What To Think About When You're Racing
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As a swimmer or triathlete you will be doing technique work in the pool focusing on different areas of your stroke. But what should you think about when you're racing to optimise your performance?
The good news here is that the technique improvements that you've made in training will largely stick when you are racing, leaving you to focus on the effort of swimming fast and also navigating if you are in open water. You will however have a little spare concentration available to you even when racing, so choose one simple thing in your stroke and keep some focus on it.
Here's some ideas of what to focus on:
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| pick one thing to focus on when you race |
- If you have a tendency to veer off course then become aware of what your lead hand is doing when you breathe. Let the breathing action take care of itself and turn your focus to keeping your lead hand extending straight in front of you and not crossing over your centre line.
- If you know that you have a tendency to pause and 'overglide' in your stroke then aim to keep your lead hand constantly in motion - entering and extending forwards, lightly catching the water and then pressing it backwards. Remember this should have a lighter feeling than overgliding, like dropping down a gear on the bike and spinning a little faster and easier.
- If you are aware that you have a scissor kick then focus on lightly brushing your big toes together as they pass with a regular tap-tap-tap rhythm. If you're not sure what to focus on in your stroke then this is always a good choice.
- If you have a tendency to lift your head to breathe, focus on keeping your head down when breathing and look very slightly behind you.
For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoy your racing and let us how you go in the comments here! The weather here in Perth is decidedly wintry now with lots of cold rain and storms coming through. We're thinking of you having fun up there!
Swim Smooth!