Wet Suits

As a precaution, always wear a wet suit for an open water swim if it is possible to do so. This may actually be a tool that helps novice swimmers, since wet suits can promote buoyancy and body position. As a result, they could be up to 10% faster with the wetsuit than without. Most triathlon events do have a rule that requires that you use a wetsuit in your race, so bring your suit along just in case the rule does apply.

Shopping for a wet suit really does depend on your own personal preference. There are many different styles, from full sleeve, to no sleeves, or even full body Lycra suits. The full body Lycra suits are definitely more expensive, despite that fact; they usually don’t last as long as others.

Once you purchase your wetsuit, teach yourself to get used to it and swim in it before the race. Wet suits are made to be very fitting, with the zipper in the back. This suit will probably feel very tight until you get into the water and let it loosen up. Not only will this help you feel more comfortable, but it will also break in the suit. Another trick is to use cooking-oil spray to help remove the suit quickly.

Triathlon Open Water Race Tips

Position: If you don’t find yourself to be a strong swimmer, then don’t position yourself right in the front, or even in the middle of the pack. Especially if you are new, it is advised that you start more towards the back, and possibly off to the side, which will prevent you from being in the way of others, and possibly getting hurt.

Know the course: It is important to know the course before you go into your race. Study the map of the course to know which direction you will be swimming in at all times. Also, if you happen to know someone that has done this race before, they may be helpful in giving small tips or advice on the course. If you arrive early enough, it’s always a good idea to take someone with you and try the course at least once before the race so that you have a feel for where you are going to be.

Sighting Practice: It is useful if you have worked with this practice in sighting a chair or some other object when practicing in the pool, and have worked on balancing your stroke. This will come in handy when you may need to stress one arm strokes, or also to compensate for the currents you may come across in the open water.

Stay Relaxed: You will more than likely find that the water may be very cold. Try your hardest to relax while your body adjusts to water temperature. Make sure that you concentrate on breathing deeply, and remember you technique.

Drafting: After the race starts, the swimmers will break up into different phases. The experienced swimmers will follow behind another swimmer to take advantage of drafting. When trying this technique, make sure that you stay behind a swimmer who is slightly faster that you are. The best place to gain from drafting is either at the swimmers feet, and also about 45 degrees on either side of their feet.

Commonly, swimmers will work themselves as hard and as fast as they can in the very beginning of the race so that they can get ahead. If the swimmer that you are following starts to fall behind, either pull back or move to the side so that you are out of their way. You will need to decide to stay with this person, or if you need to move around and find someone else to draft behind. If you are put into the position that you need to find a need lead person, make sure that this person knows where they are going. One of the most horrible mistakes that can be made is that you are to choose someone who doesn’t know where the buoys are, this may cost you even more time.

1.) Balance Drills
Just like it is important to learn how to stand up and be balanced before we can learn how to walk, a swimmer needs to learn how to be balanced while kicking, before they can perform highly effective swimming.

Back Kick:
While standing in the water, change into a lying position, with your shoulders down, and your hips lifted. This places the head mostly underwater, with only the mouth and nose exposed. This position means that you are balanced. Try the next few motions once you’ve gotten this first part mastered, back-kick while still on your back, and then rotate onto your side, for a twist-down kick. Then, rotate your chin so that you are looking down at the bottom of the pool or a few kicks. Rotate your chin back to the side-facing position, and then return your body to the original position on your back. Repeat this on the opposite side of your body also.

Vertical Kick:
There are many swimmers who tend to waste a lot of energy on kicking while using incorrect leg motions, which means that they are kicking mainly from the knees. Using vertical kicking will help work on effective kicking motions, and also conditioning the right muscles. Start by placing one hand on the top of the other placed on your chest, and start kicking in a deep area of the pool. When you first use this drill, start with using full size training fins.

Side kick:
While keeping your arms down, kick at with your arms at the sides of the body. Then rotate the head and spinal alignment. Bear in mind that good balance requires less breathing, and only the occasional chin rotation.

2.) Arm Stroke Drills

Catch Up:
This drill is important because it helps the swimmer focus on stroking correctly, while using just one arm at a time instead of both. This will start with swimmers in a prone position, which both arms extended. Begin the freestyle stroke with one arm, while leaving the other arm extended. Complete the one arm stroke and after fully extending the stroke arm, begin the alternate side stroke. This will emphasize the glide, full extension, as well as the correct catch, pull and recovery. You’ll want to begin this drill slowly, and after some experience you can speed up to normal stroke pace.

Single Arm:
This technique is probably the most popular of all of the free style drills. The main point in this drill is to examine each part of the arm stroke. Using the same technique as you would with the catch up drill, start with both arms extended, perform a one arm stroke, and repeat with the same arm for the entire length of the pool. If you are doing consecutive lengths, then switch arms as you do each lap. This drill can be used with fins to work on fast hand entry, and can also be used without the fins once you have gained proper experience.

Fist:
The fist drill is used to teach you how to use the arms for propulsion while swimming. Start by clinching your fingers and thumb in a moderately tight fist. Then start using the freestyle stroke by acting as if reaching over a barrel during hand entry and catch. This should use your feet, your forearm, as well as your fist for a single unit of propulsion through the water. Another way to try this drill is to use a tennis ball instead of clenching your fist.

Back Sculling:
Improving your motion in water, as well as your balance, this drill is used while on your back. Once on your back, look beyond your feet, while keeping your arms at your sides, and sculling with your hands. This uses your hands to move your body backward.

Stroke Count:
While using a steady, premeditated stroke, count the strokes for one length of the pool. Try to reduce the strokes when swimming consecutive lengths, by streamlining and extending your stroke. If using full speed interval sets, maintain a new stroke count. This drill is excellent for testing, as well as for active recovery between interval sets.

3.)Breathing Drills

Offside:
On average, the left side is the weaker side to breathe on for 90% of swimmers. Try to repeat your breathing on opposite sides for consecutive strokes. Work with trying to breathe on one side for a length, and then on the other side for the length back. This is a good drill to practice while in the middle of longer intervals, or also in open water swim.

Buoy sighting:
When working with pool practices, try this drill. You will want to place something like a chair or a block in the middle of the lane, along the wall. Once you are doing your lap, practice slightly lifting your head for sightings of this object ever 5-10 strokes. Be conscious of finding the idyllic number of strokes between the sightings. When looking for the object, only lift your goggles slightly above the waterline, and preferably do this on a breath stroke. This exercise is helpful to use when working with bilateral breathing.

Drafting:
This exercise can be tricky at first, but very effective. Practice your breathing and stroke pacing while you are swimming directly behind another swimmers feet. You’ll want to maintain focus on the feet, and avoid anything more than just the occasional light touch. Do these while attempting to keep your head down for most strokes.

4.) Speed Swimming & Interval drills

Once you work past the beginner’s stage of swimming, try to begin doing intervals in almost every workout that you have. The only way to ever swim faster is to train faster and work harder in the interval sets. When you are swimming continuously, it can be very difficult to enhance speed, or even to uphold speed, so try to keep the long swims limited to 1500 m.

The key to keep in mind for beginners is that they want to keep their drills simple, and consistent. Use three drills a week, picking drills that concentrate on limiters of balance, head-body position, and breathing. These will be the most beneficial for the novice swimmer. Beginners should use drills in every swim workout that they have, or at least twice a week. It is better to train early on, so that these become habits. An experienced swimmer can be much harder to teach these habits, since they could be so set in their ways.
It is normal that as the season progresses, that the amount of time spent on drills may become less and less. Still remember to try and incorporate some drills into the lesson, in order to remind the body about better technique.

When looking into a swim group, know that there are advantages as well as disadvantages. On the upside, this can be a great way for beginners to be subject to a wide range of drills. The down side is that a group is less likely to target every swimmers individual need. When joining, speak to the instructor about the options of creating a personalized drill set. The coach will more than likely be thankful that you’ve dedicated such an effort and interest in your skills.

There are two different types of practices during the week that most swimmers to look to concentrate on. The first should contain long intervals that will endorse the endurance. Secondly, use medium distant intervals, which will build muscular endurance. If there are any remaining practices during the week, remember to dedicate these to recovery, as well as skills building.

Swimming Drill Tips

While you are working on your drill, always stay focused. You want to keep your mind on what the drill should be helping you with while you are performing it, so that you get the optimum results. Without concentration, it is possible that you’ll be going through the motions, but not really gaining the benefit of the drill.

Be aware of the weaker side of your body. Balance drills can be changed up to balance out your weaker and stronger side if needed. Use the balance drills on both sides of your body, making a note to use them more on what you feel is the weaker of the two sides.

Generally speaking it is better to work on the majority of drills during the warm up lap, since the drills are best done at a lower heart rate. Figure out the keys that concentrate on your limiters. These conduct faster interval splits in training, as well as testing. Pick one or two of these keys to use so that they help you during racing. Don’t choose too many, the fewer keys you need, the better off you will be.

Kick Fins

These are a good asset to have if you are working with balance drills. While using these, you must remember not to find yourself relying on them. Make sure that you are just as balanced and in the same position when you’re not wearing them, that you would be if you were wearing them.

Strong, solid kicks are an important asset to your swim performance, although not the most important thing in a competition. With that said, kicks should be included in your training schedule, because it encourages a higher body position, and allows you to maneuver in a straight line.

The most highly recommended kick fin is the shorter style, because this style helps with proper body position. These short fins don’t conflict with flip turns, and they have a very low probability of causing the user any type of knee or ankle stress.

The most common drills for beginners using the short fins include the back and side kick drills. Also, they can be used for arm side drills during training. However, when you become more familiar with the drill, don’t continue to use them. Remember, if you are using a pull buoy or paddles, don’t use your fins in conjunction with these other pieces.

Kick Board

The kickboard is another training device that is popular for beginners. This allows the swimmer to develop his or her kicking action. Kick boards can improve your kicking skills greatly, as well as the strength in your legs, but it does very little for your judgment for balance.

Goggles

There are two major purposes for goggles, protecting the swimmer’s eyes from chemicals, harmful rays, and damaging lights, as well as allowing the swimmer to see more clearly under water. It is recommended to wear watertight goggles that also offer the wide angle vision and a low drag profile.

Pull Buoy

The pull buoy is one of the most popular aids in training drills, because it allows you to work on your arm stroke, as well as breathing at a lower heart rate. All this can be done while continuing to focus on your kick. There are also downsides to things when you are using pull buoys, like the fact that they tend to cover up your balance and stroke limiters. It is true that the swimmers who tend to go faster using a pull buoy may have a problem with their body position as well as their kick technique once they go without the buoy. When going through warm ups, drills that use paddles, and recovering training, it is recommended to limit the use of the pull buoy.

Paddles

It is important to know the proper technique in order to get the best performance possible. Without knowing the proper way to use this training, it can result in the risk of injury, due to over using them, or using them wrongly. They can be known for actually increasing stroke mistakes, since you are developing the strength, but not the proper balance. If you have a sold arm stroke, paddles can encourage a stronger catch, and greater propulsion, for the push and pull of your stroke.
There are many different types of paddles that come highly advertised, all claiming to help some specific stroke quality. Take into consideration that the most highly recommended would be a small or medium sized paddle.
There are a few reasons why paddles may not be recommended, the first is for those people who experience shoulder problems, or for those who struggle with technique limiters. Also, if you are a beginner, it isn’t recommended due to the high risk or injuries due to inexperience.
To improve your strength, it only takes ten minutes of paddle strokes, during one session a week. Once you have a strong enough stroke, the closer you will get to racing season, and you can use paddles to add force and to build your muscular strength. Keep in mind while doing this that you still need to concentrate on using your correct form.

Stretch Cords

Using stretch cords will help you get the most out of land exercises, as well as helping to improve your swim techniques. These are a great way to stimulate swimming motions, without ever having to actually get into the water. When you are in water, you use different muscles than you do while you are on land. Unlike bicycling or weight lifting, the stretch cords are the closest to an actual swim stroke. Once you have the basic free-style stroke down, you should be able to begin to use stretch cords to strengthen your push-pull technique, as well as your full stroke technique.

Functioning as a competitive triathlon cyclist certainly requires both mental and physical stamina. It requires a great deal more than just the right bike, high performance cycling equipment, and a mild interest in becoming a competitive cyclist. This type of strength normally developed with training and after the athlete has had some good racing experience out of the way. However, more pertinently, as physical strength runs out, the only remaining energy store lies in the mental determination to push harder. In the mean time, the body must be developed with a whole host of other skills.

Where to Focus
For the beginner cyclist, building endurance by increasing the distance of workouts and developing some semblance of proper technique must come well before any attempt to build speed and muscular strength. A few months are usually required for this to work.
The initial endurance stage requires a serious amount of cycling which perpetuations the misleading but popular idea that athletes should focus on volume of endurance instead of performance when it comes to racing events. Because of this, many athletes waste far too much time attempting to schedule their life around finishing extremely long distance training sessions. However, early sunsets, restrictions in lifestyle, and traffic can all contribute to the reduction of the amount of time that can be spent on the road. The true focus of any professional or competitive cyclist should be intensity and performance.
The intensity of a cycling session is usually the most important factor when determining the difference between merely finishing and being competitive. Physical strength and concentration come into play as the final tools required to make an excellent placing. Including efficient pedalling, a good aerodynamic position, and a passable technique, will leave the athlete with everything he needs for the fastest bike splits.

Cycling with a Running Background
For those prospective two-wheel masters who have a background in running, cycling requires different pressure points, completely different muscle groups, and different heart rates than running. Having no familiarity with any sort of endurance sport or training will make it very difficult to cope with a sport that lasts an hour or more. Long distance cycling , however, is a lot less stressful on the human body than a similar time period spent running.

Final words
The very best part about cycling, along with any competitive endurance sport, is the mental acuity, discipline, and committal prowess gained when practicing such a demanding activity. Implementing these ideas into daily life can allow anyone to simply enjoy the ride.