Top Tips for Open Water Swimming

Written by Jim Levesque, Owner and Head Coach at Grit Endurance. Learn more about Jim’s background here!

The swim is the most daunting part of race day for most triathletes, especially those that didn’t grow up swimming.  It doesn’t have to be that way, though, and we have several tips you can use to improve your open water swimming, even in the pool!

How to improve your open water swimming in the pool:

1.        Practice sighting – You can absolutely practice your sighting in the pool.  In fact, we recommend incorporating this into your pool swims in the last several weeks before a race, if not sooner.  Try sighting 2-4 sights per 25 yards during your main set.

2.        Practice race takeouts – The first 100-200 yards of triathlon swim are generally the hardest and most chaotic.  Practice gradually bringing your heart rate down during the swim by swimming fast 50s then easing directly into a steady pace for the next 150.

3.        Practice increasing your stroke rate – In choppy open water swims, you’ll want to increase your stroke rate because you won’t get as much glide, practice this during your pool swims so you are ready to take it to the open water.

4.        Practice your safety stroke – You should have a safety stroke that you are comfortable switching to if you get panicked or fatigued, whether this is backstroke, breaststroke, or simply treading water, you can practice all of these in the pool.

5.        Bilateral breathing – Practice breathing to both sides so that if your open water swim is choppy, you can breathe away from the direction the waves are hitting you

How to practice in open water:

1.        Practice all five aspects that I just reviewed in an open water setting as well – you should regularly practice your sighting, race takeouts, stroke rate, safety stroke, and bilateral breathing.  Here is how to incorporate them into your open water sessions:

a.        Sighting – Try to sight every 4-8 strokes and connect your sighting to your breath.  Also try to find a larger object that is behind the buoy towards where you are trying to swim to for easier sighting

b.       Race takeouts – Practice swimming hard for 20-30 strokes then recovering for 20-30 strokes in an alternating fashion to get used to settling in after harder or more stressful efforts

c.        Stroke rate – Up your stroke rate for 30-50 strokes then recover to get more familiar with a faster tempo

d.       Safety stroke – Make sure you regularly practice recovering using your safety stroke without touching the bottom, so you are ready for anything on race day

e.        Bilateral breathing – Practice breathing every three strokes at least occasionally to ensure you can get a good breath if you have waves hitting you on your favored side

2.        Group swimming – Swim with a group as much as possible, like at the Grit Endurance group swims in Chicago, which are every Friday morning at 6am from June through August!

3.        Drafting – There is major energy savings when you swim behind someone, practice swimming right on a friend or teammate’s feet

4.        Rounding buoys – Practice turning around buoys quickly and efficiently, even if it is an imaginary buoy!

5.        Get comfortable with your wetsuit:

a.        Practice putting on and taking off your wetsuit quickly as you would on race day

b.       You don’t need to kick as much with a wetsuit on, because your body position will be improved

6.        Get comfortable without a wetsuit: Not every swim is wetsuit legal, so it’s very beneficial to practice open water swimming without a wetsuit, at least some of the time (when possible) 

How to conquer race day:

1.        Know the course – Review the course map ahead of time, and on race morning or the days prior, familiarize yourself with all the buoys (i.e., how many buoys until the first turn, etc.)

2.        Have clear and tinted goggles – Be prepared with options for sunny and cloudy conditions

3.        Warmup well – If the water isn’t very cold, try to warmup in the water.  If the water is cold or the race doesn’t allow you to swim for your warmup, do some jogging to get your body warmed up and ready to go

4.        Ease into the swim – Try to start off nice and easy if possible and build into the swim, which will help minimize the breathless feeling that often happens at the swim start

5.        Take deep breaths – Relax, relax, relax, you’ve got this!

Looking for more help? We offer individual lessons and training plans as well as group swims and much more. Contact us for more info!