Triathlete Blueprint Newsletter #111-Balance Lost After The Swim here is the Fix

Yan Busset
Jun 14
3 min read

Updated: Jun 21

Read time: 4min.

By Coach Yan Busset

Ever stood up after the swim and felt like the beach was spinning?

Kick Smart, Stand Strong: Avoid Dizziness in T1

Ever felt light-headed or wobbly after the swim in a triathlon? You’re not alone. Many athletes experience a moment of dizziness when they stand up and start running into T1. It can feel like the ground shifts under your feet or like your legs aren’t fully responding. It's not dramatic, but enough to throw you off your game. Let’s look at what’s really happening, and how to fix it.

Why You Feel Dizzy After the Swim

During the swim, your body is horizontal and supported by the water. Blood flows more evenly, and gravity doesn’t pull it downward like when you're standing. But the moment you get out of the water and stand up, everything changes. Blood rushes into your legs, and your brain might momentarily get less. That’s when you feel dizzy or unstable.

This is a textbook case of orthostatic hypotension, a sudden drop in blood pressure caused by the shift in body position. And it’s more likely to happen when:

You’ve just completed a long swim
You’ve used your legs very little
The water is cold
You’re slightly dehydrated
You stand up too quickly without leg activation

So now you’re thinking, “Right, the solution must be to just kick more during the whole swim.”

Well, not exactly.

Why You Shouldn’t Kick Too Much During the Swim

In triathlon, the swim is only the beginning. You still have the bike and run ahead, and your legs, especially the big muscles like the quads, will be in high demand later.

Here’s the key: your legs consume a lot of oxygen. If you overuse them during the swim, you’ll pay the price later. In most triathlon swims, your legs aren’t needed much for propulsion. They’re needed more for balance, body position, and rotation control.

That’s why a two-beat kick is ideal. One small, controlled kick per arm stroke. It’s just enough to keep your body aligned and legs from sinking, but not enough to drain your energy tank.

Let’s Put It This Way: The BMW and the Lada

Think of your arms as a powerful BMW and your legs as a small old Lada. If you connect the two on a highway, the BMW pulls the Lada. The Lada doesn’t help the BMW go faster. It just rolls behind. If it drags, it slows everything down.

Same in swimming. Your arms do the main job. Your legs just need to stay streamlined. If they kick chaotically or too much, they create resistance, not speed. In physics terms, when two elements are connected, the total propulsion only increases if both produce synchronized, effective force. Otherwise, the dominant engine, your arms, defines the system’s speed.

So no, the solution is not to kick more during the whole swim.

So What’s the Fix Then?

Now you might ask, “You’re telling me the dizziness is from not kicking much… but also telling me not to kick much. So how do I fix it?”

Here’s the trick:

In the last 50 meters of your swim, start kicking more.

Just enough to activate your legs. Nothing wild. This re-engages blood flow in your lower body and prepares you for the upright position. It acts like a pump to push blood upward, reducing the sudden pressure drop when you stand. It’s a small adjustment, but it makes a big difference.

You're still saving your legs for later. You’re just waking them up in time.

Key Takeaways

Dizziness after the swim comes from a sudden drop in blood pressure, called orthostatic hypotension.
It happens more when your legs have been inactive during a long swim.
Don’t try to fix it by kicking more the whole way. That wastes energy.
Instead, swim with a relaxed two-beat kick to stay efficient.
Then, in the final 50 meters, increase your leg kick to ease the transition to standing and running.

It’s a simple move. You just need to remember it.

Train it. Practice it. Use it. And run into T1 with a clear head.

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