Good swimmers have a high navigational IQ or an innate ability to swim the quickest course in the open bodies of water.Â
What To Say - Or Not - To An Open Water Swimmer Courtesy of Coruja Filmes Produtora of Adherbal de Oliveira swimming the Travessia do Leme ao Pontal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There are lots of things that open water swimmers know, both instinctively and learned over time. They learn about how it is best to breathe in turbulent water; they learn what kinds
Photo courtesy of Nuala Moore in Windermere, England. This year, in a surprising and unexpected move, the top decision-making board in FINA, the FINA Bureau, decided that wetsuits can be used when the water temperature is 20°C or less (note: FINA races cannot be held in venues where the water temperature is 16°C). This decision was primarily made because
Forward Ho, Chad Wins South Africa's First Gold Photo credit Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia. Article courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Unlike the women's 5 km race earlier in the day, the make-up for the men's 5 km at the 2015 FINA World Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia was noticeably different. There was good reason for the
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. "The great navigators on Earth are those who give kindness and compassion to the Earth and those who live on it," said Nainoa Thompson. Those who know the world's oceans understand that there are few who are so understanding of ocean navigation and the ocean environment than Thompson, a master navigator who
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Danika Thompson may not view herself as a pure swimmer, but she is certainly a water woman. The 22-year-old lifeguard and former water polo player from San Clemente, California surfs, competes in paddle boarding both SUP and 10'6" prone paddling, surf skis, and does biathlons and lifeguard competitions in
The Innate Feel Of Veterans Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. University of California Berkeley swimming coach Dave Durden thinks what sets Olympic 100m and 400m relay champion Nathan Adrian apart is his kinesthetic awareness. "There are two types of sprinters. There are dumb sprinters, guys who just go down and back as fast as they can.
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. When we watch the great athletes in the sport of open water swimming in the water, we easily sense their high degree of awareness that these athletes possess about conditions, currents and competition. It is almost magically how sensitive, strategic and smart they are in the open water. Athletes like Petar
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Veterinarians occasionally describe medical doctors as those who take care of only one species. Cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz in her TED Talk (see here) reminds us of a similar analogy between pool swimming coaches and open water swimming coaches. While physicians focus on homo sapiens,
Photography courtesy of Mike Lewis, Ola Vista Photography, California. Andrew Gemmell is considered a genius in the open water swimming world with a navigational IQ that is off the charts. The 2012 Olympian's choice of direction in every condition during every race is calculated internally by his own cranial GPS, but his courses are set like he has a
