The racing season is almost with us. Lots of you will have spent the winter focusing on how to improve your swimming, but how many of you will really be able to transfer the skills learnt in the pool to your Ironman races? Here are some valuable tips that might help you improve your swim leg in races.
1. Swimming horizontally and keeping your balance. By now you will have realised that you come up against incredibly strong resistance to forward motion in the water. To reduce this resistance to a minimum, it is advisable to be as horizontal as possible in the water. Make sure your head is never held too high, particularly while breathing. Do not over rotate your body, otherwise your arm stroke will be less efficient. Lastly, extend your legs, do not bend your knees too much, and try to completely relax your toes.
2. Do not kick too wildly with your legs. If you have a good swim technique, your leg kick will be a big help. Vice-versa a poor leg kick could slow you down, resulting in excessive oxygen consumption and making you feel more fatigued.
- A good technical tip is to use a pullbuoy to learn the proper body position while training. Once you have learnt the proper position, you can then begin to learn the proper leg movement, possibly using
