Welcome to Effortless Swimming, the podcast for swimmers, triathletes and coaches. Join Australian swim coach Brenton Ford as he reveals the latest techniques and information to improve your swimming. Let’s dive right in. Hi Brenton Ford here, welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast. On today’s episode we’re talking about open water swimming and how you can get a better result next time you race. So I’ve recently made the transition from swimming to triathlon. And I did my first 70.3 distance event on the weekend which is a 1.9 kilometre swim. And I had a pretty similar swim time to those of the top pros. I was a couple of seconds behind them. But overall pretty much a similar swim time. And there was a few things that I was thinking about during the race that I found helped me have a good race, hold a good time and come out of the water feeling pretty fresh. So I’m going to talk about those in a second.

But before we go into that, there’s a few things that you should have in place before you go into your racing. That if you’ve got them sorted, it’s going to make a big difference when it comes race time. And the first one is that by the time it comes to racing, your technique and stroke should come automatically. You shouldn’t be thinking too much about what you’re doing stroke wise when it comes race time because all of that should happen in training and in practice. So you should be constantly thinking about what you’re doing with your stroke, getting that right, making it come automatically by thinking about in training. So race time, it should all be automatic. So that when you are racing, you can then focus on using your skills to position yourself correctly, pace yourself right and find a rhythm that you can settle into and maintain for the race. So you don’t want to have to be thinking about your stroke on top of all those things.

The next thing is open water swimming. You’ve got to be sliding every six to eight strokes, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. But you’ve got to be sliding regularly in order to swim the most direct line because this is probably one of the biggest mistakes I see made is that if you’re not looking regularly enough, then you’re going to veer off course. You’re going to be adding 5 to 10, even 15, 20% extra distance on top of your swim. And if you’ve worn a Garmin watch or a GPS watch when you’re swimming, you’ll probably find that you’re not swimming the exact 1.9 kilometers that the race should be. You might have swum 2K, 2.1, 2.2. And an extra 100 meters might add an extra 2 minutes to your time overall. So the more direct you can swim, the better off you’ll be. So make sure you’re sliding regularly enough. And the best method that we find to sight is using the sight and breathe method where you’re looking forward on one stroke, getting your eyes just above the surface

and then turning your head to breathe on the next stroke. So you’re sighting first, then breathing the next stroke. And this is something that we cover in the Effortless Swimming membership at effortlesswimming.com. So if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to effortlesswimming.com and have a look at that. But that’s the best way to make your sighting become a regular part or a normal part of your stroke so you’re not having to change your rhythm or lose momentum with your stroke. Now talking about the main things that I was thinking about for the race on the weekend, the first one was rhythm. So every time I’m swimming, I’m looking to find a rhythm that I can settle into and maintain for the race. And for me, I know it’s a stroke rate of between 80 and 85 strokes per minute. And the reason I know this is because of a video of my last race. So my stroke rate was 85. And also some work with a tempo trainer in training.

So tempo trainer is a little device that you can set to beep a certain amount of times per minute. And I know that when I’m doing my race efforts in training that my stroke rate is around 80 to 85 strokes a minute. So in a race you’re not going to be able to tell exactly what your stroke rate is but if you’re doing the right sorts of things in training then you’re going to know what it feels like. And so on the race on the weekend I knew what the right stroke rate of 80 to 85 felt like. So I was looking to get into that sort of rhythm straight away and be able to maintain that for the rest of the swim. The other thing I was thinking about was every couple of minutes I’ll be thinking to myself, am I swimming fast and is it sustainable? So yes you want to be swimming fast but it needs to be sustainable for the entire length of the race. So if I found myself going a little harder than I felt I could maintain

then I’d back off the effort a little bit and just bring my heart rate back down a touch and that’s the best way to make sure that you can hold that same pacing for the entire race. Now the second thing is I wanted to control my heart rate because it’s very easy to get carried away in the beginning of a race. Yes it’s probably going to spike at the start but if you spike it too much you’re going to tire and you’re going to really feel it about halfway through the race. And I saw this happen there was a swimmer next to me who went with me for the first 200 meters and he was right by my side but then he dropped well off and finished a couple of minutes behind me. So he just went a little too hard at the start trying to keep up. So yes you want to try and sit in someone’s draft yes you want to maybe pick up your pace a little bit but if you do it too much then you’re going to blow up at the end of the race.

So always want to swim your own race as much as possible and swim within yourself as opposed to getting carried away spiking the heart rate and then blowing up towards the end of the race. So all the time I’m thinking about controlling my heart rate trying to keep it as low as possible with a fast stroke rate and a good rhythm. So you want to be able to manage your heart rate so that by the time you finish the swim you’re not completely gassed you can keep it pretty low and get your heart rate back down just before you get on the bike. The next thing I’m thinking about is it’s not the recovery so I’m not too worried about what my arms are doing in the recovery as long as I’m keeping good alignment in the stroke and that’s something that I’ll work on in training but you don’t need to have a really nice and smooth entry and recovery. A lot of times I’m just looking to get the rating up a bit be a little bit messier with my stroke

just get the hand in the water out the front into that initial catch position and then find the water, press it and hold it. So I normally think about it as transferring from one side to the other so I’m looking to get my hand in the water out in front of the shoulder in that initial press phase and then obviously hold the water but transfer to the other side with the other hand. So it’s going from one side to the other and transitioning side to side to side and that’s what I find to be the best way to be balanced in the water and to keep pressure on the water. So if you’ve been too gentle with your recovery and your entry then you’re probably going to be a little bit of a victim to other people around you to any chop and waves that you might come into so just make sure that you’re in control by setting a good tempo, a good rhythm and not being too gentle with your entry into the water. So the main few things that I like to think about

when racing open water your stroke should be automatic make sure you’re sliding enough to swim in the most direct line possible find a rhythm and a tempo that you can hold and maintain for the rest of the race think about keeping your heart rate down so that you’re not spiking your heart rate too much you want to control and manage that heart rate and then you’re just looking to find the water out the front get that pressure on the water and then transition to the other side find the water and then press it so hopefully that helps giving you one or two things that you can take into your next race to maintain a faster pace come out with a bit more energy so that when it comes time to do the bike or the run or if you’re just doing open water swimming so when it comes time to race up the beach then you can hopefully hold a faster time if you want to become a better swimmer in 2016 go to effortlesswimming.com and join the effortless swimming membership

that’s where triathletes, open water swimmers and pool swimmers go to improve their swimming and it’s not just about becoming faster and more efficient it’s about becoming more confident and developing and growing as a person because when you do improve in a particular sport whether it’s swimming or riding or running it’s about you developing overall as a person and learning the skills and getting the knowledge that you need to take your game to a whole new level so if you’re ready to step it up in 2016 go to effortlesswimming.com and join the effortless swimming membership I hope you have a great Christmas and end of the year take a break if you need it and refresh yourself and be ready for a big year in 2016 I’m excited about what we’ve got coming up we’ve got some really cool camps and clinics happening all over the world so I’ll be back next year enjoy yourself over the holidays I’ll see you soon

for more videos and to be the first to hear about new episodes go to swimmingpodcast.com