How much do triathlete need to learn about swimming?

Ones goals in a triathlon are most relevent. If someone is trying to complete the entire distance of the event, "survival" - or competence or adequacy - is all that is required of their swimming ability. . . . . If you walk through a pool . . . so be it. The last time I checked the sport is SWIM, BIKE, RUN "A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances." - Wiki If you walk the swim, walk the bike and walk the run, then it is a walk, not a multisport event.

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 swimers 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. My experience is that many triathletes(at least on forums) don't know squat about swimming but think they know more than Michael Phelps. I just read a thread in a triathlon forum where a 45 year old mom who just started running last year plans to do THREE triathlons this summer. She has zero experience in swimming and zero experience in cycling. She is just learning to swim/cycle and said she hopes to manage to swim 50 meters soon(no, I'm not kidding). I mentioned if it wouldn't be better to learn more swimming first and then do a triathlon or at least start with one and see how it goes and go from there but she insists she is very ambitious. All the other triathletes just said "Go for it". Well, summer is in 3 months. One reason the other triathletes don't consider swimming as important is because they argue that even if you swim *** stroke(the version with your head above the water) and really suck, you will make the time on the bike and while running so it's more important to cycle a lot. Oh, at the end I told her she should just try her best and in the beginning she will probably not be very good but she'll see how the procedure goes and can work from there. Her answer was "I intend to be one of the first five of my age group"......hmm

"I intend to be one of the first five of my age group"......hmm In some local races there may only be 5 in my AG

From these comments I believe the triathletes in my area are smarter than most. That's why I added "at least on forums". Obviously you don't notice the triathlete who just concentrates on training and prepares quietly. You just notice the ones on triathlons forums who say "I decided to to my first triathlon next week. Does anybody know how to swim?":D

How much do triathletes need to learn about swimming? Ones goals in a triathlon are most relevent. If someone is trying to complete the entire distance of the event, "survival" - or competence or adequacy - is all that is required of their swimming ability. Ditto the bike and the run. If you walk through a pool or float on your back, so be it. I dont see anything wrong with this. During my first triathlon I swam with my head above water the whole time - I believe they call that 'tarzanning'. Ones own subjective measure is the only important issue when it comes to completion of amatuer atheltic events - Am I happy with my performance today? Now, if one is trying to win a triathlon, their swim has to be pretty darn good. There is a saying - one cannot win a triathlon during the swim leg, but one can certainly lose the race during the swim leg. As a bit of a side note, it seems like pure swimmers give triathletes a lot of grief. Cyclists do this too (obviously not every swimmer/cyclist does this). I never really understood it. Haters gonna hate, I guess. :)

The last time I checked the sport is SWIM, BIKE, RUN "A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances." - Wiki If you walk the swim, walk the bike and walk the run, then it is a walk, not a multisport event. If you were to walk, say, half a mile, during the marathon portion of an Ironman event, does that mean you did not complete it?

If you were to walk, say, half a mile, during the marathon portion of an Ironman event, does that mean you did not complete it? I'll assume that this is not a serious question.

My impression is that there are many more serious people in both tris and OW swimming, by an order of magnitude, than a 2% that wants to cross off a bucket list (there are those as well, as there are in every sport). My 2% figure was hyperbole but not by much. If you read the beginner tri forums they are chock full of "just want to finish" comments, which I cannot understand. Just finishing implies defeat. Even if you finish DFL you should give it your all and not just be satisfied you crossed the finish line. The vast majority of triathlons are not IMs, HIMs or Olys. They are sprints, or, worse yet, super sprints. If your goal is to simply finish one of those, time for some new goals, like developing the next great Taco Bell entre.

On the other hand I will say something that I do like about the tri community is that most of the people are coming to it as adults and are doing it BECAUSE of the challenge. They know they won't necessarily be good at it yet aren't afraid to go out there and do it. Or to go out there and suck :-) This is in contrast to a good chunk of swimmers on my own squad who won't go to a meet, or won't do this event or that event because they don't think they will do well at it or because it's hard. It' is a totally different mindset actually. I think the unfortunate part is that the swimmers might be missing out on some fun and rewarding experiences. This is a good and sound observation on the difference between the two groups. And geek kind of finished off the point talking about the difference between the 2% of triathletes (probably more like 10% ) who really want to race, compete and win. So swimmers have something to learn from triathletes: Just do the event. Don't worry so much about being fast. And triathletes ahve something to learn from swimmers: Don't be a poser. You didn't compete in an Ironman, you completed an Ironman. You can still be proud of the accomplishment though!