One area that is quite a concern for most triathlon beginners is the swim portion. When I was training for my first triathlon, this was the hardest and scariest part to train for. Being that the swim is the first part of the race, if you do not do well in the swim, then it can have adverse affects on the rest of the race. So if you do badly in the swim, it can mess you up mentally. However, the opposite is true also: If you do well in the swim section, it can boost your mentality for the rest of the race.
Even if you are a good swimmer, you still have to contend with being nervous, having to swim amongst massive amounts of people, and pure exhaustion. How can you make improvements? Put these tips into practice:
*If you can, try and call upon a swim coach to analyze you while you are swimming to get feedback. Do not try and make major refinements in your technique, just make a few changes, and work on them.
*Practice swimming hard at the beginning of the race, and then get into a smooth groove after that. This is a normal thing that happens in a race, you start off really strong and then gradually slow to a more even pace, so train that way.
*Make it your aim to practice in open water and develop the ability to sight where you are heading. When you practice in a lake or in the ocean you cannot use the bottom, like in a pool, to see where you are going. Learn to sight every so often while you are in your normal pace to get used to doing it. Some swimmers even count out a set amount of strokes and then sight at that time.
*Here is a tip that you may not have thought of: close your eyes when you are practicing. If you are practicing in a pool, this may not be always feasible, since there may be other swimmers in the way, or you could hit your head on the side of the pool. But if you are in open water, give this tip a try, since it can help you to determine which one of your arms is your dominant one. This can help you to make minor adjustments in your stroke so that you will swim straighter.
This only touches the surface with what you can do when it comes to training for the swim as a triathlon beginner, but it should help you to get a good start.
