Open water & triathlon training

NOW AVAILABLE FOR BOOKING.  Please email info@swimforlife.co.uk for further information.

Edward is a fully qualified level 2 open water swimming coach.  If you’d like to advance your swimming to the great outdoors then we can teach you all the things you need to know and guide you through.  If you are a nervous beginner and feel anxious about your first open water experience, you are not alone.  We’ll take you through your first swim to feeling excited about the journey you are going on.    

About our Open water swimming course – We’ll teach you:

– How to look for good open water swimming sites and the things you should consider before swimming.  Understand the differences between seas, lakes and river swimming.  Selecting open water locations that work for you.  What the risks involved are and how to mitigate against them   

– Specialist  techniques that vary from pool swimming to maximise the benefits of open water.  We’ll develop your front crawl technique to make it efficient and effective for different conditions.  We’ll work on your stroke and adapt your swimming to the environment. 

– Acclimatisation.  Learn how to adapt to open water temperatures and be safer.

– Siting.  You’ll learn to site correctly and work on integrating this vital open water skill into your stroke.  This is so important for swimming outside.  Swimming smoothly in a straight line, to be able to stay on course, will shave lots of time off your swimming.   

– Turning.  We’ll work on how to navigate around buoys smoothly and with ease.   

 – Drafting.  Understand the principle of drafting and how to use this to your advantage.

– Racing starts.  We’ll show you and practice a variety of techniques depending on the race you’ve entered.  Beach starts, deep water starts, pontoon starts all require some skills and technique to shave your time down and make you more efficient.

– How to prepare for your first triathlon so you enter the race with confidence (applicable to swimmers on the triathlon skills course)

– Starts.  Getting a good start in a triathlon is important.  You might not be looking to win the race but you’ll be delighted if you achieve an awesome personal best time.  You’ll learn specific beach starting skills and techniques as well as how to start in deep water.  

– Strategies – what can you do to be technically that little bit faster and how to mentally be prepared for your race.