Swim your own swim this winter

When it comes to winter swimming, remember ‘you do you’, advises editor Ella Foote

This year the buzz around cold water swimming is bigger than ever. Many media outlets have written pieces, quoting experts about the benefits of icy plunges and entries have opened for winter swimming events. If this isn’t your first winter swimming, you might want to develop and push your skills this year or if you have never swum through winter, you might be feeling the pressure to try.

As a coach I often see swimmers fall into a pack mentality and some feel the need to keep up with others even when they don’t want to swim colder, further or faster or their skills don’t match the rest of the group. Swimming communities are a great place for inspiration and support, but just because everyone else is swimming this season, doesn’t mean you have to.

Many swim guides and coaches will tell you to “swim your own swim” and I was recently reminded of advice I have given in the past, “you do you” – this advice is especially important in cooler temperatures as the difference between each of us is vast. If you want to swim an ice mile, great, but make sure it is because you want to do it, not because your swim-pal is, and see a coach who can help you with your goal. Pushing, challenging and setting goals in cold water is a lot more dangerous than summer swimming. The margin for error is a lot smaller.

As interest has grown in winter swimming, so has the kit that can aid or support your swims. Neoprene accessories can transform your swimming, it isn’t cheating! Our fingers and toes are mainly bones, which is why they can hurt so much in the cold. In fact, anything that can make our swimming more comfortable or enjoyable is essential in these short, dark days; life is enduring enough. Unless you are training for an ice-event that requires no ‘assistance’, winter swimming is about getting out and getting moving for your mental and physical health, but above all, it should be joyful.

You do you – top tips:

• Build your acclimatisation gradually. Approach swimming in winter with a ‘little by little’ mentality. Little and often is a good target.
• Get some kit that will help. A decent coat, weatherproof boots, nice wool socks.
• Find some swim-pals, look after each other.
• Learn about swimming safe, do you know the signs of hypothermia and what to do?
• Learn about your body and how it performs, make notes about each swim. What was the temperature, weather and how did you feel before and after. Spot patterns.
• If at any point the conditions don’t feel safe, don’t swim, trust your instincts.