Courtesy of Gerry Rodrigues, Tower 26, Santa Monica, California.
Be Race Ready podcast episode #12 is posted online.
Coach Gerry Rodrigues discusses the essentials of open water swimming (Part 2), 3 F’s, and the importance of specificity in the pool and open water.
Tower 26’s Rodrigues describes his coaching concept of the 3 F’s: Fear, Familiarity and Frequency. Because of inherent dynamic nature of the open water, whether it is an ocean or sea, lake or river, there is an innate fear that most triathletes have of the open water. “Look at a photo of the triathletes lining up at the start of a race. Fewer than 5% of them look confident. The rest are just thinking about getting through the swim and then getting on their bike when the real race begins.”
Rodrigues once estimated that there are nearly 16 million variations that can happen in an ocean leg of a triathlon swim. He calculated the vast number of variations by considering differences in water temperature, weather conditions, wave size, current direction, number of competitors, degree of physicality, presence of marine life, pack swimming, take-out speed, buoy turns, drafting, starts (in water location versus onshore sand starts), finishes (in water versus onshore sand finishes), water salinity, etc.
He, therefore, teaches his athletes to be comfortable being uncomfortable. In Podcast #12, he teaches how the frequency of doing specific sighting and deck-up drills in the pool and experiencing physicality in a closed-loop course can breed familiarity. “You may not like the water conditions or contact at the start, but at least you will be familiar with it. We [Tower 26] is looking to maximize your performance in a race and your efficiency in training.”
He discusses how specific warm-up drills like swimming easy for 10 minutes interspersed with deck-ups and running [in place] on the pool deck for brief periods.
Listen to the Tower 26 podcast #12 here.
Additional Tower 26 articles here:
* TOWER 26 Be Race Ready Podcast Goes Live
* Be Race Ready – Framing Cycles And Swim Workout Design
* Be Race Ready Podcast On Tautness, Alignment, Propulsion
* Guardians Of The Sea, From Tower 26 And Beyond
* Tower 26 website
* The Open Water Grave By Gerry Rodrigues
* Alignment And Structural Presence In The Open Water
* Tri To Improve In The Pool And Open Water
* Tower 26’s Gerry Rodrigues On Gripping And Ripping
* DPS And EVF In OWS
* Kicking In The Open Water For Triathletes
* Breathing For Triathletes In The Open Water
* Fear Can Be Overcome With Frequency To Build Familiarity
* Sultan Of Swim Discusses Open Water Essentials
* What Can We Learn From Olympic Swimmers?
* Triathlete Airplanes, Gliders, Helicopters In The Open Water
* Art Of Tapering, The Final Frontier Before The Big Race
* Gerry Rodrigues Towers Over Open Water Coaching
* Fill 3 Buckets for Better Swimming By Gerry Rodrigues
* 3F: Move From Fear To Familiarity Through Frequency
* What Can We Learn From Olympic Swimmers?
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