Triathletes Luke Tasker and Matthew Torres open water swimming

We get it, tackling the water can be a daunting endeavour and for many, the barrier between you and the triathlon finish line. But fear not, improving your swimming is not as challenging as it may seem, you just need to take the right steps.

Improving your swimming for triathlon requires a combination of technique, strength, endurance, and strategy. Here are Hummingbird’s top 10 tips for improving your swimming and crushing your next triathlon. (Brand new to swimming? Click here, for our tips on starting swimming for triathlon).

Focus on feel, not fast.

Swimming is a dance, it’s one of the only sports where you are completely submersed in your environment. Learn to understand the water, working with it not against it. How, you ask? In the early stages of training, prioritize refining your technique. This includes proper body position, hand entry, and breathing mechanics. (Something we’ll touch on later). Efficiency in the water will ultimately allow you to swim faster with less energy expenditure, which is crucial for a strong triathlon performance.

Body Position: Keep your body as flat and streamlined as possible. Practise maintaining a straight line from your fingertips to your feet, this is to reduce drag. Here, core strength is key, no we don’t expect you to be rocking a stone-edge 8 pack, but focus on keeping your core engaged, your bum up towards the sky, and your chin tucked slightly toward your chest.
Hand Entry: As you take each stroke, focus on holding the water and moving your body over your hand as you pull, rather than pulling your hand toward your feet. When climbing a ladder, your hand grabs the rungs and your body moves up and over, you don’t pull the ladder down toward your body… You’d never climb upward. It’s the same with swimming - hold the water, move your body over it.
Breathing: Quite important right? Maybe it deserves its own paragraph…

swimmer wearing a bornbound swimming hat — Hummingbird triathlete Luke Tasker wearing BornBound

Develop a Balanced Breathing Pattern

Triathlon swimmers often struggle with breathing due to anxiety or fatigue, as well as other difficult factors such as crowded swims, sighting (looking forwards while swimming) choppy water, and more. Although this may seem intimidating, finding comfort in your breath will make breathing while swimming no different to breathing while taking a stroll in the park. Here's how:

Breathe often: Breathing often allows proper oxygenation through your body allowing your muscles to continue to do their job properly. Regular breathing too allows you to avoid the feeling of needing to breathe, something that makes many understandably uncomfortable. To avoid this, don’t hold your breath for so long… I know it seems simple but try a single breathing method next time you’re in the water. Single breathe (every 2 strokes) always breathing your most comfortable side. A light exhale as your head is under the surface of the water, and a calm inhale each time you turn and break the surface. It’s like meditation, stay calm, stay relaxed, inhale, exhale. Like taking a breath of fresh air…
Avoid specific breath training techniques: For beginners, specific breath training such as underwater work and hypoxic training (a technique that intermittently reduces oxygen during exercise) is not necessary and at times can be very dangerous. We strongly recommend when practicing your breathing in swimming, you do so in a pool where you can stand, and a lifeguard is on duty.

Improve Your Kick

In swimming, your feet are your engine. A strong, steady kick can help maintain body position, but it shouldn't exceed your energy. Experiment with relaxed flutter kicks to keep your legs at the right level in the water, this in combination with focusing on raising your bum toward the sky will really help you stay streamline.

Use a kickboard: Practice using a kickboard to build leg strength and stamina. As your swimming improves, specific kick sets should be incorporated into your training. Leg endurance is crucial to ensure you can maintain a good kick in the water, without tiring the legs before you get on your bike.
Pro tip: Relax your ankles, keep those feet loosey goosey.

Hummingbird triathlete Luke Tasker swimming open water

Work on Your Endurance

Triathlons often require long-distance swimming, so building your aerobic capacity is crucial. As your swimming improves, extend your time in the water, include longer, steadier swims at a moderate pace in your training schedule, gradually increasing the distance over time. Exactly the same as including a long run into your running regime.

Try a progressive build-up method: start with shorter swims and add distance each week.
Pro tip: Swimming in a long-course pool (50m) rather than short-course (25) can improve your fitness and comfort when swimming longer distances.

Use Interval Training

To build speed and improve your overall stamina, incorporate interval training into your workouts. Short, intense efforts followed by rest intervals help simulate race conditions and improve your speed and endurance.

Example: Swim 10x100 meters with a 1 minute rest between each set. Don’t worry about the clock, in the early stages it’s all about feel. Focus on swimming fast but maintaining good technique.
Pro Tip: Incorporating easy, cool down swims throughout your intervals when needed will help you maintain good technique, calm your breath, and create comfort around swimming when tired.

Practice Open-Water Swimming

In a triathlon, you'll almost always be swimming in open water, which presents unique challenges such as choppy surfaces, currents, and limited visibility. Practice open-water swims regularly to get comfortable with these conditions.

Safety first: When swimming in open water, ensure all safety precautions have been put in place. Never swim alone, when possible swim when a lifeguard is on duty. Do not swim in new or unknown areas. Avoid moving water, swim in calm, popular lakes recommended by other triathletes. Safety is always more important than a triathlon.

Triathlete Matthew Torres wearing BornBound

Improve Your Pull

The strength of your pull will play an important role in how efficiently you move through the water. As mentioned earlier, focus on increasing the power of your catch (the initial part of your stroke where your hand enters the water) Moving over your hand as it holds water, not pulling it through below you. Missed our ladder metaphor… go take another peak at tip number 1: Hand entry.

Swim cords and resistance bands: To build arm strength and focus on high elbow catch during your stroke, incorporate activation exercises on dry land before your swimming session, such as tying an exercise band to a pole, and mimicking a swimming stroke. Focus on engaging your lats, wrists and visualise the initial ‘catch’ of the stroke.

Stay Relaxed

Tension in your body can slow you down and waste energy. Focus on staying as relaxed as possible, particularly in your upper body and face. Tension leads to poor body position and inefficient strokes, fast breaths and increased heart rates.

Soft faces: Keeping your face soft and occasionally, smiling (trust us) can calm your mind, especially when racing.
Relax dry arms: As you take each stroke, your arms will break and renter the surface of the water. When your arm is out of the water, focus on keeping it relaxed. When it’s below the water, focus on engaging it. On, off, on, off and so on. But remember, technique is key.

Strength train for swimming

Triathletes often neglect strength training for swimming, but building a strong core, shoulders, and back can drastically improve your swimming performance. Focus on exercises that mimic swimming motions to improve your power and endurance in the water. If you’ve plateaued in the pool, it could be time to beef up that training of yours.

Core exercises: Planks, leg raises, dead bugs, hanging knee lifts, are all great exercises for swimming and help with body stability.
Lat exercises: Chin ups, pull ups, and lat pull downs help improve stroke efficiency and power.
Safety: Lift within your limits, always lift under the guidance of a trained professional and / or coach.

Pace yourself

It's easy to go out too hard in a race, especially during the excitement of the swim start. However, starting too fast can lead to fatigue and poor performance in the latter stages of the race. Practice pacing yourself in training to learn what a sustainable effort feels like. Similarly, pace your progression, swimming takes time, but trust the process, improvement will come.

Use a pacing strategy: Start at a moderate pace and gradually increase the intensity as you settle into the swim to conserve your energy for the bike and run, which come after the swim.
Builds: Try building techniques in training to become comfortable with increasing your effort gradually. Try swimming 200m, gently increasing speed and effort each 50.

Bonus tip: An injured athlete is a spectator. Avoid injuries with activation exercises and proper warm ups.

By focusing on these tips and incorporating them into your training regimen, you'll become a faster, more efficient swimmer, setting yourself up for success in your next triathlon. Who knows, it might even become your new favourite sport.

10 tips to improve your swimming: For your next triathlon.