One area where most triathletes are looking to improve is on an open water swim. I am one of those athletes.  To address this, our first session today at Technical Camp was at the lake.

We arrived at the Chickamauga Dam Day Use Area beach, nice and early.  The sun had just risen and the lake behind the dam was nice and calm.  Water temperature was ideal and in general, we had perfect conditions for a swim.

Coach Robbie took the lead for this session and worked hard to pass on his vast knowledge of swimming, to those attending the camp.  This started with an analysis of everyone’s stroke in open water.  Open water swimming is much more of a power sport than pool swimming, and coach had people swimming powerfully in the water.

Next up the athletes practiced sighting.  When sighting, it is important to not lift your head out of the water. You only need to bring your eyes up enough, to catch a sight of the buoy.  This approach is often called called ‘alligator eyes’, because alligators only just have their eyes above the water surface.

Finally, everyone learned the correct way to swim around buoys.  This is an excellent skill to learn, as cutting the buoy close, saves a lot of time in a race.  Once level with the buoy, swimming with only your outer arm and pulling across your body, swings the hips and the rest of your body around the buoy quickly.

All in all it was a fantastic session, with everyone getting to improve for their next open water swim.