5 tips to reduce swim anxiety at your next race

Water gently lapping over your weightless body as you effortlessly float staring up at a big, blue sky. The cool kiss of the ocean as it suspends you in its embrace. Your body relaxing as you sink into a calmness. The summer breeze creating small ripples all around you, massaging tired muscles.

If this is not the image conjured up when you think of swimming, you need to do the following five things to help you look forward to your next swim session.

Swimming creates the most anxiety among age group athletes of all the disciplines in triathlon. The majority of athletes don’t have a competitive swimming background. While that might also be true for the bike and run, the swim presents unique challenges due to its technicality and its environment.

There are several things you can do in the pool to dial down the anxiety at your next race.

Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Breathing calmly

If you are a nervous swimmer, breathing can not only help keep you calm down, it can also improve technique. Before jumping in the water, perform five deep breathing cycles, exhaling fully to empty your lungs. Hold your breath with empty lungs for a few seconds. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system helping you to relax.

In this relaxed state, start your workout slow. Don’t worry that going slow in the warm up will affect your average swim pace. What really matters is how you execute the session, not what your Garmin says about your average pace. Learn to get over this nagging obsession so you can apply the correct efforts for each swim set.

In the warm up focus on long relaxed strokes and calm breaths. If you start to feel the anxiety build, practice the same breath work you did on the pool deck while swimming to bring yourself back to a state of calm. Practicing how to regulate your anxiety while swimming is a skill you are going to need after the cannon blast. If you don’t practice it in the pool you cannot rely on it in the race.

Breathing correctly

One of the most common breathing errors is lifting the head to get air. For the best body position, swim with eyes down or at a 45 degree angle towards the bottom of the pool. To breathe, rotate the head sideways without looking up. Simply turn your head from the “eyes down” position to sideways, with your ear in the water at all times.

Tuck your chin to your shoulder on the side that you are breathing. Ideally, only half of your mouth should be out of the water. This is why you see photos of elite swimmers with a “pirate mouth” when they turn to breathe. Lifting your head at anytime instead of rolling it directly to the side will cause your body position to change and your legs to sink. This causes drag, and is a drag, because now you have to work harder to pull your sinking legs along with you.

Take this fact into consideration when sighting in open water. It is unavoidable that you must look up at some point to sight. You can learn to keep this to the bare minimum using crocodile eyes. Look up to sight but only just above the water line, keeping your chin in the water. Put your eyes back in the water and turn your head to the side to breathe. Breaking up sighting and breathing in two steps avoids lifting the head higher out of the water to get a breath and sight at the same time. An alternative is to steal a breath from the side as you return your face back to the water.

Use a pull buoy

Using a pull buoy elevates your legs so that your feet and bum stay nice and high in the water. It’s true that you are not achieving this because of your excellent swim technique, but as a triathlete that’s actually ok. The majority of triathlon swims are in open water cool enough for a wetsuit. If it is generally a non-wetsuit swim, it’s likely because the water temperature is always warm. In that case, it also means the water is extremely salty and will keep you buoyant without a wetsuit.

Knowing that you will likely have assistance with body position either from a wetsuit or the natural buoyancy of the water, it isn’t imperative that you spend countless painful swim sessions trying to perfect your body position.

Focusing instead on calm and correct breathing is time better spent. It will help you achieve both a calmer mindset and coping skills for the real event. It will naturally improve body position without endless drills you aren’t sure you are performing correctly unless you have a coach on deck giving you feedback.

Using a pull buoy has the added bonus of being a strength building tool. Without the assistance of a kick, and having to pull harder through the drag that the equipment adds, you are working with more resistance. A stronger upper body will make each stroke more powerful.

Practice in your wetsuit

Save your old, stretched out wetsuit and wear it in the pool. Not only will you get the buoyancy benefit, but if the suit is too loose it will add significant drag. This is another way to get some strength work done by adding resistance.

Use the opportunity to alleviate the stress of getting the darn thing off on race day, when your heart and mind are racing. Practicing removing your suit as fast as possible at the end of your workout. This will not only make you faster at getting your wetsuit off, it will teach you some tricks about what works best with your specific type of wetsuit and know ahead of race day.

Hit the hot tub

Save five minutes at the end to get in some hot tub time. Having a reward system can help you take the plunge when you are tempted to skip your pool session. Water is nice! Warm water is very nice. You deserve to take a few minutes for yourself at the end to soak in your accomplishment.

Close your eyes and use this time as an opportunity to creative visualize the swim in your next race. At that moment you are in a positive headspace having gotten in your pool session and practiced some valuable skills for a calmer, faster swim. In that glow, imagine going through the steps of putting on your wetsuit, thinking positive thoughts, doing your deep breathing exercises, executing a calm and smooth swim, and getting your wetsuit off without hassle.

Try to remember that water holds us up and is an environment humans are naturally drawn to. If you can employ these anti-anxiety strategies you can get to your happy place in the swim.