A visit to the Cambridge Masters Swim Team on the Harvard University campus is a joy to an open water swimmer. The vernacular they use during their pool workouts occasionally elicits smiles from the masters swimmers who have experience in the open water.
Coaches occasionally throw in Tarzan swims or GWS drills. In the Tarzan sets, swimmers are asked to swim with their head up. In GWS (Great White Shark) drills, swimmers are asked to sprint and kick like their lives depended on it.
The team that competes in dozens of open water swims throughout New England is led by Abe Rogers who even has a name for a section of their training pool where the pool changes from shallow to deep water: the sand bar.
Tarzan swims or head-up freestyle drills are explained below by Glenn Mills of GoSwim.tv:
Copyright © 2008 – 2013 by World Open Water Swimming Association