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!