Improvements In My Open Water Swim (OWS)

As much as I enjoy the sport of triathlon, I hate the open water swim. Not to mention, I practice diligently for the swim getting in my 3 sessions of 4+ miles per week, some in the open water, and some in the pool. In my first full season of triathlon last year, I was absolutely horrendous at the swim, even after getting lessons at the YMCA (more on this later). I was always in the bottom 10% out of the water.

After putting in extra hard work in the pool and putting time in the open water during the week without seeing any significant improvement, I started to wonder if it was something with my technique that was making me so horrible without little noticeable improvement race over race.

As a USA triathlon member, I get weekly emails with articles that have tips for improvement in all facets of triathlon. I'm always on the lookout for improving swim times. Back in May, one of the email newsletters contained the article Develop World-Class Open Water Swim Mechanics by Jesse Kropelnicki. The article seemed to really hit home for me with some parts of my training that might be translating to poor results in open water swims.

Because I've done most of my water training in a pool, and have had swim lessons from an instructor who swims competitively in a pool, I was taught a stroke that is ideal for the pool but not the open water.  The article talks about how pool-born swimmers have "long glide, strong catch, and low turnover/cadence who are most efficient in calm, smooth, non-crowded waters." However, any triathlete knows the open water on race day is anything but calm and non-crowded.  The article recommends doing a more efficient and comfortable swim by having a strong back end to the stroke with high turnover. Such a stroke will allow me to maneuver better in a very crowded water and will allow me to get the most out of my stroke without being stalled by the current. It is difficult to explain in writing so here is the video of swim analysis with coach Jesse Kropelnicki.

Since watching this video I've been working on a shorter stroke that has my hand perpendicular to the water and my elbows bent in such a way that it feels as if i'm pushing my way through the water similar to when you do a tricep dip by hanging off of a flat bench. I've also been making sure I am pushing through completely especially on the second half of the stroke where prior watching this video I was abandoning the stroke in favor of straightening my arm out to efficiently prepare it for the next stroke. I'm no swim guru so the video explains things much better than I could but I wanted to write about my experience with these tips.

The jury is still out on how much it has improved my swim time but my year-over-year results in the Morton Plant Mease Triathlon have improved significantly enough that my overall time has improved by several minutes and my peers have noticed me getting out of the water sooner. My pool lap times have even improved by 3-5 seconds per lap. I just feel like I'm learning to swim all over again so I have to pay attention to every stroke and be sure to focus on keeping my elbow up and my hand perpendicular to the water.