happyscientist wrote:
I have been swimming since before I can remember but never had any formal training. I just spent a lot of time in lakes or public pools as a kid. As a result, I am completely comfortable in open water, but never learned proper technique. Last year I found a swim coach who did wonders for my technique and made me about 30s/100 faster in the pool. However, every time I do an open water swim, I slip back into my lifelong habits. I lose focus, stop pulling all the way through, let my legs drop, constantly sight, you name it. And I slow right back down.
I am keeping OWS to a minimum to try to engrain the better habits, but the bad ones are very deeply engrained. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how did you fix it.
I gotta call BS here, no offense.
30 sec/100 faster in the pool from technique alone? What paces were you starting at?
And are you seeing that sort of time drop when you go back to your 'bad habits?'
Technique is super important, but honest to god, I've never seen a swimmer who I felt had the swim-specific fitness of a 1:30/100yd swimmer over distance but was so sloppy in the water that they were 2:00/100yds. Heck, even getting 10sec/100 from technique alone is a stretch for anyone who's under 1:50/100yds.
But with regards to your question, I strongly suspect that your main problem, if not your only problem with OWS vs pool differences in speed and technique, is the sighting. I'm constantly surprised that coaches do not emphasize doing sighting drills for triathlon swimmers, PARTICULARLY at the beginner to intermediate levels. When your a FOP strong swimmer, you're skilled and strong enough that sighting is nearly a non-issue, as you know your stroke and body well enough to smoothly integrate it without much practice. However, if you're a typical MOP triathlete, sighting is a BIG deal and will slow you down big time if you're bad at it.
If you doubt this, go to your pool which is as ideal an easy environment as you can get, and do your normal swimming with the added challenge of clearly sighting every 5th stroke. I'll bet you'll suffer not only a hit on your swim times, but even more importantly, a lot more fatigue and even slight panic from the added stress of fighting the leg drop from sighting inefficiently.
Practicing the sighting a lot to minimize the head lift and to get a good rhythm helps a lot as a MOPer. Adding sighting practice to my pool regimen before races (and I still don't do it enough and suffer the consequences accordingly) helps more than anything else to my OWS comfort - even more than practicing in OWS itself! I don't do anything crazy - but I will do a entire 45-60 minute freestyle workout forcing myself to sight every 5 stroke cycles to get that sighting rhythm and efficiency normalized.