REAL Blog
Shark Safety, Mental Skills, and Dry Land Strength: Advice for Swimmers and Triathletes from Beyond the Breakers
- Adina O'Neill
Imagine an entire day dedicated to swimming! The first annual Beyond The Breakers conference combined everything from technique, training and mindset to supporting marathon swims, safety in open water and avoiding sharks. With 15 sessions to choose from it was a day full of inspirational stories and unique experiences. The conference united and educated swimmers, coaches and open water enthusiasts from around the world.
I was excited to walk away with specific information from each session that I can apply to improve my own swimming and support the athletes I coach. This blog will cover a few highlights and at the end, I’ll share how you can access the full recordings.
Since one of the core values at Team B*REAL is inclusion and acceptance, I will focus on 3 presentations that stood out to me as information that all swimmers can benefit from: Mental Skills, Swimming With Sharks, and Dryland Resistance Training.
Let’s Dive In!
Excel In Tough Situations, Susan Sotir, Ph.D.
Sue broke down the Mental Skills we use during training into 4 stages: prepare, think, feel, solve.
Prepare: Think about the type of goals you set and how you monitor them. Focusing on process goals like skill development and knowledge building or emotions like joy and pride can help maintain motivation on a daily basis where outcome goals like a specific time, pace or placement may take weeks or months to achieve.
Monitor your progress with the “Good-Better-How” system. At the end of each workout session or training block identify 1 good thing that you can celebrate, 1 thing you can do better and define how you will move forward. Athletes can do this on their own or with the help of a coach.
Think: Consider how you talk and think about your training. Readjust your expectations to create a more positive approach. Confront any negative language and work to eliminate statements that are untrue. You can find support internally from your own voice or externally from friends, family or your coach.
Feel: Every athlete needs tools to help change and/or challenge negative thoughts and emotions. We practiced box breathing and grounding. Box breathing is when you connect your breathing to drawing an imaginary box: inhale for 3 seconds as you draw the bottom of the both, hold your breath for 3 seconds as you draw one side, exhale for 3 seconds as you draw the top of the box and hold your breath for 3 seconds as you close the box. Concentrating on counting replaces attention to your thoughts. Grounding is a way to bring your attention to the present moment. Name out loud 5 things you see, 4 things you hear, 3 things you touch, 2 things you smell and 1 positive thought.
Solve: As an athlete you may try to imagine all the things that can go wrong during a race in order to practice and feel prepared, but you can’t plan for everything. When you encounter a roadblock during training, close your eyes and visualize breaking the task down into smaller details until they reach a level you can control. Using visualization to find solutions will help make the hard times more manageable.
I recently used this visualization technique to help a swimmer overcome anxiety about swimming in deep water and have incorporated the Good-Better-How system with some of my privately coached athletes during check-in meetings to help build confidence and ownership in their training. I hope they help you, too!
Swimming With White Sharks, Greg Skomal, Ph.D.
One of the biggest fears about open water swimming is being attacked by a shark. According to Dr. Skomal ”You are more likely to be bitten by a human in NY City than a shark.” He has conducted extensive research including in the Cape Cod area using tagging and drones to observe patterns and shark behavior over many years. Understanding his findings should ease your nerves and you can follow his advice on how to stay safe in the ocean.
Sharks do not like to eat humans. Small sharks like to eat fish. As they grow to about 8-10ft they seek to eat larger food sources like seals and sealions. Sharks are color blind and use shadows to navigate. While they are learning to identify their food, they sometimes make mistakes and bite humans by accident.
Sharks usually prefer water warmer than 47F that is shallow with lots of seals and can adapt quickly to changing environments which is why they are often found in areas like Cape Cod. They like to swim in areas of poor visibility so they can remain unseen as they approach their food until they are ready to attack. If a seal sees the shark, the shark will generally lose.
Here are some tips to keep yourself safe:
- Always swim with a buddy or in a group
- Don’t swim at dawn or dusk
- Avoid areas with seals, bait fishes, diving seabirds, or where people fish
- Don’t wear shiny jewelry
- Avoid murky water
- Avoid deep areas between sandbars and steep drop offs
You can learn more about Dr. Skomal’s research in his books: The Shark Handbook, The Great White Shark Handbook or Chasing Shadows.
Optimizing Open Water Swimming Through Dryland Resistance Training, Dan Daly
Dan shared some practical tips that swimmers can use to build strength on dry land and how to transfer that strength into the water.
He encourages a movement screen as a starting point because “what is measured gets managed.” He looks at muscular balance along with functional mobility and strength in order to maintain balance, reduce injury and improve performance. Dan recommends doing strength movements that use the same muscles as swimming and progress to resisted swimming for better coordination and propulsion without disrupting stroke rhythm.
Let’s break it down into 3 key areas:
Mobility – focus on ankles, hips & shoulders with exercises such as: cat-cow, thread the needle, 90-90 rotations, and squats.
Dry Land Strength – full body workouts including medicine ball slams and pull ups to increase pull strength as well as working up to one-arm planks to build a strong core for body position. A swim ergometer or using bands with a bench is an effective way to work on technique and power simultaneously.
Resisted Swimming – incorporate resistance in your pool workouts using a parachute for drag or paddles (consider starting with a smaller size so you have enough strength to use safely).
Consider these 3 guidelines for practical application:
- 5-10 minutes mobility & technique daily
- 2-3 times/week upper body/core resistance training
- Combination of aerobic training, strength and speed work
Craig Lewin and his team did an outstanding job and are already planning a bigger event for November 8, 2025. If you can’t wait until then, get access to the recorded sessions now. Click here and save 15% off your virtual ticket with code BREAL15.
If you need help integrating these ideas into your own training or need support working towards your next swimming goal, make sure to reach out. Book a free 20 minute connection call with Coach Adina to get started.
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