Key factors in swimming well in the open water

The transfer of skills from your pool workouts to the open water where your racing takes place is an important element to consider.

Straight Line Swimming

Often when you take away the visual element of staying straight in the form of the easy-to-follow line in a pool, most swimmers do experience some directional problems.

This is a skill learned both by feel but also one which needs refinement in terms of where you are reaching.

That is the degree to which you can reach perfectly straight in front of your shoulder-line in the 'Reach' phase is the key point here which will help you remain on a steady course.

DRILL: to help develop this feel of where the straight line is in a pool, all you need to do is practice eliminating all visual cues.

Eg 8 x 10 long slow strokes holding your breath and keeping your eyes closed.

When you can stay straight without breathing, try adding the breath and see if the result changes, does the way your arms move change with a breath?

Notes - (a) try to find a lane with no other swimmer (b) it's a good idea to have someone watch you to avoid collisions from anyone jumping into your lane that you don't pick up on.

The Head Lift - How To Sight

Because of the point above, in that most sea water in this part of the world is less than clear the skill of lifting your head effectively to see where you need to go becomes very important.

And the head lift should be very simple, but depending on your general swimming skill base this may be something that needs practise.

Ideally what you are aiming to do is lift the smallest amount of your head (your eyes) for you to effectively see the point you are aiming at (eg a buoy or a headland) and then get your head and bodyweight back into that balance point where drag is minimised as quickly as possible.

The way to do this is to tilt your neck (not lift as such) at the start of a pull, sight, then get your head back down before that same arm enters the water again.

If you can manage to do this fluently then you are maintaining as much efficiency as possible during this problematic part of ocean swimming.

DRILL: an example set could be 16 x 25m, R15 where 4x are normal low stroke count lengths, but then every 2nd 4x reps you integrate 2x head lifts per length without the stroke count going up.

Note - you may need to kick a little more to control this part of your stroke.

Note - a good rule of thumb for when to sight is between every 6 & 10th stroke (not more or less).

Breathing Side

Do you have the ability to breathe both ways?

If not then it's not always an issue, but depending on your general skill level you may find that breathing away from the prevailing weather of the day can sometimes improve your ability to relax in bad ocean conditions.

The problem with whichever side you breathe is that most swimmers have an asymmetrical stroke which, especially when breathing, can throw your reaching arm off the straight line.

And that can lead to directional problems as in point one above.

This is because when you breathe you tend to rotate more than on your head down stroke, this rotation can affect your ability to accurately stretch in a straight line.

DRILL: basically you just need feedback on this one, preferably from a coach who can watch (and even video) you from the front to check if the direction of the reach changes when breathing one or either sides.

If so then you need to learn to even this up both in the pool and then remember it for the sea to ensure you don't swim further than you need to! A straight line is the fastest way to the finish line.

Drafting

The ability to follow someone and stay in that small space of moving water behind a swimmer directly in front of you is generally a fantastic way to increase your speed and decrease your work load.

If you are fast enough and able to hold even a small glide then not only will you create a good draft behind you but it means you will also have the ability to draft others better.

Drafting is normally a two way street, it works best if a pair can take turns leading, putting in some hard yards and then sitting in the pocket to recover for your next go.

DRILL: in pairs practice getting close to the person in front of you (with their permission) and hold a firm long stroke that even when pausing you feel a pull forward.

The leading arm ideally should be right on the person’s feet in front of you, or slightly overlapping them.

Confidence Never to be underestimated, this is one factor that can have a massive difference in your ability to transfer pool skills and fitness to the sea.

Examples are - when the person in front of you is blindly following someone in front of them but both keep over reacting to subtle directional changes, then you can all end up swimming in less than a straight line and much further than the race distance.

In such an instance you really do need to be sighting for yourself and trusting the direction you believe is correct, sometimes swimming in open water by yourself on a direct line to the finish, and ditching the group that is “directionally challenged” is the best option!