How much do triathlete need to learn about swimming?
Former Member
I do not mean this as a heartless criticism of triathletes. I actually enjoy the sport. But many of them start doing triathlons with almost no knowledge or experience in swimming. Here are a couple of choice comments to the thread I linked below. Thank goodness I knew how to ride a bike and run before I started doing tris - but not well. Give them credit for taking it on, but I do think they should learn to swim before entering one.
"The swim is short ( 150 yards ), and I can make it..not without stopping a couple of times at the end of the pool."
"A lot of pool sprints are so newbie friendly that they let you get through the water any way you can. I have seen people water walk the 300 meters in a pool swim in my area."
"My wife did an indoor tri a few months ago and I think 1/4 of the people walked the swim."
I recommended that the person do breaststroke.
www.beginnertriathlete.com/.../thread-view.asp
Parents
Former Member
ChrisM is one of the good swimmers to post on beginnertriathlete.com. Most of the swim advice on that forum is horrifying. However, use of the term "competent " is entirely dependent in the forum.
Agreed. I'm on that forum from time to time (used to be more when I did them) and you can spend all your time trying to correct false beliefs. One of my favorites is that you should turn before you get to the wal because there are no walls in the swim leg. This one is repeatedly put forth as knowledge. I can't remember how many times I have tried to clear that one up. A corollary to that is that you should not do flip turns because you don't do flip turns in the swim leg.
Trifly on BT gives good advice, but the person who acts as the expert most of the time has a limited perspective. It is fairly sound, but does lead itself to be misunderstood by some triathletes. Frankly, I think for most of the people on that forum swimming needs to be simplified. I just hope that as they progress they expand their knowledge base beyond what is presented as expert advice.
ChrisM is one of the good swimmers to post on beginnertriathlete.com. Most of the swim advice on that forum is horrifying. However, use of the term "competent " is entirely dependent in the forum.
Agreed. I'm on that forum from time to time (used to be more when I did them) and you can spend all your time trying to correct false beliefs. One of my favorites is that you should turn before you get to the wal because there are no walls in the swim leg. This one is repeatedly put forth as knowledge. I can't remember how many times I have tried to clear that one up. A corollary to that is that you should not do flip turns because you don't do flip turns in the swim leg.
Trifly on BT gives good advice, but the person who acts as the expert most of the time has a limited perspective. It is fairly sound, but does lead itself to be misunderstood by some triathletes. Frankly, I think for most of the people on that forum swimming needs to be simplified. I just hope that as they progress they expand their knowledge base beyond what is presented as expert advice.
