Below is a guide of tips, tricks and different drills to help improve open water swimming. From helping you swim in a straight line to improving your mile time !
Swim straight
One of the most highlighted challenges for any swimmer in open water is swimming in a straight line. Although this seems a simple task, the vast space, lack of guidelines and absence of segregated lanes can make swimming in a straight line exceptionally difficult. Keeping a balanced stroke can help with this. This means that the amount of force from both your right and left arm should be equal. In order to create an even amount of propulsion through the water from both sides of your body. If one arm is pulling harder through the water than the other you will veer in the direction of that arm.
Look where your going! The easiest and most simple technique to keep straight is by raising your head forward and looking to where you want to go. Do this when you’re naturally coming up for air inbetween strokes.
Swim stroke
A swimmers stroke is the most important part to any swim. It’s essentially the movement of the body that creates power in the water. This is why a swimmers stroke is important to get right! We have pieced together a few simple tips and tricks below which will turn any stroke from looking amateur to pro.
1.) Focus on touching your thigh with your hand before lifting it out the water. Once you raise your hand out of the water lift it above your armpit and then stretch it out past your head. This will bring attention to working on a long stroke and ensure you good propulsion through the water.
2.) When driving your arm through the water, ensure all your fingers are pointing towards the bottom before pulling your arm and hand towards your thigh. Focus on trying to push as much water as possible behind you. Again this will promote propulsion, speed and power.
3.) Lift your arms high out the water and concentrate on a fast stroke rate, rotating your arms quicker when they are out the water. This particular method is useful when swimming through choppy water and can help preserve energy when being thrown about by turbulent waves.
4.) Imagine an invisible line runs from your feet to head, don’t allow your arms to cross over this line. Using this technique will preserve energy and prevent you from becoming fatigued so quickly.
Breathing technique
Breathing is something we all do with very little thought. However breathing can become one of the more challenging tasks to get right when streamlining through open water.
Cold dark water can increase the chance of panic attacks and fatigue which heightens breathing rate. This is why relaxed inhaling and exhaling is important to perfect. We have compiled the ultimate list of tips and tricks for a you to try the next time your swimming.
1.) Roll your body! When tilting your head to inhale oxygen, rotate your body along with it. Aim to take both goggles out of the water and look towards the sky. Keep your forward, submerged arm fully extended when inhaling, this will help continue the glide through the water.
Drill – a good way to practice this is to over exaggerate a body roll, continue to kick your legs with your goggles facing the sky for a total of five seconds before spinning back round and continuing. Try this on both sides to get you more use to rolling your body and filling you up with oxygen. If you feel like you start to float comfortably, then you have found a good breathing position.
2.) Breath as often as you need to! Most people breath every two to four strokes, but make sure you do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Don’t wait until your gasping for air before taking breath. A continuation of this would eventually lead to be hyperventilating, which never is fun when In the middle of a lake. It is recommended to bi-lateral breath (breath left and right). This is to help with swimming straight, however there is nothing wrong with breathing just to one side if this is more comfortable.
3.) Exhale fully when facing down, make sure you you can see bubbles exerting from your nose/mouth.
Avoid dangling your legs
As the muscles in your lower limbs begin to fatigue, they can start to gradually sink, lowering your legs deeper and deeper. This essentially creates an anchor to your body and slows you down. A good way to counteract this is to think about raising your hips and bum to the surface of the water.
Many swimmers develop something called the ‘cross over kick’, pay attention to this as it will veer you to the left or right and waste energy. To avoid this, focus on your kick when in the pool or open water to make it as even as possible. Focus on preventing crossing your legs over one another especially when you use your body roll to rotate and breath. A kick float can be used to help with this by placing it in-between your thighs as your kicking.
Conclusion
There are many tricks and tips to help you improve open water swimming. Most people do this for competitive reasons but others just to feel more comfortable in the water. We hope this article has given you some inspiring ideas to help improve your own swimming. Please leave a comment below to let us know how you get on!
