Drafting is accepted practice as a race tactic in triathlon swimming, particularly when it comes to open-water swim sections. What does it mean? It’s when you swim directly behind or slightly to one side of another racer. The benefits of this can be substantial come race time, greatly reducing drag, oxygen consumption and perceived effort, while also increasing performance gain.

On the Start Line

If you already have experience of racing open water, you might want to consider the benefits of placing yourself among swimmers who are slightly faster than you. You’ll have to work a little harder at the start but this strategy will certainly help you get a good tow.

Don’t be afraid to ask other swimmers how fast they are if you’re unsure of the standard of those around you. Phase your question carefully, however: “How fast are you hoping to swim today?” is preferable to “I’m thinking of drafting you and I need to know how fast you are”.

Most people at the start are a little nervous but quite helpful, as nobody with any common sense wants to be in the wrong place at the beginning of a mass start. If you’re worried about being in the middle of a pack, then try going to one end where there are fewer swimmers. You may also find that some of the faster swimmers have the same idea.

Try to give yourself as much room as possible, especially if it’s a deep-water start. You should have an idea of whom to target as your lead swimmer before the start signal- either from previous experience or from asking questions.

After the Start Line

Be sure you’re locked onto your personal swim leader as soon as the start signal sounds. Make a mental note of their wetsuit markings so you can pick them out in the water.

There’s always a scramble, but try to relax as much as possible and keep moving. You’ll feel arms and legs moving all around you but stay focused on your rhythm, stroke and breathing and be observant for your leader’s feet.

Find another, more suitable pair of feet if plan A fails and your swimmer is too fast or slow.

Things will settle down after the first 150-200m and, although you may have worked harder than you might have wanted, you’ll be swimming in a better rhythm with someone pacing you. During this time, focus on your own race and avoid any aggressive swimming- it leads to distraction and ultimately a loss in performance.

You’ll need to practice race starts and you can do this by getting a few club swimmers together and/or attending a lake swim training session.

Drafting Etiquette

Try not to hit the person’s feet in front of you. This is frustrating and annoying for the lead swimmer. Every time you hit their feet, or worse, their calves or thighs, you slow them down. To get a good draft you must allow the lead swimmer to their job well, as it’s in your best interests that they do.

Lead swimmers are an accepting bunch generally. Most will have a race plan and will accept that swimmers of a lesser standard will tag along for the ride. They’ll know you’re not necessarily fast enough to lead and drafting off you would only slow them down. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try to get rid of you.

Good swimmers will generally apply two strategies to try to stop you drafting. Firstly, they might try to swim you off their feet with a sharp increase of pace over a sustained distance of maybe 100 or 200. This is most likely to happen immediately after a turning buoy. Secondly, you may find they start zig-zagging or changing direction quickly without warning. Both types of attempts to lose you will be short-lived as the energy expenditure in doing so is considerable. A swimmer of less ability will mistakenly kick their legs very hard and create a lot of splash for you. This strategy does very little other than make you both feel uncomfortable.

Experienced open-water swimmers will be philosophical about your presence and rationalize the need to stay fast, economical and smooth. If you’re swimming all over them, they’ll definitely get upset and may end up giving you a swift kick to let you know they’re not happy. If you find yourself on the wrong feet- either the swimmer in front is too slow or too fast- look for another option, generally a swimmer who is overtaking. Don’t wait to until they’ve gone by; start moving over towards them as their waist passes your head. If you’re too close to a swimmer on your side, then you’re going to get tangled up with their arms during recovery. So its prudent to try and maintain a 40cm (approx) gap between you, and swim with your head in line with their waste.

The main this to consider when rafting someone is to never assume they’re going the right way. Keen an eye at all times on the marker buoys and make necessary adjustments to stay on course, even if it means going it alone or finding someone else’s feet.

You can practice drafting in either a pool or open water environment. Simple, time-controlled sets in open water- for example 5 x 2mins efforts swimming on a partner’s feet- are a great way to see if you can settle into a rhythm. Turning complicates things in a pool, but 2 x 400m, where you each lead for one rep, is a useful exercise. Perform your own drafting and non-drafting experiments in a pool to gauge any speed and effort differential. Use your heart rate, time and perceived effort to draw up some comparisons- you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.

The study concluded that 0-50cm behind another swimmer is the most advantageous drafting position. At this distance drag is reduced by 20-21%. There are metabolic responses to drafting in this position too: oxygen consumption is reduced by 8%, blood lactate concentration by 33% and perceived effort by 21%. That would give you 3.2-5% performance gain in a race situation. In practical terms, if it normally takes you 25mins to swim 1.5km in open water, a 3.2% gain would save you 48secs while a 5% gain cuts as much as 75secs off you time. The study also showed that lateral drafting wasn’t as effective. It still reduced drag by 6-7% provided you’re positioned 50-100cm behind the hands of the lead swimmer with a 40cm gap between you.

Knowing where best to position yourself behind or beside lead swimmers helps you swim more economically. But getting into a good drafting position requires careful consideration of several key points to ensure your swim strategy runs smoothly. And you need to put that strategy into practice before the race has even started.