I recently read a great blog entry from a relatively new open water swimmer. Her enthusiasm for her new sport reminded me of the first year I dipped a toe in the crazy pool. She just completed her first two-mile OW swim in cold water and, despite some reservations and nerves at the beginning, ended up feeling like this:

OMG OMG OMG OMG

That was SO AWESOME!

Reading her blog entry also brought back memories from my coaching days with DC Tri. I really enjoyed coaching those whack-a-doodles. They are really great folks with a passion and lots of time on their hands (three sports, after all). But mostly, I enjoyed teaching them some OW skills. I’d get looks when I explained to them what I wanted them to do. But it never failed that weeks later, one or more of them would approach me and tell me they’d had to use one of the skills in an actual race.

Let’s face it, there is little worse in an OW swim than having to stop to adjust or fix something. How many times have beginning OW swimmers had to stop to get water out of a google eye cup? Or to rub a gunked up eyeball? Or to cough up the water they just swallowed when turning to breathe? Or got pushed away from a buoy by another swimmer?

All of these issues fall under “Skills Training” in Steve Munatones’ 7 Essential Open Water Skills. I am a big fan of his pyramid:

I think if you’ve got the first level covered, you can pretty much be assured that you’ll complete any OW swim (within reason) you attempt. The second level covers areas to work on during your training on the first level. For instance, you can certainly work on speed while you’re swimming in a lake or river. Equally, you can work on your distance tolerance while swimming multiple one kilometer laps in the harbor. Or work on skills during one of your pool workouts.

Skills training you can also work on in OW, but for some skills, a pool is useful for the ability to repeat the skill during a length. Some of the skills I used to put my triathletes through include:

• No breath: Turn to breathe every right (or left). Except, only breathe every 4th stroke. Reason? To be able to turn to breathe, but see a wave coming, so you hold that breath. It takes some doing, because your body will want to breathe. But your lungs have plenty of air in them to wait two more strokes.
• Flip to back: Many of my triathletes actually were pretty fast, and had legitimate concerns about where they were in the pack and where their competition was. So instead of stopping to look around, I’d have them flip over to backstroke, increase their kick to 6-beat, look slightly up and through their toes, then flip back to freestyle. Aim was to do that in only 3 strokes. Increase in kick was to help prevent their hips from sinking when they lifted (ever so slightly) their heads to find the competition.
• Flip to back 2: In this version, I’d have them flip to backstroke not to look at their competition, but to fix a goggle. In #2, I asked them to flip to their back, do one arm for 2 or 3 strokes, then flip back to freestyle.
• Flip to back 3: Just like #2, but #3 required them to clear a goggle cup (one of the eyes, basically) of water with their non-swimming arm. I’d of course make them do this with each arm so they feel comfortable clearing either goggle cup. This is the exercise on which I’d get the most post-race feedback.
• Coughing. Sometimes you don’t hold your breath when you see that wave coming. But don’t let some water in your throat cause you to go vertical to cough it up. With a little practice, you can learn to cough underwater. While swimming, simply cough underwater. Just don’t breathe back in.
• Drafting. I didn’t believe there was such a thing until one night at practice it was just two of us. The other guy was slightly faster, and in the lane next to me. I swam right next to the lane line alongside him, and all of a sudden I felt a palpable easing in my effort, and felt like I was swimming way faster than I really was. From that moment on, I believed in drafting. I’d make my triathletes go three abreast, the middle guy swimming a 60% effort, until the 25 meter mark (this was a LCM pool) then speed up to 80%. The other two I’d make swim so their head was between the middle’s shoulder and hip. Many of my triathletes would tell me that they immediately felt the draft. I’d also make them draft head to toe, switching lead every length.
• Jackass. Sometimes you’ve got another swimmer who doesn’t swim straight or is just a jackass trying to box you out of the turn buoy. For that, you need to do the roll over. For this exercise, two swimmers swim abreast, one in the center of the lane, the other to the right or left. The one on the side would roll over to backstroke, only he’d roll over the back of the middle swimmer. This is handy if the guy is bumping you on purpose and swimming so to push you away from the buoy. I haven’t heard of this much in OW swimming, but triathletes have told me this happens in the swim leg often. Only issue is if a referee or official sees you pull this move you might get penalized. Also, it could really piss off the other guy, so be prepared for payback.

The point of all these drills was to continue forward progress and not have to stop and go vertical, which does a whollop on your head with all the blood all of a sudden flowing differently than when you were horizontal.

There are plenty of other Skill Training drills out there, but those were my favorites. Give some/all of them a try at one of your next workouts!