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Open water swimming can be one of the most challenging aspects of triathlon for beginners and seasoned triathletes alike. So we have asked our very own swim coach John van Wisse to provide some advice for approaching the open water. Find out about John's achievements on the Coaches page, and by visiting his site - www.johnvanwisse.com.

Open Water Swimming (as featured in Triathlon and Multisport Magazine)

Is there anything more daunting than the beginning of a triathlon swim? Its starts at a horribly early time, the first turning buoy is usually only a few hundred metres away, and you have a multitude of fellow competitors (some even family & friends), just itching to bring out the WWF wrestling moves.

Well, I’ve never subscribed to any of this rubbish (apart from hating the early morning starts). I’d heard all this complaining before from people bludging in packs, but never before had I experienced firsthand being amongst the throng of arms and legs known as the human washing machine, until this year’s Hawaii Ironman.

I had a plan: join the bludgers in the pack and come out fresh for the bike - how wrong I was! Even the pros think they’re wrestlers! I came out battered and bruised. So what is the answer?

I have figured out that you are going to get knocked around whether you are in the front half of the field, the middle, or the back. The best solution is to be in the drink for as little time as possible. Here are some hopefully helpful tips.

Learning to draft

There are two spots to draft:

a) On the toes – so close that you actually touch them every now and then (accidentally, of course). Don’t fall into the trap of looking for bubbles, look up at least once every six strokes to make sure that you’re as close as possible and also that your "draft ride" is staying on course.
When I say look up, only look up high enough to see. If you lift your head too high, it will distort your streamlined body position in the water and you will also get a sore neck. Practice it regularly in a swimming pool. My sister, Tammy, was the Jedi Master of it - she’d supposedly go 5 seconds behind me in the main set, but be on my feet by 25 metres. Joanna Zeiger is another master in the Ironman swims, as too is Steven Sheldrake. Sheldrake would draft behind you all day then run over his grandmother to win in a sprint finish. It makes a big difference if you do it properly and don’t give away an inch – practice it this way.

b) Side draft – this is the harder of the two and a lot more difficult to master. Not too many triathletes know how to do it properly, so here are my tips.
This is best practiced by pairing up with someone in the pool. Swim within half a metre of their side (between armpit and hip). You are actually surfing their bow wave and they should (unlike feet drafting) feel your bodyweight like an anchor. Make sure you are breathing to that side, so that you can see them, and try to synchronize your arm cycle with theirs, so you don’t lock arms. I use this draft if there is a sprint finish coming up, as it tires the leader out. The beauty of this draft is that, if they surge, you are poised and ready to jump on to the feet draft. So basically, they have to surge twice to lose you. One point to remember is to stay away from the knee area, the draft is reversed and it actually pushes you backwards.

On Your Mark

Never wait for the gun to go. If they do the ten second count down, go on two or three. They very rarely pull you back. If it’s a deep-water start, keep a head in front of the rest beforehand. You’ll hear the same old spiel from the lifeguard on the board "we’re not starting till you move back". Don’t listen to them (unless they have a walky talky), as they have no power whatsoever. The starter on the land is usually on an ego trip and can’t wait to fire his or her baby.

The Start

Open water swims begin at a pace that nobody can hold, unless you’re Grant Hackett, but, if you don’t begin fast, you’ll miss the train. It's important to incorporate a bit of sprint work into your training, and a good example of this is to do a set of 100s broken into 25m flat chat, then 75m at a realistic pace.

Wait for your heart rate to drop back down until your next 100m and don't do too many, as they are taxing. Approximately 5 x 100s should be sufficient. You could also do 1 - 2 x 200m as 50m hard and then 150m at a realistic pace, or, alternatively, 1 x 400m as 100m hard and 300m at your race pace.

Navigation

Sometimes it’s just your luck that you’ll be drafting on someone who wears coke glasses on land, or maybe the fool who hasn’t heard of anti-fog goggles. In either case, it’s important that you take the initiative and practice looking up.

If you are ever in a situation where it’s a rough day and the marker buoys are small, make sure that you take the time before race start to look for something on land that you can line them up with. This way, if you can’t see the buoys over the waves, you can just look back over your shoulder to your landmark and know that you are on course (or off course). If it’s a flat lake swim with small marker buoys, line them up in front of a landmark on the other side of the lake.

The Finish

If it’s an ocean swim, don’t stand up until you can touch the bottom with a straight arm. You can easily be fooled by the depth in clear water and stand up too soon, losing all your speed and momentum. The same rules apply for lake swimming, except that, more often than not, you can’t see the bottom and don’t know you’ll touch.

How to Lose Drafters in Desperate Measures

If they are within about 2 percent of your swimming ability and don’t wear coke bottle glasses or anti-fog goggles, then you’re in trouble. If not, you can lose them in the feet draft by a quick zigzag surge. The side draft is more difficult - you will have to move sideways just ever so slightly, so that they are unaware, and then surge. Let them stay on your feet until you catch your breath and then do the zigzag trick. If they try to get back on your side draft while you’re getting your breath back, keep turning in front of them or match their pace when they get to your knee. As I mentioned earlier, the draft in that area works in a negative way and they’ll soon give up.

Wade Start & Finish

If it’s a beach start with sand banks, check out the shallowest route available at the start/finish line. Sometimes the depth can vary so much that you could be running on one side of the bank , whilst others are dolphin diving or swimming on the dud side. It’s always quicker running and an even bigger advantage if swimming is not your strong suit.

Swimming in the chop (as featured in Triathlon and Multisport Magazine)

In this article, we’ll look at how to deal mentally and physically with swimming in sloppy conditions. I feel I’m the Mr Miargy of this, being an ex marathon swimmer (who has had to deal with 40 foot plus waves in many of my swims,) (the older I get…)

The first thing we need to get straight is attitude. EVERYBODY gets thrown around and feels unco’ in rough conditions, so don’t think it’s just you. Be positive and aggressive (I’m sounding like Anthony Robbins) to the task at hand. Let’s look at some different scenarios…

CHOP HITTING YOU FRONT ON

Let me clear up my definition of chop. Chop is 'washing machine' conditions, not breaking waves at a surf beach. With chop, no matter who you are, facing it head on slows us down. What we have to work on is reducing the damage it does to our forward progress. This is achieved by bashing your arms higher and in a more round armed fashion .You want most of the chop to hit your bicep area instead of your hand/ forearm region . If you try to do a high elbow / low hand recovery the chop will hit this area more often than not, meaning more of your arm will have to go through the chop instead of over it. I know it sounds silly to change the stroke you’ve worked on in the pool for years, but think of it like climbing a hill on your bike. You either slide back on the seat to use different muscles or you get out of your seat and use different muscles. Running up a hill, you also change your technique, chop is merely the 'hills' of swimming.

CHOP HITTING YOU ON THE RIGHT

In this situation, keep your right arm recovery strong and forceful when you feel the water hitting it. You may also need to lean into the wave slightly with your right torso to balance your body. Keep your left arm relaxed, just like you would in the pool.

CHOP HITTING YOU ON THE LEFT

Just reverse everything. Batten down the hatches on the left side of your body, and relax the right side as much as possible.

CHOP JUST HITTING YOU FROM ALL DIRECTIONS

The best visual analogy of these circumstances I can make is this… You’re on a boat with Gilligan, ("the skipper too") and the boat falls apart in a storm. You find a piece of wooden debreis from the boat, jump on it and, through the sideways rain, you see an island only a matter of 500 metres away (or however far your adverse tri swim is). Do you …
(a) Try to do a pretty-looking paddling stroke.
or
(b) Batten down the hatches, become really close to your debris (Wilson) and just bulldoze your way to the island as quick as possible.
(c) Correct answer upside down on page 29.
(d) Back to reality.

CHOP HITTING YOU FROM BEHIND

Here we must try to milk it for what it’s worth by surging when you feel it pushing you. Surging is achieved by either bringing your kick into play / increasing your stroke rate / or both. How fast you surge will determine how far you get pushed. Unfortunately, it's usually only a matter of seconds (unless it's MASSIVE.) After you’ve milked the push, you’ll find a flat spot for a few seconds (where you feel like you’re swimming with a handbreak on.) At this stage, relax just a little and wait to surge on to the next chop. It will only be a matter of seconds, so enjoy your semi rest.

IN CLOSING

Chop slows a swimmer's forward progress, even the ones who think they are the best. I remember my sister, Tammy, trying to do a swim around Port Phillip Bay in '95, a distance of over 100 km. I was on the support boat watching her (in-between fishing) and, after 21 hours in the water, she hit the mud flapps near Portsea. This is a shallow part of the bay that you don’t want to hit going into a strong headwind, but we did. She had only five kilometres to go (which we’d told her via white board marker), it was very early in the morning, and she was VERY cold and fatigued (as you could imagine after 21 hours of solid swimming). She basically just wanted to get the damn swim over at this stage and was literally sprinting. Thirty or so minutes later, at her food stop, she was being a baby and cried out, "how far to go now?" "Five Kilometres," we, unfortunately, had to tell her, (you can’t lie to a marathon swimmer, as they store it all down and you’ll lose their trust later). We convinced her to keep going but, after an hour of very solid swimming, we hadn’t moved more than 100 metres and were getting concerned about her wellbeing, so pulled the pin on the swim. Tammy was most annoyed and went back 30 or so hours later to finish the last part that she couldn’t do that previous morning. It took around an hour to complete.