Stay focused: Why you need to keep up your swim training all winter long

For all of us living in the northern hemisphere October brings visible evidence that winter is fast approaching. With leaves falling, days growing shorter and temperatures dropping, it’s time to start planning your winter training to ensure a regular routine is maintained. As a competitive swimmer my training doesn’t vary much whatever the state of the weather, but I completely understand why many non-pro’s feel the chill and dark days are daunting.

My tip to folks is to not to neglect your training. Getting back into top shape by the summer will be much harder if you don’t swim regularly to maintain swim fitness. I reckon you should use the winter months to develop a good balance between building fitness and improving stroke technique. Focus on your kicking for instance when swimming freestyle.

You want to be as streamlined as possible, so it’s important to avoid kicking too hard or dragging your legs too low in the water behind you. Unless you are planning to be a sprinter, you should be focusing on keeping your legs high and straight to reduce drag. You also need to build ankle flexibility to help reduce drag caused by your feet sinking too low below the surface, which is where you need to be. To avoid burning energy unnecessarily try to kick gently, letting your arms do the work of moving you forward.

Need some encouragement? Why not set a goal to develop your open water skills so that when the summer comes around you’re ready to go out and test your endurance and abilities in a beautiful stretch of river, lake or sea.

And, folks, don’t forget to stay hydrated throughout your session in the pool. And there's nothing like a Bluewater stainless steel bottle to help you keep your cool as you hydrate...