Triathletes: what would you want to know about swimming?

[Susie]

Last night at tri club, the board members approached me about doing a "swimming for triathletes" clinic over the winter.  Structure is still totally TBD, but a few sessions at the pool, maybe once a week for a couple weeks, or spread out over more time than that. 

I am flattered to be asked, and excited at the prospect.  But I haven't really done something like this before, so I'm starting from the ground up.  I'm thinking of doing session 1 for beginners ("anxious about sprint swim"), session 2 for people looking to increase distance, session 3 for people looking to increase speed, session 4 for more advanced stuff, as a very loose breakdown.  Everyone would be welcome at all of them, but I want to dedicate time to work on basics and be up front about the fact that, e.g., Ironman swimmers might not get tons out of that first session.  I was even thinking of, as part of session 1, "plan B" skills -- what do I do if I get a cramp?  What if I can't see the buoy?  This might be insultingly easy?  But at the same time I know of at least a couple people with a lot of swim anxiety in the club, and they are the folks I'd most like to help.

Thoughts?

What would you want to know about or learn to do (better)?

Your brainstorming assistance is appreciated!

[finallykrisb]

For tri specific swimming I would want to learn more about sighting, dealing with choppy water, bilateral breathing, dealing with mass race starts, etc.

[al320]

Im not a triathlete, but im answering your question because i run, swim and am afraid of my bike, but the biggest thing hlding me back from jumping into the world of triathlon is the mass start, the fear of getting kicked, how to handle swimming around all those people, and im TERRIBLE at bilateral breathing.

So its the technical stuff more than the speed/distance. Hooe thats helpful! This sounds very cool btw.

[boston340]

I don't have much to contribute as I'm just starting out with learning to swim. This sounds like a great opportunity though and will be very helpful to so many people. Any chance you'll be video taping it? I'd love to listen in on your sessions.

[katinthehat]

because I'm the queen of angst...here's my current list:

1. most people do at least 75% of their training in the pool. How does what you do in the pool translate to open water? In my head, it's like the equivalent of telling someone that does all their running as 400 m intervals on an indoor track that they'll be okay to go out and run a 10K. A 10K where if they stop to take a walk break, they die.

2. how to deal with panic and the mental fear talk that goes on inside your head.

3. and how to prepare for different water conditions

[katinthehat]

and I don't think you can stress the importance of a warm up swim enough!

[Susie]

Aug 23, 2013 8:40:35 GMT -5 katinthehat said:

because I'm the queen of angst...here's my current list:

1. most people do at least 75% of their training in the pool. How does what you do in the pool translate to open water? In my head, it's like the equivalent of telling someone that does all their running as 400 m intervals on an indoor track that they'll be okay to go out and run a 10K. A 10K where if they stop to take a walk break, they die.

2. how to deal with panic and the mental fear talk that goes on inside your head.

3. and how to prepare for different water conditions

I wish you lived near me so we could work on a few things together.  That really speaks directly to one of the skills I want to work on, which is learning to scull so you can tread water with almost no effort.  A swim equivalent of a walk break should = easy treading, not die!  I want to help people feel more at ease in the water, it makes everything so much easier.  Sculling drills also help with pull efficiency in your normal stroke.  It's an all around awesome skill.

I am trying to figure out how to do some of the water condition/mass start kind of stuff in a pool.  That will take some thought.  I have done the thing before where people swim one at a time down a lane, and everyone else is using kickboards to create waves.  It takes a while to give everybody a shot, but it's great practice trying to site and breathe through chop.

[katinthehat]

I learned sculling once long ago, I should look it back up...

Have everyone do a snake swim in the pool, but leave at once to simulate a mass start.