Why triathletes shouldn't put off swimming

I'm going to start this post by explaining that in addition to coaching a lot of triathletes, I've been a triathlete and have been a swim director for an off-road triathlon for 3 years. After all of that experience, if I could impart one nugget of wisdom onto the non-swimmer triathletes, it would be this:

Please, for the love of all things holy, get in the water and TRAIN for the swim portion of the tri, even if it's a short distance race.

About 70% of the swimmers I provide private lessons to are triathletes, and almost all are late-in-life swimmers. Because they're strong cyclists and runners, they're often lean and tense, ready to bend their knees and lift their heads in the water. The top issues I see with almost all of my clients are:

1. Holding their breath instead of exhaling under water

2. Poor body position due to bent knee, wide kicking

3. Head-up neck and face position, causing hips and legs to sink

Because of their taxing and inefficient strokes, each of these accomplished athletes struggles to make it more than a few lengths of the pool, often resting at each wall. Knowing almost all of these athletes are participating in an outdoor triathlon in open water, my chest tightens and my heart rate goes up knowing that I not only have to help that person successfully accomplish their event, but I also have to teach them how to keep themselves alive.

For the past 3 years, I've volunteered as a swim director for a popular off-road triathlon at Hagg Lake. While I lifeguard on shore for any participants squeezing in a warm up before the safety briefing, I overhear snippets of conversation that have my heart falling into the pit of my stomach.

"This is my first open water swim. Ever. I'm not sure I can even swim a 500."

"The last time I had tried swimming in open water, I had a panic attack and my friend had to pull me to shore. I hope that doesn't happen again."

"Yeah man, I've been putting in 100 miles a week in running and biking because my strategy is to catch everyone after the swim."

"I didn't train at all for the swim leg because it's so short, you know?"

Each year, I doubled the number of volunteers I needed to manage the course of that triathlon because out of the 200+ participants, at least 10 would have panic attacks within a few strokes from shore, and need to hold onto a kayak or paddle board to regain control of their breathing. 20-30 swimmers wouldn't know to sight the 3 course buoys and either veer extremely off course, or get so turned around that they swim the wrong way on the course, causing head-on collisions. Last year, 6 swimmers took more than an hour to complete the 1000 yard course doing a mix of treading water and side breaststroke. For a closed course (500m x 2 loops), I had to have 10+ volunteers on vessels to try to keep an eye on everyone, and even that wasn't enough.

Each of these swimmers required the safety crew take their attention off the other swimmers and focus directly on one swimmer. It's a nerve-wracking unsafe situation, and stressful to the volunteers and swimmers alike.

So, what can people do to ensure they're ready for their triathlon races?

Swimmers:

• Dedicate a larger portion of your training hours to swimming. Join a gym with a pool, and get laps in, swimming at least 3 times per week, even if it's for 30 minutes.

• Practice survival skills, like back floating, flipping from your front to your back, and treading water.

• Practice keeping your heart rate low by slowing down your stroke and keeping your body at the surface of the water.

• Add sighting to your pool workouts, keeping your eyes low, like an alligator and using the calm pool water to figure out how to see without losing your momentum.

• Practice a second stroke, like breaststroke or side stroke. If you get a foot cramp or get winded from front crawl, you'll have the other stroke to fall back on.

• Don't stop and rest at the wall. In open water, you don't get the crutch of using a wall, so reduce your rest time in the pool. Try to swim continuously with quick turns, rather than spending 5-15 seconds taking a breath.

• Get open water practice in as soon as you can. Even experienced pool swimmers can lose confidence when they can't see the bottom or touch. Exposure therapy, in safe open water environments, will help anxious swimmers calm themselves. NOTE: all swimmers, regardless of skill, MUST wear a tow float when practicing in open water, even close to shore.

• Join a local swimming group and experience swimming with and around other people. Triathlons can be a high-contact activity, and getting used to seeing other people in front of you, or coming in contact with other swimmers can help reduce your panic on race day.

If you're really struggling to swim continuously in a pool, consider hiring a private swim coach for a few lessons.

Race Directors:

• Require proof of prior swimming experience, like asking for a qualification time for a certain distance, i.e.: "What is your open water 500 yard swim time?"

• Offer group swimming events before the race as warm up swims or season openers weeks-months before the event.

• Offer swim angels: volunteers who swim next to inexperienced participants to talk them through panic or help them stay on course.

• Provide resources like swimming technique tips, course information, or suggested training plans that focus on building swim endurance (and let athletes know you're serious about swim safety/training).

• Staff your safety crew with more on-water vessels than you think you need so there are still plenty of eyes monitoring the course if one swimmer needs assistance.

• Require swimmers to wear tow floats for visibility and as backup safety devices.

As I tell all of my swim students, you have to swim to swim. There are very few other sports that translate to endurance swimming. To the athletes who are discouraged because their stroke doesn't seem effortless, it's possible you need to modify your technique. It's also possible that you're not putting in enough lengths to gain endurance.

Learn from this story, friends:

In 2021, I coached a triathlete who reached out to me for lessons about 1 month before his race. He told me he was anxious about swimming in open water, but was an experienced pool swimmer. His training regimen was to swim 2 or 3 x 800 yards at least once per week. He wanted to head straight into an open water lesson, but my policy is that we have at least 1 pool lesson together if I've never seen you swim before.

Can I just say that I'm so thankful we met at the pool first? I asked him to swim his usual warm up so I could evaluate his stroke, and he stopped after the first 25 and rested for close to 30 seconds. Thinking that may be a fluke, I continued watching to see if he'd do it again. Sure enough, he stopped and rested at each wall for 30 - 60 seconds. I realized that the longest distance he could swim was a 25, not an 800, repeatedly. And I had just under 4 weeks to get him ready to swim 1.2 miles. We had to have a very candid heart-to-heart; until he could swim at least 200 yards without stopping at each wall, I couldn't take him into open water safely. His response: "Well, turning around and doing another length without stopping is really hard and I get winded quickly." Yes, dear sir, that's to be expected with you doing hundreds of 25s to get to this point. You've trained yourself to be a very strong 25 yard swimmer. The only solution was that he'd have to go to the pool every day and push himself not to stop at each wall, taking breaks first at the 50 and 100 marks for the first few days, then trying to reach 200 yards without stopping by the end of that week. The following week, we met for another pool lesson and he was able to push himself to complete 200 yards, so off to open water we went.

My plan was to keep us in the shallows and see if he could "zen" and swim farther than a 200 while maintaining a steady breathing pattern. The first part of the lesson went well; he ended up swimming close to 400 yards continuously, stopping and floating on his back for a rest partway through. We were still in the shallows, and he insisted on trying to swim out a little farther to see what it felt like to not touch the bottom.

Within a few strokes, he started to panic, and he couldn't maintain his stroke and make forward progress. He grabbed onto anything he could (mostly me and my tow float), and I had to work to calm him down and keep both of us at the surface. I got him to float and hold my buoy and we got back into the shallows. (Hence, my swimmers must always have their own tow floats now.) He said it was as if he had forgotten how to swim, and all he could think about was not having access to a wall to rest.

We had a few more lessons in open water, each time focusing at least half of the lesson on survival strategies, like flipping onto his back to float and let his panic subside, switching to breaststroke to catch his breath, and treading water. Once he felt confident in those basic skills, we were able to swim a little deeper, and he swam for close to 800 yards without stopping. We ran out of time to practice more skills and train for more distance before he left for his race.

He told me after the race that he had still panicked at the start of his swim, and had relied on the calming techniques we had worked on together so he didn't get pulled. He ended up swimming the majority of the distance freestyle, with some breaks to float and sight the course. He agreed that without the added endurance training, his mastery of 25s of the pool would not have given him the stamina he needed to get through the distance, regardless of how many repetitions he did. He realized that had he not spent the time training for the swim, it wouldn't have mattered how many miles he put in for his biking and running - he would have been disqualified for not finishing his swim. He told me he wished he had started swim training correctly earlier, and had taken more opportunities to practice in open water.

If you're looking for beginner training advice, private lessons, or a virtual stroke evaluation, feel free to reach out to hello@swimwildwaters.com. I'm terrified by the amount of triathletes who consider the swim not worth training for, given how dangerous it can be, so if I can do anything to help more triathletes conquer open water and stay safe, I'm all for it.