Tip of the Week: Turn Buoy Race Strategy

February 1, 2010

Ever got to a race and tried to follow all of the marker buoys in an open water swim, only to find that your competitors have long passed you by?  In most races, you only have to swim outside of the turn buoys.  All of the marker buoys in between are just that:  markers to help you swim straight.  It often doesn’t matter which side you swim by them.  Most of these are placed in approximate alignment with the actual turn.  In many races, they can be way out of sync. 

I wouldn’t advise you to swim to the inside of a marker buoy unless you are sure that the race rules allow you to do so.  But if it is straighter to head right for the turn buoy instead of connecting the dots that are the marker buoys, then do it.  Personally, I have found that the difference in time can be measured in minutes, even in a half mile swim course. 

The same goes for the back half of the swim towards shore.  If the shore line is angled to the direction you are swimming, it may be faster to swim the straightest way to shore and run down the beach to the swim finish.  I have hit shore 20 yards away from the finishing chute, just because it was faster than it would have been to swim directly.  The distance may be longer, and you may look out of place from your competitors, but keep in mind that you can run up to four times faster than you can swim.

View previous swimming tips.