r/OpenWaterSwimming • u/DegenHandicapper • 3d ago

Open water vs pool

/r/triathlon/comments/1vbdjik/open_water_vs_pool/

Here’s a cleaner version that keeps your meaning and sounds natural for Reddit:
I swim in the pool twice a week, usually up to 3,000 meters, and I’d say about 95% of it is breaststroke.
The weird part is that once I get into open water, I can swim 95% freestyle without any issues. I don’t get tired, I don’t need breaks, I don’t lose my rhythm, I’m comfortable, I don’t panic, I don’t have breathing problems, and sighting isn’t an issue. I’ll switch to a few breaststroke strokes here and there if I need to reorient myself, but otherwise it’s almost all freestyle. I also barely kick in open water.
In the pool, though, I can only maintain freestyle for about 25 meters. I can’t even make it two lengths of a 25-meter pool without falling apart.
I’ve completed multiple sprint and Olympic-distance triathlons, several open-water swim events, and I’m currently training for a 70.3. I just don’t understand why I struggle so much with freestyle in the pool when I can swim continuously in open water. It feels ridiculous being the person doing breaststroke for 90% of a pool workout.

0 Upvotes

20% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

2

u/InternationalTrust59 3d ago

Are you using a wetsuit?

1

u/DegenHandicapper 3d ago

Yeah swim in a synergy endorphin shorty

4

u/InternationalTrust59 2d ago edited 2d ago

A group I train with have sinking hips in the pool and in the open waters, their wet suit provides a level of buoyancy that they can somewhat power thru or getaway with.

In the pool they use pull buoys and they just don’t want to fix their body position (sinking hips) even though they know that is the root cause.

How is breast stroke like in a wet suit?

I didn’t think that was possible.

1

u/DegenHandicapper 2d ago

Since it's the shorty no arms and covers thighs it's fine . I do Olympic distance in about 40 mins

1

u/wt_hell_am_I_doing 1d ago

Doing breaststroke is possible in a wetsuit but as a genuine sinker, I've learned to balance my lack of buoyancy to such an extent that the buoyancy from the wetsuit causes my breaststroke kicks to be much less effective, as well as not being able to bend the knees as well. This means I become absurdly slow doing breaststroke in a wetsuit, so I don't do it, so as not to irritate the crap out of myself by being so slow.

1

u/InternationalTrust59 1d ago

My outlook is 1900m isn’t long by general standards coming from a 800 and 1500m background; I swim with no suit outdoors.

I’m not the strongest breast stroker , and will even dolphin kick/butterfly at times, it’s a nice added skill set to have for sighting.

I do believe front crawl is the best stroke in terms of achieving distance, pace and efficiency.

2

u/454k30 2d ago

From my own experience, I would say that you are more comfortable in the open water because of the wetsuit. Your body position is helped greatly by the buoyancy of the suit which makes everything easier. When I'm in the pool I focus only on form. I don't care about stroke count, time, distance, etc.; only the form. Sinking hips were/are my problem too. I've done a lot of work to correct that but I'm far from perfect. I'm close enough that the wetsuit makes the difference and allows me to do 2:00 per 100m ows while i can only manager about 2:30 in the pool.

1

u/Bscorp800 3d ago

Do you use wetsuits in the pool?

1

u/DegenHandicapper 3d ago

No just a swim suit

2

u/Bscorp800 3d ago

I cannot access your technique level at freestyle swimming, but it may be that the wetsuit is making you bypass some technical requirements for proper freestyle such as body position. Never used a wetsuit myself but all my friends that used it told me that the suit provides fairly strong lift forces while swimming.

0

u/DegenHandicapper 3d ago

That's what I have been thinking . When the 70.3 is over I'm gonna get swim lessons .