Happy with your swim performances in the pool, but often surprised by how you swim open water? Check this out!

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To this topic, I would add that based on my personal experience, too many athletes just don’t know how to position themselves in regards to the rest of the pack prior the start. It has caused repeated issues among my own athletes this summer.

Reference: http://www.feelforthewater.com/2012/10/remarkable-footage-of-swimmers-going.html

12 commentaires

  1. Charles, can you give some examples of what you mean by your athletes not positioning themselves effectively?

    1. You may ask this to Simon Malo maybe? lol

      This summer I’ve seen little bit of everything, but the 2 most common mistakes are to position ourselves wrongly as to how far up the front of the pack.

      I’ve had a person that could barely swim positioning himself front pack at Magog. He obviously got swam over for a long whilst.

      But where I kind of lost my temper a few times is more in regards to higher level athletes that were positioning themselves way to far in the back of the pack, given their ability to swim.

      Simon has to be the best example. He did it in Tremblant, got swam over. Then thought he wouldn’t do it again in Kona, but guess what, he did it again.

      We had prepared for 2 weeks working on the 400m flat-out followed by threshold swim. But we could’t use it at all, as he had to wait a very very long time before the pack becomes slack enough for faster guys stuck in the back to find their way further at the front.

      Drummondville is another example of a tricky course. Since we swim in a river, current usually take you from right to left on the first stretch. People that position in the inside as usually experiencing a bit of a nightmare, especially when the current is strong. Because then the whole pack is drifting left, stopping these poor guys from getting back to the inside of the stretch to turn over the first buoy.

      These are just some examples.

      On the other hand, I also had a few guys who pulled out exceptional swim legs given their ability and fitness condition. Jean-Pierre Gagnon has to be the winner in this regard this year at least for me.

      1. good examples

        I think : 1) we generally don’t swim enough in open water; 2) we generally do not swim enough in groups

        There are abilities to be acquired … once you have them that’s good and they will come back fast. But I think too many of us expect a miracle on race day when we have spent all our swim time in a swimming pool ….

        mes 2 cennes

        1. Chui plutôt en accord. D’ailleurs c’est un message que martèle Swim Smooth. Un bon programme d’entraînement pour les triathlète devrait contenir:

          1- Technique
          2- Fitness
          3- Open water skills

          Sans l’élément #3, il est possible de progresser toute l’année en piscine, pour voir tout ce progrès se perdre à gauche et à droite en eau vive.

  2. Effectivement… juste le positionnement sur la ligne de départ a coûté de précieuses minutes (pas des secondes) à mes 2 Ironmans de la saison. Les 2 fois, frappé et pris avec trop de monde, j’ai été forcé de nager plus lentement. À Kona, ce fut terrible. Jusqu’au turn-around, j’étais pris dans une foule et je ne pouvais pas sortir. J’ai du me contenter de forcer sur le retour seulement. En souhaitant ne pas être cité en example pour 2013..LOL!!!

      1. wow Pete… qu’elle belle remarque intelligente et constructive de ta part. Je crois que tu devrais gagner un prix pour ça (le tout derrière un Pete anonyme… ça en dit long sur toi). Si jamais tu as quelque chose d’autre à me dire: simon_malo@hotmail.com . Au plaisir de te croiser.

    2. Désolé Simon, j’espère que tu m’en veux pas.

      J’pensais pouvoir profiter de ton absence pour jaser dans ton dos un peu 🙂

      @Pete, c’est une excellente nouvelle! Pour tout le monde!

      1. Effectivement, une bonne nouvelle. J-F est un excellent compétiteur et il est toujours plaisant de courser avec.

  3. À la finale les boys, perdez pas le focus! Faut nager dret l’an prochain!

    Une drill j’aime bien utiliser, très simple et bien le fun, dans un bain libre assez achalandé, nagez les yeux fermés… feeling, au feeling…

    1. en fait je pensais la même chose… le commentaire n’était pas lié à ton sujet. Pete ne doit pas savoir lire!!!

      1. en plus, il ne sait pas écrire… Pete mon ami, aucune chance: ca ne prend pas de  »s » à chance.

        A+, Simon