Tag: open water swim coaching

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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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5 Things I Learned At Open Water Swim Today – #OWS

1.  I didn’t get enough sleep again – Waking up at 5 am would be more like Christmas morning if I could fall asleep before 1:00.  I mean, I am a terrible sleeper, unless I’m not supposed to be sleeping, then I’m a rock star.  But honestly, this is a significant source of frustration and I know it probably boils down to me being a self absorbed ass that isn’t spiritually evolved or something.  So, as I drove away from the wonderful scenery I once again promised (and craved) being a solid citizen that will attain his goal of getting used to early morning workouts.  I took a deep breath, looked at myself in the rear view mirror, then realized I have no chance.  lakeflip2.  Coach does not take open water training lightly – You would think swimming is just swimming, but our coach is constantly focused on making us better and more comfortable in the water.  Today he challenged our sighting with a new “moving target” drill that made us find him on the beach after we cornered the buoy.  And in an exercise he “discovered in a dream,” we did a staggered start, then swam single file and parallel to the boom (see above photo) for about 300 yards.  if you passed, you had to go by on the right, then drop back in front of the person who was then supposed to draft you.  It was race mode with a rising sun to our right and a curved boom to the left which created sighting havoc that would have leveled the playing field for Hellen Keller.

3.  I forget techniques from one swim to the next – A week ago I wrote this post about sighting and today I completely ignored my own theory.  My eyes were squeezing every ounce of reflection from the buoy for the first half of our workout.  BUOY OR BUST!  I mean, I was sucking the texture out of that floating latex through my foggy goggles.  Eventually I calmed down and looked for bigger and general-direction targets that helped alleviate anxiety that comes from trying to spot a tiny white speckle each time I sight.  It also helped me resist lifting my whole damn head out of the water.

4.  Your mental state shapes your workout – I had a conversation with coach the other day about, what he said, was “the best swim workout he’s had in a very long time.”  Then he added, “But I felt like that would be the case, even before I got into the water.”  His mind was right.  I wouldn’t say I was expecting the worst today, but I was probably only about 50% convinced I would crush the lake.  90% of that 50% can likely be directed at my lack of sleep, so as with most things in life, it comes down to recovery and energy, which is probably why I workout alone at 10PM most days.

5.  I like swimming on Friday more than Thursday –  As I drove away from the beautiful scene, I felt a tingle of joy creep over me knowing that the weekend was here.  Then I hit a literal and figurative speed bump.  It’s only Thursday!  This is obviously a deep seeded issue because, frankly, what’s wrong with Thursdays?  Nothing.  Thursdays are pretty awesome really.  Used to love them back in college because it was the big party night and Fridays were pretty much a blow-off.  To make matters worse, one of the guys (who will remain nameless) has the day off today, ie . . . “is working from home.”  Anyway, it’s never a bad morning at the lake, but some are better than others.

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