Advice on Oly tris please! (swim related)

I'm a private pilot. On my way to getting my license there were moments that I was afraid to face. Stall practice by myself without the instructor in the plane with me used to scare me. I know this is crazy but i got into flying because somewhere and some point i became afraid to fly on commercial airliners. So what did I do, I became a private pilot and learned that i was not so much afraid of flying but about not being in control. I'm very confident piloting my own aircraft. There are two points here:

1. You need to work with a swim instructor and be very honest about your fears. What is it really that your afraid of and dont feel ashamed to talk about it. I was fortunate to have a flight instructor who allowed me to express my fears and then we put a plan in place to address to address it.

2. You will overcome this once you clearly understand what is causing the panic attacks. You would think fear of drowning is obvious but it took me a while and a good instructor to realize that i was NOT afraid of stall practice, i was afraid of losing control of the plane and not being able to recover. He worked with me until he turned my fear into fun!Also, it turned out I was not afraid of flying but have some problems when i'm not in control of my own fate.

Perhaps this is obvious and its easy for me to tell you not to be afraid but I hope some of this helps. You will kick this fear out of your body with the right support. Good luck

All good advice above so I will try not to repeat it....but I think Colin nailed it, regarding the contact issue......I never have had any issue with OWS in my Oly/HIMs, but when I did a sprint in August I had a minor issue...not panick but definately more out of breath and frazzled than usual....looking back , since the race was shorter and I had a legitimate chance to place high I probably went out too fast for my fitness plus with all of the extra contact and traffic with a sprint and placing myself more aggressively, It seemed I was stopping, changing direction and getting frustrated more than I should have....I did not mind getting hit but it took so much more energy to swim in those conditions...so it was a learning experience.

Though I credit you for not just wanting to finish, but maybe you need to have a mantra that to take the swim slower in the beginning and just try to find open water...trust me coming from a moper and a boper swimmer that in many races that except for the elites/pros the time that seperates the FOP to the BOP is usually just a few to several minutes, so you have a bike and run to catch all of them....and if not your just probably not faster than them anyway

good luck

I also think that distance isn't the problem - it's the elements at the start.  I have been doing tris for years and have done every distance but Ironman.    I had the most relaxed perfect swim at my half iron, but even this year I panicked at a sprint! 

I have decided, at least until I am well and truly free of this, that I just need to let the pack go.  If I can get started with some clear space, then I am usually fine.  The 30 seconds I might wait don't compare to the minutes I may waste treading water, hanging on a kayak, whatever. It seems I usually end up gasping/struggling out on my own with no boat! 

Wearing a wetsuit helps me immensely.  I was set back about 5 years this summer when I had to do my first nonwetsuit swim.  I worried the whole time.  If it had been longer, or in a bigger lake, I may not have been able to do it.

So, long story short, keep plugging away at it.  Don't make it your thing - if you expect to panic, you probably will.  Give yourself some room and then start.  THEN, your other techniques will still be useful (counting strokes, etc). 

Finally, the most consistent thing to help me is a warmup if possible.  I can panic on the first few strokes during OWS practice, so to get that out of the way before the race is great.    I just swim long enough to get relaxed.

I don't think that you are panicking because you can't do the distance so I don't see a big difference between sprints an oly. You need to figure out the reason for the panic. Swimming more may or may not help you realize this. Do you have panic attacks in other aspect of your life (no need to answer here)? You might be able to figure out the root cause with therapy and counselling it might have nothing to do with swimming but is triggered during the competitive swimming portion.

1. It might be the opposite for you because its so short you might always be fighting for position, but a longer race might better suit you because you do have more time to just relax.

2. I did a webinar on this - http://triguycoaching.com/secret-swimming-tips-for-race-day-webinar... - and most of the tips might apply, but you may just need more time in a pool with people splashing you and in open-water with more people splashing you. Sounds crazy but it may help

My wife had a freak out in a sprint last weekend and she practiced in open water.  She started swimming about a year ago and does 2500 meters twice a week or more.  I thought she was ready and she thought she was ready.  It was a 300 meter swim.  Couldn't figure it out because I've never had a problem with open water as far as fear...got lost because I forgot to sight but that's another story...Then I thought about it.

When I was young I was in the boy scouts and at other times I went to the beach a lot.  There was always alot of horsing around in the water with my freinds, dunking each other, playing water polo, chicken rides, swimming in a lake, etc.  Basically wrestling in the water...I also wrestled in high school.  I think this is why the open water swim never bothered me.  Just a lot of people trying to get from here to there and someone who might kick you or punch you by accident.

In my opinion and far from being an expert, I think if someone has a fear of the water in the open water swim and all those legs and arms around you, get with someone in the deep end pool and dunk each other.  Try and swim past them and have them block you or try to.  Get used to struggling / horseplay in the water.  In fact, in a lifesaving course it's one of the drills to save someone in the water.  The "drowning person's" job is to fight you and for you to subdue them.  Teaches you how to fight in the water without drowning and to get comfortable in the water.  When you get into it in the Tri swim all those other people won't be a problem...All this is just a thought but might be a unique approach.