Swimming

Swimming is the most technically demanding discipline in triathlon: technique is the limiting factor. If you didn't swim actively as a child, it takes real effort. That's why triathletes need to learn swim technique first, before focusing on swim endurance. Until the gross mistakes are gone, training for swim performance makes no sense.

Fortunately, fitness transfers between disciplines, and much of the endurance you build through running and cycling transfers to swimming. But it won't work without the right technique. If you're a complete beginner you can start with breaststroke, but if you're serious about triathlon, sooner or later, you will need to learn freestyle. You can start at any age. I'm the example: I learned the crawl after forty.

When learning technique, it's good to start from the very beginning, even if you feel you've already learned something yourself. We practise the individual parts of the movement and then put them together. We record video from different angles and analyse it together.

Step by step we focus on body position and buoyancy, the work of the arms and legs, breathing and overall coordination, and finally the whole movement. We gradually increase efficiency and your feel for the water.

Most of the teaching and training happens in the pool, but we also work in open water and in a wetsuit, both of which are specific to triathlon. Open water has its own challenges: poor visibility, physical contact and sighting the buoys.