<\/p>
Swimming open water is a skill, pure and simple, and how do we improve our skills?\u00a0By practising!<\/strong><\/p>\n We get swim-fit and stroke-strong in the pool, from V02 max sessions to aerobic<\/strong><\/a> and threshold sessions<\/strong><\/a>, from pace work to drills that work for us as individual swimmers (not just single-arm and catch-up because everyone\u2019s doing it!).<\/p>\n You need to find out which drills will help you with your stroke and biomechanics and work on them weekly, then throw in some kicking as well \u2013 god I hate kicking, ask anyone that swims with me and they\u2019ll say how shocking I am at it, I think I could get lapped in a 50m kick set!<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> So, all of these help us with our swimming and along with consistent training in the pool you should get faster, which is obviously great and the foundation to swimming open water.<\/p>\n Now the tricky part \u2013 transferring that into open-water swimming in training and then into open-water swimming in\u00a0a race environment, which can add even more variables.<\/p>\n Some of the drills I love to do in the pool to help with my open-water swimming start with sighting. Start with water polo freestyle (head-up front crawl) maybe in your warm-up and then in your cool-down throw a few 12.5m in, just to get the body\/neck used to swimming while your head is up.<\/p>\n Then after a few sessions of adding this, get a coach or a mate to stand at the end of the pool and hold up their hand with a different number of fingers up per length, and do say 100-150m.<\/p>\n At the end, add the number of fingers up and see if you were right. When we have our head up we also want to \u2018sight\u2019 the finish line buoy\/gantry so need to get used to focusing in on a point in the distance.<\/p>\n Along with this drill, add in swimming 10-15 strokes with your eyes closed (make sure you have some\u00a0nice understanding swimmers in your lane!) and see which side you drift to or if you can swim plum straight (just like me \u2013 ha!).<\/p>\n This will help with the balance of your stroke when you\u2019re swimming open water as you\u2019ll know which way you tend to move to so can counter that in.<\/p>\n Swim coach Andrew Sheaff also adds: \u201cIn most bodies of water, you can\u2019t see much. You almost certainly won\u2019t experience the crystal-clear water of a pool! This can be disorienting for most people and can really throw off your technique and your rhythm.<\/p>\n \u201cTo address this issue, close your eyes when you swim, opening them when you breathe. Opening your eyes when you breathe will help you swim straight and orient yourself.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will recreate the same visual environment that you\u2019ll experience in open water, and it will make the experience much more familiar. Before long, you\u2019ll find that you can manage this with no trouble at all in the pool.<\/p>\n \u201cAdditionally, you can practise sighting various objects around the pool, starting from the eyes closed position when the head is down. With practise you\u2019ll get better at picking out objects.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo make the pool more similar to open water, you need to make the pool more unpredictable,\u201d says Sheaff. \u201cIf you\u2019re able, take the lanelines out of the pool. Doing so will quickly make for a lot more chop. Even just one laneline will make a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can\u2019t take out lanelines, practise swimming with multiple people in the lane [see \u2018The rule of four, below\u2019]. The more the better! You can practise swimming side by side, you can practise drafting<\/strong><\/a>, and you can practise swimming around people.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will help you get adjusted to the turbulence you\u2019ll certainly experience in open water.<\/p>\n \u201cGet used to waves interrupting your flow, get used to people interrupting your flow, and get used to a much more unpredictable environment. You\u2019ll be much more comfortable when you transition into open water.\u201d<\/p>\n Another great pool drill for open-water is swimming in a lane of four swimmers \u2013 push off on each other\u2019s feet and after 50m the leader stops about 5m before the wall and becomes the buoy.<\/p>\n The other three go around the lead swimmer who then falls into the back of the line and so on. Mess around with swimming close to the feet, or even on the shin\/hip and see where you get the most draft from and therefore save the most energy.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re ready to go into an open-water environment make sure your wetsuit fits you and that you\u2019re comfy just swimming on your own.<\/p>\n Build up confidence at your own pace \u2013 but then let\u2019s not just swim easy and do a few laps and say \u2018I\u2019m ready for a race now\u2019, trust me, that\u2019s not enough! Go to the lake with a session in mind and with other swimmers of a similar ability to yourself.<\/p>\n Try this group session: 500-800m easy then do hard\/easy from buoy to buoy with different people on the front for 500-800m, then maybe another 500-800m easy but with a fast 20 strokes into and out of the buoy\/turn again, all in a tight group.<\/p>\n Then maybe whoever is on the front tries to drop everyone but not by just smashing it from the gun, by trying different tactics \u2013 like suddenly putting in short bursts or building up the pace, or turning without warning etc., so the followers need to react and move around in the chase group so as not to get dropped and try and conserve as much energy as you can.<\/p>\n Then pick a point \u2013 a buoy or tree \u2013 and swim 50-80 strokes with your eyes closed. Go every 15secs or so and see where you end up \u2013 whoever\u2019s furthest away buys the post-session coffee!<\/p>\n Top image:<\/strong> Korupt Vision<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/body><\/html>\n By Tim Don Published: Tuesday, 12 July 2022 at 12:00 am Swimming open water is a skill, pure and simple, and how do we improve our skills?\u00a0By practising! We get swim-fit and stroke-strong in the pool, from V02 max sessions to aerobic and threshold sessions, from pace work to drills that work for us as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":15968,"template":"","categories":[1,23],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-use-the-pool-to-prepare-for-open-water-swimming.jpg",600,440,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-use-the-pool-to-prepare-for-open-water-swimming-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-use-the-pool-to-prepare-for-open-water-swimming-300x220.jpg",300,220,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-use-the-pool-to-prepare-for-open-water-swimming.jpg",600,440,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-use-the-pool-to-prepare-for-open-water-swimming.jpg",600,440,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-use-the-pool-to-prepare-for-open-water-swimming.jpg",600,440,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-use-the-pool-to-prepare-for-open-water-swimming.jpg",600,440,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Tim Don Published: Tuesday, 12 July 2022 at 12:00 am Swimming open water is a skill, pure and simple, and how do we improve our skills?\u00a0By practising! We get swim-fit and stroke-strong in the pool, from V02 max sessions to aerobic and threshold sessions, from pace work to drills that work for us as…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/15967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to transfer pool skills to the open water<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Count the fingers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Close your eyes<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Add chop to your pool swimming<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The rule of four<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Have a session in mind<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Group\u00a0swim\u00a0session example<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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