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Open Water Swim Coaching
Open water coaching for triathletes and wild swimmers — sighting, drafting, cold water confidence, wetsuit technique and the race skills that pool training can't give you.
What we
cover
Each open water skill is specific and learnable. These are the areas our coaches work through systematically.
Sighting technique
Lifting your head efficiently without losing stroke momentum or sinking your hips. How to read the course, set a sight line, pace your sighting frequency and navigate accurately around buoys.
Drafting
Positioning behind or beside other swimmers to reduce drag — the open water equivalent of cycling in a peloton. Finding, holding and moving between draft positions in race conditions.
Mass starts & pack swimming
Tactics for the first 200m: positioning on the start line, handling contact, managing heart rate in the chaos, and deciding whether to seek clean water or ride the front of a pack.
Wetsuit swimming
How added buoyancy changes stroke mechanics — and how most athletes are slower in a wetsuit than they should be. Wetsuit-specific technique adjustments and race-day donning practice.
Cold water confidence
Managing the cold-shock response, regulating breathing under cold stress and building confidence through progressive acclimatisation. Anxiety around cold water is addressable — not a fixed limit.
Buoy turns & course navigation
Approach angles, turning technique, managing contact at buoys and reading a course efficiently. Buoy turns are routinely where places are won and lost in triathlon racing.
The pool doesn't
prepare you for this
In a pool, you have lane lines, a black line to follow, fixed walls to push from and a controlled breathing pattern. Take all of that away and many confident pool swimmers find themselves anxious, disoriented and working twice as hard for a fraction of the pace.
Open water swimming is a learnable skill set — sighting, navigation, drafting, wetsuit technique, cold water adaptation, pack management. Coaching in these specific areas closes the pool-to-open-water gap faster than any amount of pool yardage.
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Who open water
coaching is for
Pool swimmers doing their first OW event
Comfortable in a pool but about to race in open water for the first time. Bridging the gap before your event rather than finding out on race day.
Triathletes with open water anxiety
Your pool swimming is fine but the mass start, the dark water or the loss of landmarks sends your heart rate and anxiety skyward. Specific confidence-building sessions.
Ironman athletes adding OW-specific work
Training for long-course triathlon and want dedicated open water skill sessions alongside your pool coaching. Race-simulation and distance confidence.
Wild swimmers extending their range
Not racing — just want to swim further and more comfortably in lakes, rivers and the sea. Distance coaching, safety awareness and open water technique.
Swimmers moving from pool to open water racing
Club or competitive pool swimmer making the move to open water events. Applying your pool technique in a completely different environment with targeted coaching.
Athletes preparing for a specific event
A lake swim, a sea swim, a channel crossing attempt. Targeted preparation for a specific open water challenge — however ambitious.
From enquiry
to open water confidence
Enquire
Tell us about your current level, your event or goal and what specifically worries you about open water. We'll match you with a coach and advise on a plan. Takes two minutes.
Pool assessment & skills session
We often start in the pool — assessing your stroke mechanics and practising sighting, bilateral breathing and key drills that transfer directly to open water. No open water surprise on session one.
Progressive open water sessions
Building exposure progressively — calm conditions first, then more challenging scenarios. Skills introduced in the pool are applied and consolidated in the open water environment.
Race simulation & event prep
In the weeks before your event: mass start practice, buoy turns, race-pace efforts and the specific open water scenarios your event will demand.
Common
questions
Pool technique is the foundation, but open water racing requires a separate skill set. Sighting, turning buoys, dealing with other swimmers, wetsuits, cold water and navigation are all specific to open water and are rarely practised in a pool. If you're racing in open water, at least a few dedicated OW sessions in the build-up will make a significant difference to both your time and your race experience.
Absolutely — open water anxiety is very common and entirely addressable with the right coaching approach. The fear usually comes from lack of exposure and unfamiliarity with what to expect. Sessions build confidence progressively — starting in controlled, calm conditions and working up to more realistic race scenarios. Most athletes are surprised how quickly their confidence develops with the right support.
For early sessions, no — we often start in the pool and progress to open water as confidence builds, and pool sessions can be done without a wetsuit. If you're moving to open water sessions, a wetsuit is strongly recommended for UK conditions. Your coach can advise on suitable options at your initial consultation. We don't require you to own specific kit before your first session.
More effectively than you might expect. Pool sessions drill the head-lift mechanics — the timing, the positioning, the hip-drop correction — so that when you're in open water the movement is automatic and energy-efficient. We also use sighting targets, altered lane line navigation and breathing pattern drills that transfer directly to open water racing. You'll be practising real sighting technique from session one.
Enquire about
open water coaching
Tell us about your goals, your current level and what you want to achieve in open water. We'll be in touch within 24 hours.