Tag: sighting

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C26 Swim Camp in Nashville

Today was Day One at the Crushing Iron (C26) Triathlon Swim Camp in Nashville. We were greeted with a perfect morning for instruction, friendship, and good ole fashion work.

Coach Robbie starts with dry land instruction of the proper stroke technique. Then everyone swims short distances back and forth while others watch and give feedback. Everything is positive and by the end of this exercise everyone usually finds a couple things that will help them be a better swimmer.

After instruction, we hit the lake for some longer swimming and relays to implement what everyone has learned. At the end we recap and practice swim techniques while executing pack swims and cornering buoys.

All told campers spent about 4 hours and 30 minutes at the lake learning:

  • Swimming purposeful and powerful in open water
  • Staying square
  • Reducing Anxiety
  • Putting on and taking off wetsuits
  • Swimming Straight
  • Sighting
  • Cornering Buoys
  • Drafting
  • Race Contact Simulation
  • Proper breathing
  • Staying High in the water
  • Executing a Strong Catch

Camp continues tomorrow with a deeper diver into swim mechanics and practice under Coach Robbie’s supervision. We’re supplying videos of their swim stroke and on-site analysis in a positive learning environment.

Our June Triathlon Camp is sold out but we have one or two openings for August at the time of this writing. For more information, see our Camps page or email Coach Robbie at [email protected].

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Swimming in the Washing Machine

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Yeah, I know it’s nothing close to what it will be like at Wisconsin, but we do what we can.

Today’s swim was a series of “out to the buoy and backs” that left some of us overly familiar.  Racer K and I spent a large part of the morning beating the shit out of each other and, I think I can speak for him when I say, it was awesome.

The front line in this picture was given about a 20 second head start, then the back line of today’s stronger swimmers ran in to chase them.  We did this several times and the net result was a nice little cluster-f*ck at and around the buoy.

Sighting is huge, as is dealing with currents and waves, but for my money, the most valuable part of our open water clinics is scraping flesh . . . or worse.

When someone is running next to you, you will likely talk, size them up, or dig a little deeper to hold them off, but swimming is another story.  Especially in a lake.

You can’t see much of anything other than a horizon so whenever someone slinks up beside you or touches your feet, your first thought can range from simple “annoyance” to “holy fuck, there is a sea urchin trying to kill me right now at this moment.”

(side bar . . . I just extended that last sentence far more than I needed to by adding “right now at this moment.  It’s super redundant and frankly clutter, but I thought it may make it funnier, which I suppose it would to some, but certainly not linguists).

Yeah, so now that I’m getting stronger, I actually get a kick out of running into people on the swim.  Annoyance, yes, but it’s like solving a tactical mission, which doesn’t always go your way, but is still pretty cool.

Today alone I got punched in the ribs, kicked in the face, had my goggles ripped off and got dunked at the buoy, and that was all by Racer K.

On one of the “out and backs” I got pinned by two people as I tried to pass.  I had two options.  Go over the top or drop off and swim around them.  I chose the second but noticed how much effort it took to bump around in there before falling back, then restarting.  Clearly the best decision in the future is either veer off earlier or just dig in for all I’m worth and split the seam.

In the end we broke into two groups and had our customary session-end relay race.  Most of the time they come right down to the wire and there is no time to relax.  You are RACING with people all up in your grill and doing anything to beat you to the beach.  It wears you down, is often brutal, and I am very glad I’m getting that experience.

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Triathlons and Open Water Swims

The more I swim, the more I fall in love with being in the water, and that is going to be huge when the cannon goes off in Wisconsin and nearly 3,000 other racers jet off for the same buoy.  You can watch video all day, but I don’t think there’s any way to understand how that will feel.  A mosh pit of epic proportions with the added bonus of deep water.

This video gives some pretty cool tips for open water swims and I must say the most intriguing part is drafting.  It seems like it would take a shit-ton of practice to feel comfortable on someone’s feet or their hip.  Either way, there’s some interesting stuff in here (and yes, coach, you have already told us a lot of this, but it’s great to see the video . . . hint).