How To Swim Your Way To The Front Of The Pack

The large majority of triathletes cite the swim as their weakest discipline. But it doesn’t have to be. What does it take to become a top age group swimmer and realise your triathlon ambitions?

Written By Matt Dixon
Dear Coach, I really want to start placing in my age group, or even qualify for Hawaii. One of my weaknesses is the swim. What is the optimal way to turn a swim weakness into a strength?

This is a common challenge for triathletes as a whole, and unfortunately there’s no quick fix. Among the three sports, swimming is by far the most technical. It creates the most insecurity for both athletes (by being the weakness of many), and for coaches (the technical part of the sport is tough to teach). Here are a few things to consider if you want to improve the swim.

Become an open-water swimmer.
This obvious statement is important, and it is one that is always promoted by Gerry Rodrigues (Tower26.com), one of the best triathlon and open-water swim coaches in the world. Your training should be geared toward making you a better open- water swimmer. Many triathletes just show up to the pool and swim laps, which may improve general fitness but does little to prepare you to race in open water. Get open water experience, either in true open water, or in the pool with simulated open-water and drafting sessions.

Don’t drill your way to glory.
Drills are commonly used to extend vessel (body) length, increase rotation and reduce drag. While body position is important, over-rotation is not an effective position for most triathletes, as most do not have a strong enough kick to create propulsion behind the vessel. To assist in body position you should (sparingly) utilise tools such as a pull buoy, a snorkel and an ankle strap, and some focus should be placed on improving stroke rate, which can only come without over-rotation. Some key drills can help, but they should only take up a small amount of your total training time.

Swim more.
It’s that simple. While you can improve in three sessions of swimming a week, to truly evolve your swimming takes a large commitment. I believe nearly every triathlete should spend a period of time each season placing massive focus on swimming, and for the truly committed with time to give, swimming should have a high relative volume to overall training load.

Swim with a group.
The ideal scenario is to become a part of a training group with a coach who truly understands the specific needs of open-water swimming. The next best thing is to attend one or two Masters sessions every week, or team up with a couple of friends for key swims. Being surrounded by other swimmers is nearly always beneficial. Plus, that group simulation will prepare you for a race start with 500 of your closest friends, many of whom are also swim “insecure.”

Don’t forget the speed.
Endurance sets are critical to achieve the fitness required for a triathlon, but to improve your speed you must also swim faster. Two of your key sessions a week should be focused on improving your sustainable speed and simulate specific race conditions. Your goal is not just to become faster in the pool, but also to employ the benefits of race conditions, and the chances of drafting, to gain time. Become “familiar with the discomfort” of quick race starts and the bottleneck that occurs after the start and around buoy turns.

If you make the commitment, you can gain minutes in your swim while saving energy for the rest of the race. A faster swim, with less cost, has massive implications for overall performance.

Matt Dixon is an exercise physiologist, former professional triathlete, elite coach and the owner of the owner of professional coaching company Purplepatch Fitness.

FILED UNDER: All / Training TAGS: advice / become / Better / coach / Ironman / Matt-Dixon / Open-water / speed / swim / Tips / train / Triathlon

Paul Moore

Paul Moore is the Online Editor for Triathlete Europe. When not glued to a computer he can be found writing books - most recently Ultimate Triathlon: A complete training guide for long-distance triathletes which you can buy on Amazon

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