1. Bad head position. Open-water swimming encourages swimmers to look up and forward to sight for buoys and stay on course. Although this is a necessary action, it should be kept to a minimum during the race.
I really practiced my sighting this year. It’s tough to balance spotting and looking down. If you look down too long, you could venture off course. Thus any gains are lost when you need to correct. To help with this, I am able to spot while in the breathing rotation of my stroke. Only issue I’ve run into is if the buoys are hard to spot.
2. Centerline crossing.
Swimming in a straight line is a very important concept for all triathletes. In the open water, we do not have lines to follow or ropes to keep us on a path, so we want our strokes to help us move straight from one buoy to the next.
My swim line has improved significantly by making sure my stroke does not cross the centerline. I actually reach my arm out toward my target buoy (which I learned about in another article). This help me visualize my direction and keep going in a straight line.
3. Split kick
A split kick is when the legs separate and splay out to the sides when rotating or breathing. Not only is this a sign of an imbalance in the stroke, but it also causes unnecessary drag through the water.
This is something I probable need to look for. I’m not 100% what my kick is like. I know I focused a lot on strengthening my kick but not on where my feet are. I am an over-pronator so I’m guessing my legs stay pretty close together.
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