How to balance your training between open water and the pool

Jason Tait says doing the right mix of pool and open water will help you race faster

Should you do your summer training in open water or the pool? It’s a common question and your decision on how you split your summer training could have a huge impact on your season. But why is this?

Why both pool and open water matter

While it might be tempting to do all your swimming outdoors during the summer, solely training in open water can bring about some issues within your swimming. Structured pool training offers meaningful time, pacing and effort feedback that can be harder to get a feel for in open water. You may also find that technical issues start to creep into your stroke, as focus moves away from gaining good form with technique sessions, into simply swimming to ‘get the miles in’. If you don’t train carefully, these missing focuses may result in a slowing your swimming rather than improving it.

A few weeks ago, I spoke with GB International Marathon Swimmer and Olympian Hector Pardoe. I asked Hector about his training structure in the pool and open water. Hector told us that many people are surprised when he tells them that he spends most of his training time in the pool, rather than the open water.

Like many of our athletes at South West Swim, Hector spends the cooler months of October to June exclusively in the pool, while from June to September he will usually do just one session a week in the open water. Hector’s open water sessions focus predominantly on ‘training to race’, performing a lot of group swimming and working on race tactics and skills, rather than getting in and swimming long distances.

Hector has been a swimmer for 18 years and says he has grown to know his own stroke inside out. He says he now has a feel for the times he is swimming in the open water, and does not usually record times and paces in his open water training swims. He has developed what he calls a ‘library of individual pacing times’ that he has stored in his mind, knowing intuitively the pace he is holding at any given time without the need for timing devices. This comes from his feel of the water, stroke rate and gauging his power output through his pull and kick.

To achieve this level of pace awareness, Hector credits his pool sessions where the variables of his training can be strictly controlled and he gets frequent feedback from his coaches. In the pool, Hector works on his swim technique and pacing skills. In the pool he’s in a better position to push himself and that is the time he focuses on the times, splits and data.

Find your balance

Obviously Hector is swimming at the very top level of world swimming, while for most of us swimming is a hobby. It’s important to find a balance in our swimming that keeps it enjoyable, which might involve more frequent open water swims than elite athletes do. However, if you are looking to improve your event-day performance, keeping your pool training alive year-round will help give you consistent growth not only through the season, but year after year.

Building distance and endurance in the freedom of open water is great, and it is vitally important to be able to swim effectively and efficiently on race day. So still plan in those long open water swims, but don’t fall into the trap of swimming endless loops and laps in every session, at the expense of your key technique and pacing skills that are better practised in the pool.

Follow Hector

Facebook: HectorPardoe2
Instagram: @hectorpardoe
YouTube: @HectorTPardoe

About Jason

Jason Tait is the founder and head coach of South West Swim. For information on South West Swim
Pool, Endless Pool and Open Water Coaching Sessions see:

Website: southwestswim.co.uk
Facebook: southwestswim
Instagram: @southwestswimcoaching