Open Water Swimming Podcasts

Once the lane ropes disappear, swimming talk changes. Stroke mechanics still matter, but so do sighting, cold, currents, crowded starts and the unnerving freedom of having no black line to follow. The best listening captures that shift in scale: advice has to work in moving water, while stories acquire a landscape and a little danger. Some shows approach the subject from the race start; others begin with rivers, swimming communities or the simple desire to get outside.

From pool skill to open-water judgment

Age Group Triathlon Podcast offers the cleanest bridge for athletes who already understand basic swim training. Its loose, coach-led style leaves room for caveats and ordinary-athlete concerns rather than presenting one immaculate technique for everyone. Episode 72- Advanced Open Water Swimming Skills goes straight to the subject, while Episode 35- Non Wetsuit Swims marks the sort of condition-specific question that can change how a swimmer prepares. This is practical listening for someone who wants the reasoning to stay attached to the advice.

Tri Swim Coach Podcast is brisker and more unruly. The coaches sound like they are still on deck: joking, interrupting, correcting a cue and occasionally getting blunt when swimming culture becomes needlessly intimidating. Its technique episodes include TSC Teaser - Rotation 101: Stop Overthinking, Start Swimming Better, TSC Teaser - More Kick Talk: Ankles, Quads, And The Smiley Face Line and TSC Teaser - Is Your Stroke Lying To You? The value for open-water swimmers is the show’s insistence that technique has to fit real bodies and survive contact with actual swimming, not merely look elegant in a controlled lane.

Then there is TOWER 26 Be Race Ready Podcast, which concentrates the open-water problem into race execution. Episode #133: Open Water Skills Put to USE! is the obvious entry, followed by Episode #134: Sight for SUCCESS! for one of the defining differences between pool and outdoor swimming. Episode #136: Race Day Swim Prep, Nuts and Bolts and Episode #135: Race Tactics Revealed carry that skill set toward competition. Listen here when the question is less “Can I swim the distance?” and more “Can I make good decisions while everyone else is swimming around me?”

The places and people beyond race morning

Swimmingpod gives the subject a wider social geography. Its episode list moves from Winter bathing at Umeakallbad, Sweden, with Dan Allen-Hörnfeldt and Elvira Lundgren to Amelie Schlemmer and the Donaukanal Swimming Club, Vienna and Swim For Your Life - Lake Bullen Merri, Australia. Urban access appears in Lord James Bethell and a Vision for a Swimmable Thames in London, while Toby Robinson, Olympian Marathon Swimmer, Paris, and Bringing Swimming back to the Thames in London joins marathon swimming to the same river. The recurring appeal is that a swim location is also a community, a local argument and a piece of history.

That place-based sensibility takes a more reflective turn in Heavy Or Not - The O.G. Swim Guide. Exploring the Emotional and Social Benefits of Wild Swimming in Scotland + Counting Losses and Radio Lab story signals a conversation that extends beyond splits and stroke counts. It is a useful counterweight for listeners drawn to outdoor swimming because of how it feels and whom it brings together.

Our Ocean sits farther from coaching, yet it belongs beside these conversations when the water itself is the concern. Its warm interview style starts with lived coastal experience and gradually opens into ecology or civic action. How can we make Marine Protection fair? Just Transitions and the Equitable Use of Our Seas and The Magic Science Making the Invisible Visible: eDNA offer environmental context, while Where Land meets the Sea - Rewilding Greencliff Farm keeps the shoreline in view. Swimmers who become curious about the places holding their sport will find a natural next listen here.

Channels, rivers and swimming lives

For long-distance culture, SwimOut has the deepest run of unmistakably open-water subjects. Captain Webb: The Channel Conqueror and English Channel - Ask the experts approach the Channel through history and practical expertise, while Indian Channel Swimmers broadens the field of people represented. The scale changes with My River Avon Swim, and environmental risk enters through Pollution in our rivers and swim spots: S6 E2. There is room for achievement without reducing every swimmer to a result: Jane Asher: The World Record Breaker sits alongside Magnificent Vintage Women: S6 E1.

This page stays close to swimming once the pool walls fall away. For the full swim-bike-run picture, move up to Triathlon. If courses, competition and race-day experience are the main attraction, head to Racing & Events; for preparation across all three disciplines, visit Triathlon Training.

Where to start

Begin with Age Group Triathlon Podcast and Episode 72- Advanced Open Water Swimming Skills for a direct coaching entry. Choose TOWER 26 Be Race Ready Podcast and Episode #134: Sight for SUCCESS! when race application is pressing. For swimming culture and place, try Swimmingpod with Amelie Schlemmer and the Donaukanal Swimming Club, Vienna. If distance, history and the Channel are the draw, go to SwimOut and Captain Webb: The Channel Conqueror.

Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.