{"id":958,"date":"2013-05-06T08:11:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T08:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/?page_id=958"},"modified":"2018-06-13T13:33:38","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T13:33:38","slug":"open-water-swimming","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/club-info\/open-water-swimming\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Water Swimming"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cliff Lakes<\/h3>\n
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We run three\u00a0open water swimming courses on the middle lake, providing sheltered calm waters and giving you one of the best swimming facilities in the Midlands.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.clifflakes.org\/open-water-swimming<\/a><\/p>\n

A 250m, 500m and 1000m course accommodate\u00a0all swimmers whether you\u2019re winding down from a busy day, training for that big race or a newcomer and have never swam open water before. With excellent safety procedures, facilities and clean waters it\u2019s a great venue to take the plunge.<\/p>\n

Beginners<\/h3>\n

With the growing popularity of this sport we love to encourage beginners!\u00a0Our friendly staff will help and guide you into your first swim. We\u00a0offer a Beginners Confidence\u00a0Course\u00a0with our qualified coaches who will give you the skills and confidence to continue\u00a0your open water swimming safely. Topics covered include swim technique,\u00a0acclimatisation, breathing and sighting. Courses run weekly\u00a0on Saturdays 9am – 10am\u00a0during the summer, dates will be released soon. Any\u00a0further information required please\u00a0email\u00a0\u00a0or call 07588 395792.<\/p>\n

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Pictured are some of Beeches Masters dipping their toes<\/p>\n

Swim Smooth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Your open water skills are just as important as your stroke technique and swim fitness because you can lose\u00a05, 10 or even 20 seconds per 100m swum<\/i>\u00a0in a race by swimming off course, missing out on a good draft or suffering a panic or anxiety attack. For some evidence of that, see\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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click to play video clip<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

But if you’re reading this in Europe you’ll be painfully aware that winter is still stubbornly holding off spring, with air (and water) temperatures currently hovering at the seasonal norms for December and January. So how do you keep those open water skills sharp during the endless winter? By practising in the pool of course!<\/p>\n

Designing A Great Open Water Session In The Pool<\/b><\/p>\n

The key thing to remember when designing open water sessions is to be creative and introduce a wide variety of challenges. Races throw a huge range of conditions and situations at you, so you need to be comfortable adapting to whatever you are presented with.<\/p>\n

You should ideally practise these skills with other swimmers in a group once a week in the pool by getting together with some friends or with your training squad. If your group is of mixed ability, use a pull buoy or a pair of fins to help the slower swimmers keep up with the fast guys. That’s not cheating in this sort of session as it’s purely about experiencing and becoming confident swimming close to other swimmers.<\/p>\n

Here are some ideas to include in your pool based open water sessions:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0Practise starts by treading water at the deep end of the pool<\/b>\u00a0and on the shout of ‘go!’ get up to speed as quickly as you can, using a shorter stroke as you accelerate like a sprinter taking short strides out of the blocks on the running track. This acceleration technique is important for starts but also for getting back up to speed after a tight turn – you can use it to drop other swimmers who are drafting you.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
Practise accelerating up to speed quickly and efficiently from a treading water position.
\nA pull buoy is optional – don’t kick at all if you use one to keep the focus on the arm stroke.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

–\u00a0Organise yourself into drafting groups<\/b>, using both\u00a0arrow head<\/a>\u00a0and in-line drafting formations. Swap round the lead swimmer regularly and get as close as you can to the other swimmers without disrupting their stroke. When swimming to the side of another swimmer, experiment with matching your stroke rate to theirs to avoid clashing arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Don’t get too close to the swimmer in front when in-line
\ndrafting or you will disrupt their stroke (and yours)!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

–\u00a0When drafting, get comfortable being close to other swimmers<\/b>, yes the turbulence will disrupt your stroke rhythm and this can feel off putting at first but don’t be tempted to seek out clear water. The benefits of being in this draft zone are huge (saving you up to 38% of your energy expenditure [1]) and by becoming accustomed to it you will be able to swim much faster than you otherwise would. Experiment with a slightly shorter punchier stroke style to be more efficient in the disturbed water and turbulence.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0Include short races over 50, 100 and 200m<\/b>\u00a0where you are drafting and the lead person is trying to drop the guys behind. The lead swimmer can make this tactical by swimming at a steady pace at first and then surprising those behind by surging unexpectedly to try and develop a gap. If you’re following the lead swimmer stay aware and responsive just as you should be in a real race situation.<\/p>\n

– When swimming in drafting groups,\u00a0include the turn at the end of the lane<\/b>\u00a0in your swim (if you’ve got use of multiple lanes duck under the lane rope into the next lane to make it harder). This creates a bit of chaos and forces you to improvise and quickly find the draft zone again – think quickly and don’t hesitate or you will lose the draft!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Turning under the lane rope in close proximity to other
\nswimmers is sure to create some race-simulating chaos!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

–\u00a0Whilst swimming alone in the lane, close your eyes except when lifting your head to sight forwards<\/b>. This gives you useful practise of getting a little disorientated and it really highlights how straight you can swim (or can’t swim!) without following the line on the bottom of the pool. Find out more about\u00a0good sighting technique here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s just a short list to give you some ideas but get creative and use the environment and resources available to you to create your own sessions. Coach\u00a0Nicky Proctor<\/a>\u00a0from York Triathlon Club just wrote in and told us about a session she ran with her squad where she divided everyone into teams and they\u00a0raced to collect coloured balls (taken from the kiddies ball pit) and then dove for shells and sinkers from the pool bottom<\/b>, all competitively for points. Her swimmers got mini-eggs and chocolate bunnies for prizes (as it was Good Friday). Great idea Nicky!<\/p>\n

A Little Sprint Training<\/b><\/p>\n

As you know, at Swim Smooth we’re fans of threshold (e.g. CSS) training for the majority of your distance swimming fitness sessions but open water skills sessions are the perfect opportunity to include some sprint work in your training too. The head to head nature of these sessions is perfect for sprint training and combining two sessions into one like this is very time efficient.<\/p>\n

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\nc\/o Swim Smooth<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cliff Lakes We run three\u00a0open water swimming courses on the middle lake, providing sheltered calm waters and giving you one of the best swimming facilities in the Midlands. https:\/\/www.clifflakes.org\/open-water-swimming A 250m, 500m and 1000m course accommodate\u00a0all swimmers whether you\u2019re winding down from a busy day, training for that big race or a newcomer and have … Continue reading Open Water Swimming<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":10,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/958"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7033,"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/958\/revisions\/7033"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrybeechesswimming.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}