Open water swim tips

Mr Tango

Following a bit of discussion on another post thought it might be a good idea to put up some tips for ensuring a good open water swim. Feel free to add to these or disagree!

In no particular order

- Lube up your neck, under arms to avoid wetsuit chafing. Despite advice to the contrary I use Vaseline and it hasn't wrecked the suit.
- Know the course. Some can be more complicated than others.
- As part of know the courseb try and pick landmarks to sight off. Generally it is hard to see the buoys in the water but a building, tree, hill or something in the distance in line with the buoys is better. And use that.
- Do no assume the buoys are in a straight line. I have been in numerous races were some of the fastest people follow the buoys which have drifted into a "c" shapes and they have aimed for each buoy and I have swim straight for the far one. Be confident in your lines . And don't follow the group blindly - even if they are faster than you don't assume they can swim in a straight line
- Know the currents. Eg in a river or lake get in first and float on your back at a few points to see if there is a current and were it takes you. Use this to your advantage if possible.
- Ask people for any advice who may have swim there before.
- Sight every 4 strokes if you need to. I tend to do this as part of a breath. Just a quick eyes out of the water. This is were you need your good lines. As you won't see the buoys. Taking quick looks like this.
- Try and swim the course if possible before. Never do this on your own.
- If training in open water never go on your own but make sure the session had a purpose. Eg sighting would be most important, practising dolphin dives into shore if it is shallow for a long time. I wouldn't just get in and swim for !20 minutes without focusing on some of the points on this thread.
- Practise drafting and swimming in a group. It is different and you need to be comfortable with contact don't become obsessed with finding feet at the detriment of focusing on your race. A good practise session for this in the pool is to get 3 in a lame of similar speed and swim the whole session side by side. Did this last week with a few guys and they found it useful and completely different to the normal pool session.
- Make sure you can breathe to both sides. If it is sunny you might need to breathe to one side as opposed to the other. Don't forget you can use what you see when breathing to help sight. Also if on the sea and they aren't waves com ing in you don't want to breathe towards then. You need to practise this as if you Always breathe to the same side this Will feel weird.
- I have been in races were the sun has meant you can't see anything. As a last resort sometimes you doo have to blindly follow. I would advocate stopping bcc and reading water from. Time to time to allow to make sure you are going the right way our bcc else really really good Google's that allow you look into the sun. I wouldn't spend more than 15 Euro on Goggles so don't bee going crazy on buying them!
- If you are near the front on the swim start remember that on a countdown from 10, we triathletes always go on the 2 ☺

Kurt_Godel

Any tips on river swimming? I'm relatively strong swimming upstream, but get destroyed going downstream. For example, yesterdays TriAthy 3k swim, I could move up the pack swimming upstream, but they easily pulled away after the turn, swimming down. I tried to vary my stroke/cadence/kick/position, but didn't seem to have much effect.

Is there a variant stroke for swimming down?

iAcesHigh

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

Any tips on river swimming? I'm relatively strong swimming upstream, but get destroyed going downstream. For example, yesterdays TriAthy 3k swim, I could move up the pack swimming upstream, but they easily pulled away after the turn, swimming down. I tried to vary my stroke/cadence/kick/position, but didn't seem to have much effect.

Is there a variant stroke for swimming down?

Other then sticking to the middle of river where the current is stronger I don't see any reason for it - maybe you got more tired during the upstream while some others were holding off and charging for that during downstream?

Mr Tango

iAcesHigh wrote: »

Other then sticking to the middle of river where the current is stronger I don't see any reason for it - maybe you got more tired during the upstream while some others were holding off and charging for that during downstream?

Keep it nice and long when the current is with you and shorten the stroke with a slightly higher caedence when against you. Really work the glide by increasing the force on your pull. And of course position yourself were the current is strongest when going down stream. Local knowledge is key here. All the kayakers if not sure.

Kurt_Godel

Mr Tango wrote: »

Keep it nice and long when the current is with you and shorten the stroke with a slightly higher caedence when against you. Really work the glide by increasing the force on your pull. And of course position yourself were the current is strongest when going down stream. Local knowledge is key here. All the kayakers if not sure.

Thanks, that's very helpful. Followed the same line as the others so it wasn't the flow. I've been neglecting my hand exit and probably shortening my stroke lately, so that might explain things. Now that I think of it I tried a long stroke during the second half of Carlow downstream and made gains. Food for thought.

zico10

I'm far from an authority and I was second last out of my wave, so anything I say comes with a proviso. But where the flow was fastest yesterday wasn't necessarily the straightest line back to T1. I was cut adrift from most of my wave and I couldn't decide what was the best position to assume. Swimming slower might have been worth it, if the guys dropping you were swimming a longer overall distance.

MojoMaker

I noticed Chris Mintern swam straight up the middle of the channel on both upstream and downstream legs, didn't bother hugging the bank or the ropes, so out with that theory finally - he blasted the swim and had 50m on 2nd place.

ToTriOrNot

MojoMaker wrote: »

I noticed Chris Mintern swam straight up the middle of the channel on both upstream and downstream legs, didn't bother hugging the bank or the ropes, so out with that theory finally - he blasted the swim and had 50m on 2nd place.

You can't compare like that!! Chris has a swimming background, and it definitely shows in tri!! he's most of the times first out of the water!!! No tips I am afraid, still learning myself!

MojoMaker

...

Kurt_Godel

ToTriOrNot wrote: »

You can't compare like that!! Chris has a swimming background, and it definitely shows in tri!! he's most of the times first out of the water!!! No tips I am afraid, still learning myself!

I reckon whats good enough for Chris Mintern is good enough for the rest of us!

Unsure myself about the general Athy advice of "swim up close to bank, down in the middle". Talking to a good OW swimmer tonight who reckons rivers can be a lot more "local" than that, and in general are a bit of a crapshoot. I'm still picking reeds out of my teeth from crashing into dirt several times going up!

ardmore100

Hi there, would you be able to recommend open water swimming goggles that are NOT low profile? I have big eyes and long lashes and find that most goggles are too shallow. And i cannot find any that claim to be "high profile". Aqua Sphere appear to be best of breed but possible too low profile. Many thanks.