5 Steps to a More Confident Open Water Swim
When asked how he feels about swimming, my husband, Matt, likes to tell the story of what happened at his first 70.3 triathlon.
He’d put in a solid training block. He practiced in his wetsuit and did a few open water swims. Swimming isn’t his favorite sport, by any means, but he was competent and prepared.
But when he jumped off the dock into the water and started to swim, the race adrenaline hit. His heart rate skyrocketed, and he started to gasp for air. Basically, he panicked. Luckily, he’s a smart athlete, so he switched to his safety stroke (breaststroke) which allowed him to catch his breath and calm down. He never quite got it under control, however.
It’s a good thing he’s good at breaststroke, because that’s what he did for almost the entire 1.2-mile swim.
Over the years, he’s worked very hard to correct form imbalances, learn how to regulate his breathing, and get comfortable swimming in the pool so he can translate that fitness to the open water. These days, he’s faster than me in the pool and often beats me to transition! (which he loves) ;)
If you have a swim story similar to Matt’s, today’s post was written just for you. We’re going to talk about 5 Steps to a More Confident Open Water Swim. A few of these you might not expect…
5 Steps to a More Confident Open Water Swim
1. You need to swim more than you’re swimming now
I know. It’s probably not what you wanted to hear. But if I were to say you can become more confident in open water by swimming just twice a week, I’m not being honest.
In my opinion, if you’re a new triathlete, who’s learning how to swim, you need to be in the pool at least 3 times a week. If you’re a more experienced triathlete, who’s trying to up your swim game, you need to be in the pool 3+ times a week. Of all three sports, the swim is the most technique-driven, and the only way we reinforce good habits so they become muscle memory is by repetition.
I understand that swimming is the sport that takes the most time, comparatively speaking to the amount of time spent working out (ie. driving to and from the pool, shower, ect.) But look what happens if you add just one swim a week.
2 swims/week X 1 hour = 2 hours/week
3 swims/week X 1 hour = 3 hours/week
That means, over the course of a month, you’re adding 4 hours of swimming. Over the course of a year, you’re adding 52 hours of swimming.
By adding just one swim a week, you’re doing 50% more swimming.
That’s an exponential increase.
Even if that third swim is only 30 minutes, that’s an extra two hours of swimming a month. That’s 25% more swimming.
2. Focus on perfecting all parts of the freestyle stroke
Now all that time spent in the water isn’t doing much good if you’re cementing bad form. So step 2 is really being intentional about learning the correct way to do all parts of a freestyle stroke. Most athletes focus on the catch (and that’s important) but that’s like step 4 in a list of skills you need to learn how to do first.
You need to learn a streamlined body position with the head looking slightly forward, arms outstretched like you’re hanging from a pull-up bar, and hips and legs horizontal and close to the surface. There’s breathing, which includes inhalation, exhalation, and timing of the breath with the stroke. You have to learn rotation and how the hips drive the stroke forward, not side to side. Then, there’s setting up the catch, pull, recovery, and finally kicking.
If you can’t maintain good form (comfortably) in a pool setting, the transition to open water will be painful.
3. Refine your sighting technique
One of the biggest open water fears among triathletes is not being able to see where they’re going. When you don’t have the safety of a black line at the bottom of the pool to direct your path, it can be intimidating. And no, you can’t just follow the feet in front of you, because they might not know where they’re going either!
The only way to stay on course, not run into other athletes, and navigate around buoys is to learn how to sight. This can be done a few different ways, but the most common is with “alligator eyes,” where you lift your eyes slightly out of the water as your hand glides forward. Some athletes sight every 3-5 strokes, and others sight every 5-7 strokes. Suffice to say, you sight a lot in open water.
But if you never practice sighting technique in the pool, you won’t know how to maintain good body position while sighting. This can cause your hips and legs to drop, which acts like an anchor pulling you down with every stroke.
4. Practice different intensities and vary stroke rate
I think most triathletes have trouble transitioning from pool swimming to open water because they only have one speed- easy. And easy isn’t even easy. Easy feels hard. The only way to make easy actually feel easy is to work on form in step 2. But past that, the next step is varying intensity level and stroke rate.
Think about running. Do you always run easy? Do you always sprint fast? Hopefully, you do neither of those things. Chances are, you have an easy pace, something aerobic, a tempo pace, a strong pace, and a sprint pace. That’s 5 different levels of intensity. Do you have five different levels of intensity when you swim?
The reason we work on varying intensities when running is to engage different energy systems. This helps us become more efficient and increases fitness. Also, our form and breathing pattern changes at different paces, and it’s the same thing with swimming.
One of the biggest mistakes triathletes make when training for long-distance triathlon (70.3 or Ironman) is wanting to “cover the distance.” So, they get in the pool and just swim. No laps, no varying intensity. I understand wanting to have the confidence to cover a 1.2-mile or 2.4-mile swim, but if you’re training for a half marathon, do you run 13.1 miles every day? What about running a marathon every day?
For a newer swimmer, this is a great way to cement bad habits. You aren’t working on good form; you’re just tiring yourself out. You’re not becoming more efficient; you’re just muddling through. You’re not training; you’re just exercising. We have swim workouts for a reason.
5. Practice in open water (regularly)
“Regularly” doesn’t mean one time the week before your race. Open water swimming is completely different than pool swimming. Not only must you be able to sight and navigate without lane lines, there’s also potentially poor visibility, temperature changes, waves, chop, current, sun direction, and traffic with other athletes.
The only way to become more confident swimming in open water is to swim in open water.
Practicing in open water also provides an opportunity to swim in your wetsuit. This is very important to do because you must get accustomed to the feeling of slight chest compression. Also, you won’t know if your wetsuit chafes your neck if you never practice in it.
Still, even if you swim regularly, work on good form and sighting, and practice in open water, the triathlon swim can be an intimidating place. Many athletes have a fear of panicking in the water, but don’t know what to do about it. Others aren’t sure what skills to learn or how to avoid the most common errors in the swim. Plenty of athletes can’t figure out why their pool speed isn’t translating to open water.