetsuit and cue the body that it is almost time to go. Include a few short “pick ups” in your warm up to acclimate your stroke rate and breathing to the race demands. Every so often, start your pool sets with a very brief warm up and then go into a short set at race pace. This will help to prepare your body for the shorter warm ups often used with open water swims.

Losing Sight

Sighting is a skill that should be practiced several times a week. Including 8 x 25 yards of sighting 3 to 4 times on the pool deck is a good drill to include in your pool swims. The cost of poor sighting skills is improper body position, sinking and losing time with each attempt to sight. Teach yourself how to integrate sighting into your breathing pattern. In other words, lift your head slightly and then roll to take your breath. Ideally, sight every 5 – 7 strokes keeping the head as low as possible, lifting the head just to the goggle line to avoid sinking and losing ground.

Choosing a Target

Before the swim start or the day before the race, choose your targets – what will you sight on? Buoys are best but sometimes they move or they can be the same color as swim caps. If the water is choppy it can actually block your sight to the buoy, too. Instead choose a natural landmark or object you can sight towards; a boat in the water, a large turn buoy, a tall tree, a house – something that is big enough you can see over waves, chop and crowds. Find an object to sight on for each turn you make to keep yourself on track in the swim.

Finding Feet

Drafting off of another swimmer is an efficient way to decrease your effort and increase your speed. If you can find someone slightly faster than you, hop on to their feet and stay in their bubbles. Alternatively, you can draft by swimming off to the side slightly behind their hip. If they are squirrely or snake as they swim, it might be best to work on your own. But if you are comfortable, sighting is an easy way to quicken your swim and save energy.

Avoiding Chaos

The start of a triathlon is often filled with flailing arms, kicks, and nerves. If you are a newer triathlete, weaker swimmer, or prone to panic in open water, wait – count to 10 seconds and then start. For weaker swimmers, the 10 seconds you waste is nothing compared to the time and mental energy you will lose colliding with other swimmers and risking panic or injury. While waiting, watch how the group disperses in the water and identify where openings will allow for the least congested swim. Did everyone clump in the middle? Are they veering right? Choose your most direct, clean line and then start your race.

Position Thy Self Properly

Take the time to think through where you will position yourself in a mass start crowd. If you naturally veer right, start far left. If you don’t want to get tangled in the crowd, start far right and swim in your own space. If you are a newer triathlete, start in the back. If arms and feet send you into panic mode, avoid the middle. My feeling is that the closer you are to the buoy line the easier it will be to sight and stay on course. Where ever you choose, arrive at the start line with a position in mind rather than letting yourself get mixed up in the masses.

Get the Right Gear

For swims colder than 70 degrees, a wetsuit is a wise choice. Find a reputable store where you can try on different sizes, brands and models of wetsuits. Wear your swimsuit or race suit to the store to be sure you have an idea of how it will feel under the wetsuit. Understand that wetsuits initially will not feel too comfortable. It takes some time to get used to the feel and in water they will slightly stretch out – but most wetsuits do feel tight at first. This can make you feel like you are constricted and choking yet this is more a mental issue than a function of the suit. Expect to pay more money for more features but understand that the most basic wetsuit models are perfectly suitable for triathlon swims.

Practice Makes Perfect

Often swimming skills and speed do not transfer directly over to open water swims. That said, don’t wait until race day to get into the open water to test this out. Most communities have organized swims at lakes or beaches with other athletes. Take advantage of these opportunities. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will be in open water. And once you are comfortable you can focus on getting past personal/mental issues and faster up to your potential in the swim.

Getting Past Yourself

Most triathletes have experienced an open water freakout at least one time. Trust me, we’ve all hung off a kayak or stopped! Cold water, crowds and waves are all conditions that can trigger fear and make your body freeze. It’s important to realize that open water panic or freak out is often a result of improper position at the start, pre-race nerves and lack of practice. These are all factors you can take control of and work through to improve. Make the time to practice open water swimming with a friend in a guarded body of water. Stay close to the shore and swim with a friend. The friend may want to bring along a personal flotation device just in case. Practice putting your face in the water and swimming a few strokes. If you feel panic set starting, focus on your breathing and let that relax you instead. Think about blowing your fear out and taking in deep, cleansing breaths. Resist the urge to fight yourself and instead think of the water as calm, soothing and clean. It may also help to have a mantra (“smooth and long, I swim strong”) or sing a soothing song. Visualization will also help. The week before your race, visualize yourself successful at the swim. If you find yourself thinking about something that goes wrong, visualize yourself correcting or working through the issue. Above all, try and try again until you are comfortable with the water for race day.

Form Is Everything

A common mistake in open water is for swimmers to fall back on poor technique. As you would in the pool, be sure your open water swims include some technique sessions. Make sure you are rotating your hips, following through with your stroke and minimizing your kick. Keep in mind that a wetsuit will naturally make you more buoyant therefore overkicking will be a costly effort for later in the race. Instead, think about swimming over the water and emphasizing front end swimming. Working with paddles, a pull buoy and bands in the pool will improve your power and strength for open water techniques.

Slow is....Slow

All too often triathletes swim much slower in open water than in the pool. Sometimes this goes back to poor technique but often it is because of relaxing the pressure on yourself, not pushing yourself for that faster pace. Pools are very exciting for swims – the walls to push off, the clock to beat, the lanemates to chase. Swimming up to your potential in open water is a matter of taking that pool mindset into the open water without letting go of technique. More than ever you need to keep the pressure on yourself to swim strong and fast. The day before the race, practice swimming at different speeds. Do a few short hard efforts, moderate efforts and slow paces. Especially with a wetsuit, your perception of different speeds will change in open water. Connect to the difference between each speed and determine the one you will best hold for the distance on race day.

Make the Mindset

For some reason triathletes don’t get too excited about the swim. It’s often something they fight and force more than the other two sports. They bring this same attitude of force and fight to the open water and get frustrated when they emerge from the swim tired or slow. Rather than forcing it, relax and go with the flow. So much of open water swimming is about being relaxed enough to let our good form, habits and speed flow from the pool to the ocean or lake. Rather than fighting the water, work with it. Find the rhythm of the chop, hop on faster feet and stay engaged. More than techniques, get excited about the swim. Rather than fretting about time or speed, set a goal that you will swim in your straightest line, sight on that large tree, or draft for at least one half of the time. Find a different way to measure your success, celebrate that, then set a new goal for next time. Embrace the unique challenge of open water and get excited to be in it.

Mastering the open water is like any skill; it takes time, practice and technique and drills. The more you practice, the more likely you will have that breakthrough open water swim where everything comes together – your mindset, form, skills and pace. Take the time to practice open water swimming once a week in triathlon season to have your best swim on race day.