Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
“No butterfly, backstroke or breaststroke,” says host Chris Ritter of Ritter Sports Performance who interviewed Tower 26 founder Gerry Rodrigues about open water swimming for triathletes during the first 58-minute session of the 2016 Global Swimming Summit.
“Just freestyle…for a newbie or triathlete or a competitive swimmer hoping to get into the open water,” explains Ritter.
“Get access to over a dozen experts on everything you need to know about open water swimming…No BS, just practical and proven advice from amazing experts.”
The key points that Coach Rodrigues explained on the podcast was his focus on swimming mechanic. His focus is admittedly simplistic, but it is profoundly important. Namely, a triathlete should have a good structural presence or good body tautness, alignment, and propulsion – and proper swimming technique should be taught in that order.
Rodrigues describes, “Structural integrity is important in every sport and it must be taught to everyone. We introduce vertical kicking in order to maintain structural integrity and to keep your head above the water. They can also do kicking with their head down with a snorkel on holding the bottom of a kickboard as they hold their body tautly or rigidly. We have to teach triathletes a proper kicking technique.”
Rodrigues also described his 3F’s or how a triathlete can move from fear to familiarity through frequency – and a variety of other topics essential to enabling a triathlete become a more efficient and faster athlete in the open water.
Ritter says, “If you have questions about open water swimming, the Global Swimming Summit is completely online and free so you can watch anywhere with an Internet connection. Register by entering your email at Global Swimming Summit and you’ll be alerted to all of the Global Swimming Summit presentations.”
For more information or to register, visit Global Swimming Summit.
Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association