6 Tips for a Smart Triathlon Swim

Smart strategies are things that are important but don't have any real place in the first three categories to improve your 1.5K swim (smooth, strong and sustainable). These smart strategies, however, will help you think about swimming and how to better plan your race. A good swimmer is constantly evaluating, tweaking, and planning.

Tip #1: The Warm-Up

Thou shalt warm up before the race. Try to time your trip to the port-a-potty early enough to allow yourself ten minutes of splashing around in the water before the race starts. Yes, a 1.5K swim is long enough for a warm-up to happen while you're going, but you don't want to do that. Your muscles will thank you for getting blood flowing through them before the mad dash of a mass triathlon start.

You can shake out the tightness, get a feel for the water temperature, fiddle with your cap and goggles, and pee (everyone else is doing it). A good, short warm-up can make a huge difference in that initial push, and will help you settle in once you get rolling. Warm-ups help prevent cramps as well, and you don't want a cramp 300 yards in to a 1600-yard swim.

More: Effective Warm-Up Exercises for Your Swim

Tip #2: Your Kick

There has been only one mention of kicking in this entire overview. The reason for that is simple—you don't need to kick that much, most of the time. What are you going to do as soon as you hit the shore? You are going to start cranking on your legs. The water is the only time you get to use your arms, so use them.

That's not to say you shouldn't kick at all, but it should be steady and light. Three kicks per pull is a good beat for the number-minded among you. Freestyle is about 75 percent pull, 25 percent kick, and I would say triathletes are more like 80/20. A regular kick can fix your body position, but that is not what its purpose is.

Looking back at the piece on smooth swimming, the trick to a good body position is pressing down on your t-spot to bring up your hips. Kicking to bring your hips up means you are kicking down, and kicking down means you are expending energy in the wrong direction. You want the force going back so that you will move forward. Don't use your kick as a smooth crutch.

Flutter kick does not generate from the knee, but from the thigh and glute. The degree of deflection is very small. Too big of a kick ruins your hydrodynamic property and slows you down. You want to remain torpedo-shaped. Your feet shouldn't be jumping out of that and causing drag.

Keeping these things in mind, you should kick hard at the beginning of the swim (if you are trying to get out ahead of the main pack), then settle in with a regular, propulsive-but-not-hard kick. With about 200m left in the swim start revving your kick back up. This will force blood back into those big muscles, preparing them for the run to T1.

More: Dave Scott's Triathlon Kicking Drills

Tip #3: Self-Seeding

Most triathlons do some type of seeding, even if it's just separating the men and the women. Big races might divide you up by age groups. Within your own starting group, it's important to find a good place to start. Be it a beach or water start, should you be near the front, mid-pack or in the back? That depends on your skills and your goals.

If you aren't a comfortable swimmer, start in the back. If it's a beach start, that might mean you let the crazy people go, then wade in with the cautious ones. You won't be the only one.

Start too far forward and you'll be an obstacle. You can't hear other racers cursing at you like you're a big rig in the fast lane, but they are. Some might go so far as to climb right over you. Start too far to the back and you'll be the one climbing and cursing. Best to be honest and err on the side of caution. It's better to try to find open water and swim around people than it is to be in the way.

Be aware: Any race that isn't a straight out-and-back will probably have a buoy turn after a few hundred yards. Swim wide: The crush of people trying to cut that corner as closely as possible aren't going any faster. You might swim a few extra yards, but you'll stay away from the whitewater mess right against the floating orange sphere. If there is a turn buoy right after the start there will be a mass sprint for it. Not a confident swimmer? Let them go; hang back. It isn't worth it and the time saved is negligible.

More: 6 Ways to Train for a Triathlon Swim Start

Tip #4: Drafting

Drafting on the bike is illegal in most triathlons. In the water, however, it's impossible to enforce. Hundreds of bodies all swimming the same direction at the same time equals plenty of chances to slip in on someone's feet and go for a ride.

Drafting in the water follows the same principals as drafting on the bike. You tuck in behind someone else and they create a slipstream of water you can follow. They break the slow water and as it flows around them it will flow around you too, meaning the person in front is doing a little more work and you are doing a little less.

Some triathlons are so full that you can't help but draft. You want to be a few inches off your unwitting engine's feet. Note: Touching someone's feet for 1.5K may result in you getting punched in the face. Nothing is more annoying than tap, tap, tap, tap, tap while you are trying to swim. So be there, but give them some space. 

More: Key Principles of Open Water Drafting

Tip #5: Sighting

Open-water swimming sometimes means getting lost. There might be a point where you pop your head up, look around, and wonder how you got halfway to Hawaii. A good drill to do during workouts, every once in a while, is heads-up swimming. Ocean lifeguards use this technique a lot. You swim normally, but every five or six strokes pop your head up just a little during your breath and try to look at the same spot on the wall. In a triathlon swim you're looking for a giant orange or yellow shape. You don't have to have a clear view, just a fuzzy idea of where you should be going.

Some races are so busy you will barely have to sight at all. Those become a case of, "I hope the people I'm following aren't lost."

More: Learn to Sight Like a Professional Swimmer

Tip #6: Positive Self-Talk

Don't get down on yourself during the swim. If you are not a strong swimmer, it's too easy to notice how many people are ahead of you and how many more have passed you and how much further there is still to go. If you become mired in those thoughts, the swim will become an adventure in pain and self-pity. Once you begin to go down that road, off ramps are few and far between. That mindset can follow you right out of the water and it'll hop onto your bike with you.

Stay positive. The best way to do that is with constant stroke check-ins. Move through your body. How are your hands entering the water? How is your reach? Are you finishing past your hip? Is your elbow high on the recovery? Do you have a powerful thrust forward on the reach? A good catch? The more you think about the basics of smooth swimming, the better your swim will go.

Sinking into a rhythm helps too. Use the first three "S"s and repeat them over and over like a mantra. "Smooth, Strong, Sustainable, Smooth, Strong, Sustainable." Self-talk that often helps is to remind yourself to calm down and settle in, especially after something unexpected that might spike your heart rate, like catching a wave in the face or accidentally bumping into another swimmer. "Settle in," reminds you to, like the British say, "Keep calm and carry on." 

More: 7 Ways to Avoid Mental Self-Destruction

Following the Four "S"s—Smooth, Strong, Sustainable, Smart—and it will help you become a faster 1.5K triathlon swimmer. But don't expect immediate changes. Many of the drills in the smooth section do not work overnight. And ignoring the smooth drills and focusing on the strong section will not help either. You will just drive bad habits deeper into your muscles.

The Major Key to being a better swimmer is technique. Swimming is harder to master than cycling or running. There are so many moving pieces, and each of those pieces has tiny adjustments that can be made. If possible, have someone look at your stroke for a more focused evaluation. A good, smooth, pretty stroke will make a world of difference.

One last thing: Enjoy the water; love the swim. All good things love water. Water holds you up when you're feeling down and massages your muscles when you're hurting. Swimming is how we started. It's the most natural thing in the world. You can't win a triathlon on the swim, but who cares? You're swimming!

More: 10 Steps to Improving Your Triathlon Swim