Justin's Training Tips

Introduction

Preparation is important in any open water swim event. Your physical condition is your responsibility and you should ensure that you are capable to handle the distance and the conditions on the day of an open water swim event, whatever they may be.

Open water swimming is a chance to get out and simply enjoy your surroundings. Open water swimming is a wonderful activity.

Get Comfortable

Open water swimming is both a physical and mental challenge. It is important to feel comfortable in open water before you can really enjoy it.  To feel comfortable you need to have some training time in the ocean. The start of the Caves Beachside Resort Ocean Swim at Spoon Rocks is a sheltered beach ideal for the novice open water swimmer. Take some time if possible to go to Spoon Rocks or any other beach for a couple of practice swims.Also take some time to practice your entries and exits in the break.

Make Yourself Visible

It is always recommended to have a training partner preferably someone about your own pace that you can navigate your course with. Tell someone else what you are doing before you leave. Along those same lines, make yourself easy to see. Those bright swim caps they make you wear at races aren't just
for decoration!

Navigation

Can you swim in the right direction when there is no line painted on the bottom? You will need to be able to lift your head and gain some vision or marker of where you are headed. Practice in a pool. Try lifting your head up and looking at the end of your lane. Lift your head at different times during your stroke and see what feels most comfortable. With that accomplished, you have tackled the most important part of navigation in open water.

Know where to expect the buoy (I'll use the term buoy, even though you may end up using some other landmark) when you look. If you don't spot your marker (buoy) quickly, take another stroke and look again then, you may be on the crest and able to see for hundreds of metres. Note also that even though you may be on the crest of the wave, the buoy may be in a trough. Find things to the side that you can use as landmarks, especially when you are making your way back to the beach. Pick out a particular tree, building or pole and site them as a reference to the finish chute.

Racing with Others

Racing in open water is not quite the same as just swimming in open water. There are lots of other people around. Do you feel comfortable swimming in the midst of flailing arms and legs? Contact amongst swimmers is inevitable. Do you prefer having a little space around you? Keep this in mind during the swim. You almost always have the ability to control how large of a pack you are swimming in. If there are too many arms and legs, move to the outside of the course. If you intend to breastroke at the turning buoys make sure you stay to the outside of the main group of swimmers as cutting in close will impede their progress and probably result in you swimming under the water instead of on top of it for a period of time.

Race Start (finding/creating space)

If you don't want to be a part of all those flying arms and legs, then plan your escape route before the race starts. Don't start in the middle of the front. Start in the back, where nobody else will really want your space in the water.

The only trouble is that as people get tired after the initial sprint, you will have to navigate through them.Another option is to start near one side or the other.

You can always just swim a little further to the outside to get away from the elbows, yet there aren't as many people to swim through after they tire from their sprint. If you want to mix it up with the other swimmers, then be prepared for some contact to maintain your space.

Waves/Swells

Waves travel in one direction and make you go up and down. Breakers are what result when waves reach shallow water. Chop is the result of lots of little waves with no apparent direction to them. Imagine putting 100 kids in a pool with no lane ropes or gutters - the end result is choppy water. It is also what you often get in windy conditions.

Every body of water has waves and chop. Modern pools do an amazing job at keeping them to a minimum; large bodies of water do not. So get out there in the open water on windy days and practice your stroke so you feel comfortable in all conditions.