Top Tips

Pick up knowledge to improve your outdoor swimming. Learn how to plan routes, train with others, complete events, and overcome obstacles like nerves or fitness level. Get guidance on skills like bodysurfing, underwater swimming, and adapting your stroke for rivers and seas. Experts and seasoned swimmers share their top tips so you can swim safer, stronger, and with more joy.

Why I like ‘boring’ swim training sets

If you race over longer distances, these long repetitive sessions help build the fitness you need plus teach you pace…
Myth busting: you only get the benefits of cold water without a wetsuit

If you go for a winter dip wearing a wetsuit, will you be getting the same benefits as those swimming…
Open water skill: Superman buoy turns

Jonathan Cowie explains the fastest and most efficient way to turn around a buoy.
Myth busting: will I get Weil’s disease from open water swimming?

Is Weil’s disease a risk when swimming in open water? Simon Griffiths unpacks the fact from the fiction, and advises…
Why is early morning swim training so hard?

Morning training is a fact of life for many swimmers. There are ways to make them easier.
Top Five Dry Land Exercises

If you’re new to swimming, it’s understandable you want to get in the water as often as possible. More time…
Yoga for open water swimmers – Part 2

Part two of a series of yoga exercises to help improve your swimming both physically and mentally
Yoga for open water swimmers – Part 1

Part one of a series of yoga exercises to help improve your swimming both physically and mentally
How can I keep my fitness levels in open water?

Swimming coach Cassie Patten shares her advice for how to maintain fitness levels in open water.
How to prepare for a swim training session

When you prepare for a swim training session, it can make a big difference to how you feel in the…
Cold water, science and nutrition

What science says about exercising in cold environments, and what the nutrition implications of that might be.
How to plan an A to B swim

Is there an island you have always wanted to swim out to? A river that you have always wanted to…
Outdoor swimmers, swim smart in the heat

As outdoor swimmers, particularly those of us that live in a northern European country, our biggest concern is often how…
Swim training when you can’t access the water

Maintaining swimming fitness when you have limited hours requires creativity and planning but it can be done using a combination…
Keri-anne Payne’s top tips to improve your swimming

Keri-anne Payne announces new partnership with Zone3
Top Six Outdoor Swimming Books

This is by no means a definitive list of outdoor swimming books: it is a personal selection confined by the books…
Top tips on getting race-ready before the summer

With a large number of outdoor swim events and races taking place in the summer, the beginning of the year…
Five top tips to start – and stay – outdoor swimming

Swimming outdoors is no easy feat, at any time of the year. Unlike swimming in a pool, there are a…
Keep calm and carry on – and other sea swimming tips

Sea swimming tips aimed at swimmers taking part in near-shore organised swim events or wild swimming rather than long-distance sea…
7.5km Training Session (about 2.5 hours)

To complete this as written, you should be capable of swimming repeatedly 100m off 90secs
How can I improve my breaststroke so I can swim faster?

Our resident Olympian Cassie Patten answers your swimming questions
7km Training Session (~2+ hrs)

To complete this as written, you should be capable of swimming repeatedly 100m off 90secs
10km open water training plan

A training plan for those contemplating taking on the 10k Marathon distance in open water
What are your tips for recovering after a marathon swim?

Our resident Olympian answers your swimming questions
Don’t try this if you have a fragile ego

For most of us, comparing our swim times with those of the best swimmers in the world is far from…