Tag: better swimming in open water

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How To Swim Straight In Open Water

One of the most common questions we get about open water swimming is, “How do I swim straight?” This is not only an important for beginners, but advanced swimmers because the faster you swim, the more chance you have to get further off line.

The Crushing Iron swimming philosophy is to take out as many variables as possible. In a nutshell, swimming straight comes down to swimming square and keeping your motion inside a rectangle.

The reason people swim crooked is because they making too many East/West motions vs. North/South. Whenever you move side to side you’re negating forward motion.

Once this gets out of balance you have a tendency to overcompensate by moving side to side instead of straight back. The key is to build fitness so you can keep your stroke wide and move “still water.”

Check out this short video for to see the concept of swimming square more clearly.

For tons more information on Open Water Swimming, check out our Podcast Series: “How to Not Suck At Swimming” parts 1-4. And be sure to subscribe to the Crushing Iron Triathlon Podcast on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

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How To Not Suck At Swimming – The Ultimate Guide To Open Water Swimming

Triathletes and swimming often don’t mix, but Crushing Iron Triathlon thinks that should change! Yes, swimming can seem complicated, but Crushing Iron Swim Coaching gives you ways to make it easier and more enjoyable. And let’s face it, standing in line to start a triathlon is a lot more fun if you are confident and don’t have open water swim anxiety.

Crushing Iron has now over 125 podcasts and has released a Four Part Swim Series designed to make you a more powerful and purposeful open water swimmer. We believe pool swimming and open water swimming are two different sports, so it’s important to train for race conditions so anxiety and fatigue don’t destroy your best race before you get to the bike.

Below, you’ll find four podcasts focused exclusively on being a better open water swimmer. We recommend starting with How To Not Suck At Swimming – Part 1 and work through to Part 4. Dozens of athletes have not only become better swimmers, but have begun to love swimming in general because of this podcast series. You can love the water, too!

Don’t be one of those triathletes that think the swim doesn’t matter because it’s only a small percentage of the time you’ll be racing. Having a solid swim that warms you up instead of sucking your energy is the first solution to having a great race.

We’ve kept it simple, sort of like the Rosetta Stone of swim coaching, but if you can’t seem to grasp the technique we offer an excellent personalized Swim Analysis that can save you hours of wasted practice. We also offer general triathlon coaching and will be happy to connect you with current athletes to see why they are so happy with Crushing Iron Triathlon Coaching. You can also check out our Swim Specific Camps located in Nashville, TN that are sure to up your comfort in open water, make you faster, and more confident.

As always, thank you for listening to the Crushing Iron Podcast. If you have any questions about coaching or a personalized swim analysis, feel free to contact Coach Robbie at [email protected].  Happy Swimming!

  • Are Swimming Tools like a Drag chute right for you?
  • How many days in pool to see faster times?
  • How to avoid bending at knees while kicking?
  • Need to bilateral breathe?
  • How to stop crossover arms? Drills?
  • Importance of stroke cadence… what to measure and wis it important? why? confused about speeding up stroke
  • The Truth about Total Immersion swimming?
  • Strength work outside of the pool?
  • What muscles should we target?
  • When and why to use stretch cords?
  • How to practice sighting in a pool
  • Master’s Swimming Rant?
  • Beating Drag. What to do about Sinking Legs –
  • How do you beat periods of Breathlessness in a race?
  • Fixing incorrect kick timing after years of doing it wrong
  • How much kicking is ideal to “save legs” vs. going faster
  • Is your kick actually slowing you down?
  • How to get into cold water? inch in, use ladder, jump in?
  • Benefit to using other strokes? breast, back, butterfly?
  • How to beat goggle fogging?
  • Flip turns? Beneficial?
  • What’s the ticket to speed?
  • Proper breathing – How and When
  • Body Positioning and how to get it right
  • Hand entry and exit – How and When
  • How to deprogram from bad advice, including workouts that get you there
  • How to structure a swim week of workout
  • Should you join a Master’s Team?
  • Swimming square and why you swim crooked
  • Why drills are a waste of time
  • Why building swim fitness should be powerful and purposeful
  • The bigger your mesh bag, the slower you are committed to being
  • The correct and most effective way to use paddles
  • Why pool swimming and open water swimming are two different sports
  • What an expensive wetsuit really does for your swim
  • The power of the Pull Buoy
  • The tools you need and the tools you don’t need

The Crushing Iron Podcast releases every Monday and Thursday. We have over 125 Episodes, including several that focus on the journey of our athletes. Please subscribe to the Crushing Iron Podcast on iTunes or sign up for the Crushing Iron Newsletter on this page.

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Open Water Swim Clinics – New Video!

We are doing a ton of work within Ironman training and the more I think about it, the more I believe the weekly open water swims could be the most valuable.  I think of the Ironman swim in two ways:

1.  It may be the shortest “time section” of the race, but it can absolutely wreck you if you’re not comfortable and ready.  I’m on a continuum between insatiable and utter fear.
2.  The faster you get out of the water, the fewer people you’ll have ahead of you on the bike course.  You’ll also be with faster people who will naturally raise your game.

So, our Coach, Robbie Bruce and his swim clinics, have been a major gift.  He’s there four days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) ready to show us everything he knows about swimming in open water.   Sundays are at 4 pm, all other days 6 am.  He teaches mass starts, sighting, drafting, and anything else that will take your pool training to a completely different level.  I’ve been in open water 5 times this year and it has given me unbelievable confidence, along with transforming my comfort and abilities.  If you live in Nashville, I can’t recommend it enough.  Here’s a video I made as part of the Crushing Iron series that gives you more information.