More Open Water Swim Tips, From a Lifegaurd Perspective

A few weeks ago, we began posting some open water swim tips.  This list will grow over time as there are literally dozens of great tips when it comes to open water swimming and triathlon swimming.

In addition to racing in triathlons, I regularly volunteers to help with the swim leg of local triathlons.  Through that experience, I have been able to come away from a recent events with a few more tips and observations, these from the vantage point of someone on a lifegaurd boat at about the 1/3 point of a popular sprint triathlon with a great open water swim.  Being able to observe swimmers of all abilities go by provides great perspective on what many people could do better or where they need to practice.  Here are a few of the key takeaways that can hopefully help you as you take part in more open water swims.

Get your face wet.  I am amazed how many people I see hold thier head high on nearly every stroke and even trying to avoid putting their face in the water.  The fact that you are swimming in a natural lake or river water shouldn’t change a thing about your swim stroke.  The water in a lake may in many ways be better for you than inhaling overchlorinated pool water, so stick your head and and swim downhill!  The best thing you can do in open water is relax, and the best way to relax is to swim the way you have training, with good form and measured breathing.  Don’t let the open water change how you hold your head.

Use the breaststroke and backstroke sparingly.  Everyone should have an alternate swim technique that they can fall back on if they swallow a mouthful of water, get kicked in the face, or simply need to relax.  However, I see alot of the slower triathletes relying on these as their primary strokes.  Not only are they much slower than they would be using the freestyle, but they are likely exerting WAY more energy in the swim than they need to.  Try to get to the point where at least 80% of your open water swim is via the crawl.  If you can get to 99%, even better. 

Sight.  Easier said than done, I know.  But I see at least 1/4 of the swimmers tack an extra 100 meters onto the 1/2 mile course simply by veering way off course and then having to correct.  Some of them just weren’t sighting at all, and others were drafting someone else who was way off course.   Remember to practice your open water swim technique to include sighting, make sure you do the race with newer triathlon swim goggles so they don’t fog so bad.  Finally,when you are swimming in open water, find a few anchor points to sight on — it might be a big tree, a building, or a certain way you want the buoys line-up.  This can be much more effective than sighting from buoy to buoy.

Test Your Wetsuit.  A startling number of swimmers come to the lifegaurd boats with wetsuit issues, and it is evident that this is the first time they have ever used it — on race day!  If you are using a friend’s wetsuit or have just bought a new one, take it for a few test runs.  Make sure you know how it feels on you, and how you need pull it on your body you give you the range of motion you need.  The most common wetsuit issue seems to be tightness around the neck, something that can often be alleviated by putting it on correctly, or at a minimum should be known before race day.  If you want to take your open water swim seriously, do at least one practice swim before the day of the race.  It will do wonders for your confidence and will help you work out gear kinks before the big event.

Keeping these things in mind can help you shave seconds or minutes off of your swim time, and will also help you get out of the water with more energy for the other race legs.

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