SWIM

Refine your sighting, drafting and turning skills – when possible – and be ready for race day

At time of press, restrictions continued to deny us pool time and races, leaving many pondering the point of race-day training. Stop pondering as now’s the perfect time to refresh, or learn, the skills you’ll need for your events once they resume. And, as long as we adhere to British Triathlon guidelines on swimming outdoors, there’s plenty we can work on.

Many think that swimming in open water requires a different technique to swimming in the pool, but I’d suggest you keep things as simple as possible and swim as you usually would. There are three things you need to consider when you tackle open water, though: the lack of a push-off, sighting and drafting. Of course, you can modify your form if you want to, but that’s just another thing to think about.

The best thing you can do in a race is be calm and, by practising the skills outlined here, which you can do both outdoors and, when the times comes, in the pool, you’ll have more time and head space to focus on your effort and positioning.