The Realities of Improving the Swim with Devo Athlete Zack Cooper

A winter training like no other: TTL Devo athlete, Zack Cooper shares the realities of trying to improve his swimming.

Coming out of the water at Indian Wells 70.3 on December 9th last year (my third pro race), I was gifted with a sight of only a few bikes left in transition. That’s never a good sign. At that very moment, I remember saying to myself, something needs to change in my swim training. Fast forward a lot of thinking time after the race, a first proper off season, and all of a sudden, I was on my way to Denmark at the start of January to learn to swim. 

To give you some background, and I’m sure it’s like many of you reading this. I grew up doing a lot of sports, from basketball, to handball, football and even sailing. Everything except swimming. We all wish that we could speak to our 10 year old selves right and say “get in that darn pool” but the reality is, I didn’t even know what triathlon was at that age. 

One thing which I did know growing up though is that I wanted to become a professional athlete. I just didn’t know which sport. Since 2015, I have been working towards that goal in triathlon, but I’d say that it’s only been the past two years where I can be proud of going “all-in”. From quitting my job, to going to train with some of the best Ironman athletes in the world, I realised that to become a professional, you need to surround yourselves with people at that level. From fueling to recovery to training consistency, I learnt more in six months than I did in 10 years of triathlon, thanks to the Laidlow crew in the south of France.

A lot of progression yes, but swimming has remained a major disadvantage in my racing. Despite a 13th place at Challenge Roth in my pro debut last year, there is no hiding from the reality that your race is pretty much over at professional level with a 10min deficit out of the water. 

So what have I been doing over the winter to try and set the swim on a pathway of progression? How has my training changed across all three disciplines?

• I spent the whole month of January resetting my swim. Forget doing volume, intensity, chasing times.. I wanted to learn the freestyle fundamentals but most importantly find cues that allow me to integrate this knowledge into my stroke. This was done in collaboration with Bo Jacobsen who helped a certain Magnus Ditlev transform his swim. A January camp in Denmark isn’t the norm but it was an opportunity to purely focus on technique. 

• I’m now coached by Javier Sola. Javier is well known in the world of cycling, coaching the likes of Tadej Pogacar at UAE Team Emirates. Many don’t know that he also has a vast coaching experience in triathlon and currently works with Marta Sanchez and Hayden Wilde. The focus has been on durability, zone 2 and building a massive base these past few months. Confident to say my bike and run are in best-ever shape but no point saying that without demonstrating on race day!

• Since coming back from Denmark, my focus has remained on holding technique. The camp wasn’t a quick fix, I was never expecting that but my consistency in the pool has improved and my short distance speed too. Gone are the days where I feel like I’m a complete brick in the water. Even when tiredness creeps in, I’ve found that technical improvements have helped maintain speed. The struggle remains trying to hold technique over longer distances but that will take time. 

• As mentioned before, environment is key and I’ve been lucky to find a small group of pro triathletes here in Switzerland to swim with. Add to that a weekly open water specific wetsuit swim in the pool and I feel like we’re heading in the right direction. I’m actually enjoying swimming which is a first. 

So did this swim approach work? 

Last week I had the opportunity to try and implement my learnings at Infinitri Peniscola in Spain. A pro half ironman race that attracted a huge 120 elite men on the start list. My mindset was not to “expect” anything when it comes to the swim. I wanted to stay relaxed, yet swim with intent and confidence. Coming out 3min30 from the lead swimmer was by far my best swim to date.

A 90km bike, and half marathon later and I ended up 9th overall.  Hopefully I can build on this towards bigger races coming up this year, starting with Ironman Valencia 70.3 on April 27th.  

To all the AOS (adult onset swimmers) out there, keep the belief, but also.. be relentless in your pursuit of progression!

-Zack Cooper, TTL Devo Team Athlete