I am NOT a swim coach, or a tri coach, by any means. I am experienced and comfortable in the sport. With that said…
I was asked by my wife to help her and a couple of her friends prep for the their first Triathlon, which went off last Saturday in miserable weather. The swim was in a 50m olympic quality indoor pool, 17 feet deep at one end and 5.5 feet deep at the other. 8 lengths of the pool ducking under the lane marker at each end.
Everyone trained in the NYSC pool - 25m by 3.5 feet deep, and everyone could easily swim 400m. Very easily. Not real fast, but they did just fine in the water for beginners.
My wife said that she had a panic attack in the middle of the second pool lenght. Come to find out so did the other 2. They all got it under control, but they all had the same basic reaction - clastrophobic and gasping for air.
The race was started by getting everyone in a line by their predicted swim time and then sending them off every 5 seconds by jumping feet first into the deep end. There were the normal people in the wrong places, and the starter was in a big hurry and crowded everyone at the start, but the lanes were big and no one complained of being splashed or grabed, they just paniced for some reason.
So here is my question: Is the is a common reaction to first time swimmers that jump into deep water where you can see the bottom, and will this go away when they are in a mass start swim in the Long Island sound in June, or is it a bigger problem that has some solution? Until now (and not even now really) OW swimming has not been an option. I do plan to take eveyone out when it gets a little warmer.
I am NOT a swim coach, or a tri coach, by any means. I am experienced and comfortable in the sport. With that said…
I was asked by my wife to help her and a couple of her friends prep for the their first Triathlon, which went off last Saturday in miserable weather. The swim was in a 50m olympic quality indoor pool, 17 feet deep at one end and 5.5 feet deep at the other. 8 lengths of the pool ducking under the lane marker at each end.
Everyone trained in the NYSC pool - 25m by 3.5 feet deep, and everyone could easily swim 400m. Very easily. Not real fast, but they did just fine in the water for beginners.
My wife said that she had a panic attack in the middle of the second pool lenght. Come to find out so did the other 2. They all got it under control, but they all had the same basic reaction - clastrophobic and gasping for air.
The race was started by getting everyone in a line by their predicted swim time and then sending them off every 5 seconds by jumping feet first into the deep end. There were the normal people in the wrong places, and the starter was in a big hurry and crowded everyone at the start, but the lanes were big and no one complained of being splashed or grabed, they just paniced for some reason.
So here is my question: Is the is a common reaction to first time swimmers that jump into deep water where you can see the bottom, and will this go away when they are in a mass start swim in the Long Island sound in June, or is it a bigger problem that has some solution? Until now (and not even now really) OW swimming has not been an option. I do plan to take eveyone out when it gets a little warmer.
Any suggestion would be great.
Thanks
That happened to me in my first 2 triathlons. It went away. And I had been practicing in the one lake it happened in beforehand with no issues.
But it just went away in it’s own.
When I first started in triathlon, I found that between the anxiety of the race and the crowded swim starts I often began to experience hyperventillation. Trying to swim and exhale face down in the water is virtually impossible while hyperventillating. This seems to be a firly common experience with newer athletes.
I found the way to overcome condition was to practice swim starts under pressure in crowded situations with my trianing buddies. In OW, we would run into the surf, dolphin, etc. and force ourselves out of breath. In the pool we would simulate the same by all jumping in in a single location and begin swimming over each other.
With this in mind, I believe that your friends may have experienced a combination of factors that contributed to the anxiety. Experience and practice will surely help them overcome such conditions.
I’m not a swim coach but I am an easily panicked swimmer. I have been in the same place. My first race was 400m. We had no warm up time. I jumped in, it was deeper than the pool I trained in, got ready and within a few strokes resorted to breast stroke or I would have drowned (luckily I had my own lane so no one was inconvienced).
My next competitive swim just happened. I had some warm up time. My practice sessions in the months that followed were flawless (slow but flawless from panic attacks). This time we had 5 minutes to warm up. I made it into lap 2 when I couldn’t breath again. Some deep breaths later, a few dunks under the water and I made it through 750m of freestyle (very slowly but without any breathing problems).
Seems like getting into the water asap and giving yourself a little adjustment time is what is needed. races spike the adrenaline and cause the panic attacks. If she can practice in open water first that would be great. Then if she can get into the water and even just float around a bit before the start that would be better, especially if wetsuits are used as they are constricting. Then make sure she enters the water slowly to start the race and swims at her pace.
My first open water will be in the first weekend of July. I have a cottage booked at the race location a few days ahead to allow me a chance to practice my swim there.
I actually panicked one time in an ocean swim and almost called for help. I hadn’t been swimming much and the water was pretty rough. This also happened to my Dad on a few occasions (who is pretty comfortable in the water) so it does seem to be a problem with beginners.
I’m a decent swimmer by triathlon standards and just rely on experience and knowing from my training that I can do the distance - really focus on technique. It’s like running, it takes a few minutes or miles, depending on the distance, to get comfortable and begin pacing.
Are you sure it was due to the water being deep?
Well, after reading the replies, I am now thinking that the deep water was not the problem. I was assuming that looking at a pool bottom that was almost twice as far away at the “shallow” end was what caused the problem.
Now I am thinking it was a combination of problems. Assuming first race jitters are over, how do I prep them for a mass start? I guess if I could get them all in the ocean at the same time and have them start at the same time right next to each other might help, and I could always start behind them and pull legs and elbow them, but is that enough? Is there even a way to do this, or do you just have to turn them loose and hope for the best?
My wife asked if I had the problem in my first race, but by that time I had already been drown proofed, so I never was really a “beginner” when it came to the swim protion of a triathlon.
I have had a similar reaction just when training, but not related to pool depth. For me, it was a warm-up issue…if I did not get an adequate warm-up, within the first few hundred meters of my workout, I would feel a sense of panic…hard to breathe, feeling like I had to get my head out of the water, etc.
If I get a good warm-up in, I don’t have the issue.
Did your wife and the others have a chance to warm-up properly before the race?
Ya, most likely they just went out to hard, at least 90% of all triathletes do it even after having done tons of races. Same thing goes in running races, folks just get sucked out with the crowd at a pace that is just too fast, even the pros do it…Only problem in the water is that you have this H20 envelope around you when it catches up with you, and now you are fighting for a breath, and that starts the panic downslide…
If on the 1% chance it is the deep water, you kind of have to talk them through it, like folks that are afraid to fly. You tell them that they swim in water all the time over their heads, or without touching the bottom, so it doesn’t matter if it is one foot, or a 1000ft, it is all the same. Just have to engage the logical mind beforehand, so that when the panic sets in, they can latch onto something other than the emotions of it…
On a somewhat related note (or not), when we went on our honeymoon, Mrs P13 got scuba-certified, as we were going to the Caymans. She had to do her OW dives in a quarry in CO. On her last dive, I could see a “sand swirl” moving down the quarry, heading right for their position. Uh-oh. She said it was so murky the instructor had to hold them less than 1 ft away to see if they were doing everything properly and then would disappear into the murk, leaving them “alone” on the bottom. To her credit, she gutted through it and got her PADI card.
Get down to the Caymans and are going on our first dive…water is crystal clear and you can see all the way to the bottom (about 50 ft). After her certification dives, I never thought it would be an issue. She completely panics as we hit the water and gets out. Couldn’t handle the depth perception issue, I guess. I spent the rest of the time diving alone, except for Stingray Alley…shrugs
Part of the fear/panic stems from not knowing what to do when either something happens (wave comes over your head when you try to breathe) or negative thoughts overcome your focus.
Having a contingency plan and practicing it will help prevent panic attacks. Fear of others’ swim-jitsu at a mass start? Start at the back. Choking? Flip over and do backstroke. Goggles fill up with water? Tread water and fix them. Middle of nowhere and tired? Practice floating with minimal effort until you regain your strength. etc.
I was so young when I learned to swim that I don’t even remember it. We had a pool in the back yard. I literally spend 10 hours a day in the pool most days in the summer growing up. I went on to swim competetively and did train alot but the reason I don’t panic in open water has much more to do with the hours of playing in the pool, dunking and getting dunked, endless killer breath holding contests, just flooting around for hours on end, and especially getting myself close to drowning about a thousand times. Its pretty much impossible for someone coming to swimming as an adult to recreate that experience but the way to reduce the panic is to get super comfortable in the water and the best way to do that is not necessarily just swimming laps.
So, if panic is an issue, skip the work out every once in a while and get a killer game of pom pom going in the deep end. If the ladies won’t go for pom pom, have them tread water holding a brick over their heads for a while then have a brick diving contest. When they get tired of treading water, have a dolphin dive races across the shallow end. Pretty soon before they realize it, the water will be home.
I am very comfortable in the water, open water, lakes and oceans rivers, SCUBA, and I had a terrible first tri swim anxiety and not being able to catch my breath.
I think in hindsight and what I have read in this post it’s a fairly normal reaction to a new stressful situation.
I don’t think there is anything you could do except perhaps talk about it beforehand.
I am not a coach, but I do get lots of questions from first timers who are in high anxiety about the swim. I tell them what a wise mountaineer once told me about treking at high altitudes: Focus on exhaling. If you don’t exhale, you can’t inhale; if you do exhale, you will inhale automatically. Hope this helps.
I would second the poster who said they went out too hard. Many years ago, as a total newbie to the sport of swimming, I had a similar response the first time I did a clinic where I was sharing a lane with a bunch of other swimmers in a competitive environment. When you swim in practice, by yourself or with friends, you don’t have that adrenaline flowing and the pressure to go, go, go. I still have those moments in races, I just have more experience to deal with it. I’d have them practice “starts” where they sprint like the dickens for the first half of a length and then continue swimming for 50 or 100m/yd. They’ll gain some confidence that they can still swim with their heart rate going crazy and learn how to get their breath back under control while still swimming.
Open water panic is a whole other animal, but I think that practice will help that more than anything else. Good on you for helping your wife and her friends navigate this crazy sport. I hope they continue with it.
I think the panic was probably caused by anxiety and excitement which led to going out to fast, not getting good breaths etc. They should try to get in a good warm-up - especially before their June race in the sound. The water is still quite cold on LI in June! Have them get in the water, make sure they put their face in to get used to the cold. It isn’t only beginners that this happens to. I experienced it for the frist time 2 years ago after doing tris for 10 years!
Great stuff here, and I concur. I would add though, the need to emphasize good exhalation. Nervous swimmers tend to hold their breaths a little when they are face down, and begin storing C02 in the blood, which further contributes to the hyperventilation and growing panic.
My motto: Slow down, long strokes, full exhalations and relax. Once that first 200 meters is over, the rythmn is good and the rest is easy for me.
I also get acclimatized to the water and get a wetsuit full before the race starts so I’m not also dealing with cold water shock.
Often time it’s a by product of starting out too fast. They sprint out like it’s a 50 for the first 50 then die the next 50. Suddenly they are gasping for breath, then they start struggling more to get their face out of water next thing you know they are panicking.
In this scenario they just over swam their fitness.
Take the above scenario add in a few hundred of your friends who all are trying to be the first person to the first buoy, throw a mouthful of water in their face when breathing, have their neighbor grab them and panic can be induced.
Quite frankly, after being crushed once in a mass start and panicking myself, I’m surprised duathlons are not more popular. If I swam in the scrum, I’d check the duathlon option more often then not.
I am a very strong swimmer, HS swimming coach, former collegiate water polo player, and I really have to focus to not get a little panicky in ocean swims. I dont know if its the vastness of the water or the depth – but its probably one of them. I know its not the scrum, bc both of my Ironmen were Wisconsins washing machine and that was in a lake…so no problems with that. I think its a natural reaction though. I dont stress too much about it, but I do get pretty nervous on the ocean swims.