10 Ways to Improve Your Triathlon Swim

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It’s often hard to narrow down the answer to “what should I concentrate on?” because the sport of the sport of swimming can be so technical. Below are ten areas that you could work on to improve your triathlon swim. These aren’t in any particular order, but may help in achieving your goals, whether you are trying to go pro or just starting out.

Hand Entry
Slice your hand into the water at your goggle line, and drive it forward, Many swimmers try to get more air time by reaching out with their hand before putting it into the water, but that is less efficient than going through the water with your hand as you rotate sides.

Head Position
Look straight down when swimming freestyle – only keep a small part of the back of your head out of the water. In addition, try not to move your head with the rest of your body as you move through the water.

Pull
Your hands should pull all the way past your hips when swimming freestyle. The last part of the stroke before recovery should be an acceleration behind you, not up out of the water.

Kick
Attempt to minimize your kick when you train. Instead of kicking extra hard to make up for lack of balance, minimize your kick and conserve energy. This will allow you to improve your balance, as well.

Training Intensity
The best way to measure training intensity is to gauge your heart rate immediately after each swim. Count your pulse rate for six seconds, add a zero to this number, and that will tell your approximate exercise heart rate per minute.

Master’s Swimming
If you need to work on your stroke, move to a slower lane. If you belong to a master’s team, don’t feel pressured to keep up with lanemates at every practice, as these teams usually have many people at different skill levels and goals. Do your own thing and remember that technique is more important than speed. Once you have perfected your technique, speed will come and you will be much faster in the long run.

Habit
Often, when a swimmer breathes on the left side, his/her right arm will cross over. When he/she breathes on the right side, the left arm will cross over. Sometimes arm cross-over occurs from over-rotation. This is one of the most common bad habits I see. Try to keep your head from moving with the rest of your body, and, try to pull in a straight line, keeping your elbow bent. End the pull on the same side on which you started.

Keep the Feel
It’s important to practice swimming, especially if swimming is your hardest sport. Sometimes you don’t want to work on it, but it’s important to keep your body’s kinesthetic awareness of being balanced in the water. And no, showers and baths don’t count! Make sure you get in the water at least ever other day.

Work Those Lungs
Your lungs will thank you if you mix in some hypoxic training sets into your workouts. An example of hypoxic training set would be to do one set of 4×100 breathing every 3-5-7-9 strokes by 25 (with 15 seconds rest in between each 100). You will really feel the difference at the end of the swim part of your race.

Work Your Weakness
Most triathlon coaches agree that you should spend the most time practicing your weakest of the three sports. For many people, their weakest sport is swimming. This same concept applies when swimming: work the most on the weakest part of your stroke. If you move your head, focus the most on keeping proper head position. If balancing on your side is a problem, then spend a lot of time doing kick drills on your side. Whichever your weakness, you will benefit by spending time in the water working on that issue.