🎄 The 12 Days of Triathlon Swim Mistakes (and How to Finally Fix Them)
Your Christmas gift from BlackLine: clarity, calm, and faster swim splits.
Triathletes love to complicate the swim leg — and December is the perfect time to reset, slow down, and rebuild smarter habits.
Here are the 12 biggest triathlon swim mistakes we see all year long, wrapped up neatly like a festive coaching bundle. Fix these, and your 2026 season will hit different.
1. Over-kicking and blowing your legs before the bike
Your legs are your most valuable currency in a triathlon — don’t spend it all in the first discipline.
Triathletes often kick like they’re trying to power a boat engine, but the reality is: most of your propulsion should come from your arms.
A calmer, more economical kick keeps your legs fresh for the bike and run.
Train kick control. Slow tempo. Smart power. Let the legs flow behind you.
2. Sprinting the first 200m like it’s a 50m race
Almost every triathlete online admits to this mistake: adrenaline → panic → explosion → regret.
When the gun goes off, thousands of heart rates spike at once. It feels like chaos — but you don’t need to join the stampede.
Relax into the pace, slot into a draft, and let the pack pull you forward.
Your race is long. Your job is to outlast, not out-sprint.
3. Fighting for the inside line at every buoy
Triathletes love the shortest line… even when it costs them the most energy.
The inside line is where elbows, panic, and goggles get rearranged.
Instead, aim for a strong, stable position, even if it’s a metre wider.
You’ll save energy, keep momentum, and exit the turn ready to accelerate — not gasping.
4. Poor drafting (or none at all)
Drafting is free speed.
But most triathletes sit too far back, too wide, or too hesitant to commit.
Get close. Really close.
Sit on the feet, feel the bubbles, hold the rhythm.
You’ll conserve energy and stay attached to packs you’d normally lose.
5. Dropped elbow = no catch = no power
A low elbow in the catch phase is one of the most common (and destructive) flaws we see.
It collapses your pull, wastes power, and turns your stroke into arm-windmill chaos.
Fix it in training:
High elbow. Vertical forearm. Pressure on the water.
That’s where real speed lives.
6. Lifting your head too high when sighting
You don’t need to crane your neck like a seal.
Just let your eyes clear the water, then rotate to the side to breathe.
The higher your head goes, the lower your hips sink — and that’s instant drag.
7. Overthinking every detail mid-race
Stroke count. Tempo. Inhalation timing. Hand entry. Elbow height. Cadence. Rhythm.
This is the mental spiral of so many triathletes.
Race day isn’t the time to micromanage your technique.
You’ve done the work in training.
Race day is the time to trust it.
8. Panicking when you’re hit, grabbed, kicked or dunked
Open water is physical — that’s normal.
Someone will hit you. Someone will swim over your legs. Someone might knock your goggles.
Your superpower?
Not reacting.
Relax. Reset. Keep moving forward.
The calm athlete is always the faster athlete.
9. Not practicing open-water skills in training
Pack swimming, sighting, buoy turns, drafting — these skills matter just as much as fitness.
If you want confidence in open water, practice in open water.
Even 5–10 minutes of skill work at the end of a session makes a massive difference.
10. Poor navigation strategy (following the pack blindly)
Yes, draft the group.
No, don’t follow them off-course.
Triathletes are notorious for swimming beautiful S-curves when the pack goes rogue.
Have awareness. Trust your sighting. Swim your line.
11. Wearing the wetsuit incorrectly (too low, too tight, misaligned)
A wetsuit should feel like a second skin, not a straightjacket.
Most athletes wear them too low, restricting shoulder mobility and shortening their stroke.
Take the time to pull it up properly — legs, hips, torso, arms.
A well-fitted wetsuit equals a freer, smoother stroke.
12. Not warming up before the swim start
The cold shock, the elevated heart rate, the panic — all avoidable.
Warm up with mobility, activation, and a short dip if the organisers allow it.
You don’t need volume. You just need to wake up the system.
Your first 100m will feel smoother, calmer, and far more controlled.
🎁 Your Christmas Takeaway
Fix these 12 mistakes and you’ll swim faster — not by working harder, but by swimming smarter.
The swim leg sets the tone for your race. Build calm, confidence, and control, and the rest of your triathlon will follow.