Sighting
I did my first open water swim of the season yesterday for one hour. I was in a lake that was about 250 yards across. It was a beautiful day and a great swim, but I was all over the place. Is there a strategic way to stay straight in open water (like look up every "x" number of strokes, breast stroke every so often, etc..), or should I just plan on chasing the person in front of me?
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You may not be swimming strait to begin with. That black line at the bottom of the pool lets you correct, but without it, if your stroke isn't symetrical (you pull more with one arm or you cross over with another) then you are going to have more trouble swimming strait. So you gotta try to fix that first.
Bilateral breathing helps with the symetry issue to some extent, so if you aren't already doing so, learn to bilateral breath. This is also helps avoid the situation where the bouys are on the right and you breath to the left. It also gives you more opportunity to use other people around you as guides as you breath when the bouys are harder to see (in choppy waters). Two guys to my left, two ladies to my right, I must be at least close to right!
As for the number of times you sight- it sorta depends on the situation. If you are sighting correctly (without dropping your hips), you could almost sight on every breath if the water conditions required it (small swim wave so not many others to sight off, choppy conditions, bouys place far apart). But in good conditions you shouldn't need to sight more than once every 9 strokes (assuming your bilateral breathing).
Finally- depending on the situation, it may be better NOT to use the bouys as your guide. When the wind picks up and the bouys get moved, it might be straiter/shorter to swim to a point on the shore line.
Hi Guys:
For me, I have found that if I am not a straight OW swimmer I need to sight more often. You have to test for yourself, but I count right arm strokes. I am pretty stratight so I sight every 6 right arm strokes. However, my wife needs to sight every 3.
The other tip is focus on a fixed object on land out beyond the buoy vs. the buoy. The land object won't move whereas the buoy can and probably will.
Hope this helps.
John
for me, i sight by comfort. if the buoys are close together, i may go longer between looks, doing my best to keep my stroke rhythmic.
I sight every 5 left arm strokes. If I find I am swimming fairly straight I may increase to every 6-8 arm strokes. And yes, pick a landmark to sight off rather than only buoys.
I was just taught to sight by rotating my head forward after I take a breath, keeping my eyes just above the water line just before my breathing side arm finishes its recovery. This seems to give me enough time to pick up my landmark but does jerk my head out of the water or move my body too far away from my swim position.
+1 on this. It takes practice. I am still practicing -- but keeping the eyes just about water line is key -- and kind of rotating your head from underneath your high elbow and then calming forward and around in one rather gentle, non- balance upsetting motion.
It took me the longest time to understand this, too. You do not need to get a full picture of the thing you are sighting -- just a glimpse. Sighting is faster and smoother for me this way. The bigger the landmark, the easier this is to do -- but I think have the idea in your head about where the "orange thing/building blob/mountain/whatever" in front of you is also helps keep you straight.
Improving your kick may also help with your swimming in a straight line. If you have a big scissor kick or kick awkwardly it will throw off your body position and could cause you to reach too far over the body's center line when taking a stroke. More off center == more East-West swimming.
Also legit for OW swimming, find a set of legs going about the right pace (and by 'right' I mean a touch faster than you) and draft off them. They will be looking to go straight as well and you can reduce your number of looks. Degree of difficulty: if the legs your following are attached to a crazy person, you could be even more off course. So do check every now and then. (as Reagan said, "trust, but verify.")
Personally I swim fairly straight so I check every 10 breaths. I run into problems seeing the buoys, doubly so on days with lots of chop (or elbows!).
Word.
+1 to this as well. There's also the option of sighting first (again, keeping eyes as low in the water as possible), and then turning your head for a breath. This is the way I do it, and I find that it creates less drag than trying to breathe to the side first and then bringing the head forward. Either way works though, as long as you don't lift the head so high that your legs start sinking.
I typically sight every 8 - 16 strokes, depending on how big the buoys are, what kind of landforms are available for sighting off of, how much chop, etc.