Open
Water Swimming for Beginners - How To Begin
Swimming
in open water is your goal, where to start? I will assume that you already know
how to swim. If not, take some lessons, join a YMCA or a masters swimming team
and learn the crawl or freestyle. There are a few things that you can do in the
pool to prepare for swimming in open water; bilateral breathing, head lifting
and stroke rate training.
•First
of all, breathing on both sides, or bilateral breathing, is a must. Is this
within your physical capabilities? Stand up and twist the upper half of your
body to the right and then to the left. Then turn your head to the right and
left.(www.poqswim.com)
Learning
to breathe on both sides is possible. Why is this necessary? Imagine or perform
the following experiment. Find an open space about 400 yards long. Select a
target and try to walk straight toward it EXCEPT close your eyes and turn your
head, looking to the right every 2 steps. Sneak a look forward every 10 steps.
Vision in the water will be even harder because your forward view may be
restricted depending upon wave conditions, fog in your goggles or glare from
the sun reflecting off of the water. This is also assuming strict concentration
upon straight line swimming, a difficult task for your first open water swim.
Breathing
on both sides accomplishes two main goals. It tends to "even out"
your stroke so that you will naturally swim straighter. Ha, ha, you already
KNOW how to swim straight, right? But that is in the pool. Think of the
available cues, lane lines on the side and a black line on the bottom to guide
your progress. Open water is much different. In addition to the lack of visual
cues available in the pool, the water is colder, there might be some waves and
the 'pool length' can be as long as a mile!(www.poqswim.com)
The
second advantage to bilateral breathing is that it will allow you to see to the
right and left. When swimming in the ocean, the usual course traverses down and
back along the beach. With single side breathing, half of your race will have
NO visible cues toward the shore. Watching the shoreline is extremely helpful
for straight swimming in the ocean. Other advantages include being able to
breath away from oncoming waves or fumes from boats and snubbing your trainer
in escort swims if he/she makes you mad.
•Another
skill to practice in the pool is lifting your head to see forward while
swimming. The easiest way is to lift your head forward just before taking a
breath to the side. I use the forward motion to look and then breathe to the
side. Breathing head forward is not suggested since it requires too much energy
to lift the head high enough for a breath and will cause slower swimming. Swim
head up freestyle in the pool and see how difficult it is compared with head
down swimming.
Try
to get comfortable with this peek forward in the pool where it is relatively
calm. It will be more difficult in open water, especially in the ocean.(www.poqswim.com)
How
often is it necessary to look forward? That depends upon your straight line
swimming ability coupled with course conditions. Ideally, the less head
lifting, the better, but swimming off course is also not advantageous.
Initially, try only looking forward every 10 strokes (each arm counts as one).
•Temperatures
in open water are usually colder and may require a quicker stroke rate - stroke
rate is how many arm pulls you take in a minute. In open water, strokes can be
counted once for each arm as it starts pulling through the water. The rate is
determined by counting each arm stroke for one minute (or counting for 30
seconds and multiplying by 2, or counting for 15 seconds and multiplying by 4).
The best open water swimmers in the world have stroke rates between 70 and 100
strokes per minute, with women generally on the higher end of that scale.(www.poqswim.com)
A
faster stroke rate will assist in keeping a swimmer warmer in cold water. Have
a friend time your rate in the pool. If it is under 60, you may want to work on
increasing it to better handle colder temperatures.
Don't
get frustrated if increasing your stroke rate is difficult. People usually do
not have a daily activity where their arm muscles exercise 'aerobically'.
Swimmers develop "aerobic arms" through years of training. A runner's
aerobic capability may not automatically transfer to the pool where the arms
are the primary motor instead of the legs. Likewise, I can swim comfortably at
80 strokes per minutes after years of training, but watch out if I'm out
running; I sound like a steam locomotive. (www.poqswim.com)
•One
more suggestion with which some coaches may disagree; modifying the stroke
recovery. The recovery is how a swimmer brings the arm out of the water and
back to the front after completing a stroke. Many times coaches teach swimmers
to sharply bend their elbow during the recovery. This usually brings the hand
close to the surface of the water. This type of recovery may not work as well
in waves. A majority of open water marathon swimmers use a straight arm
recovery as opposed to a bent elbow recovery. I believe a straight arm recovery
works better in waves and also helps reduce strain on the shoulder. The
pectoral muscles work more to recover the arm when it is straight while the
shoulder and rotator cuff muscles work more to recover the arm when it is bent
at the elbow.
