Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
I am an Open Water swimming enthusiast. It’s fun, interesting, and brings a different dimension to the sport. For swimmers new to Open Water, one of the biggest curveballs is “sighting,” which is lifting your head to peek forward over the water to get your bearings from landmarks or buoys. Efficient navigation is important to avoid swimming farther than necessary but most swimmers are very inefficient at sighting when starting out. The keys to doing well are:
- Avoid picking up your head higher than you need to.
- Figure out how often you need to sight in order to stay on course. Less is better IF you stay on course.
- When you do pick up your head, bring your whole body up by engaging the legs a bit more intensely than before and tightening the core.
Here is a set to test how well you are doing sighting:
9 x 200 free @:30 rest
#1 – no sighting – just swim at a moderately strong pace
#2 – sight once every 8 or 10 strokes. Try to keep your overall effort close to #1, and see how close your time is to #1.
#3 – sight once every 4 or 8 strokes, again at the same intensity. Check your time.
Repeat for #4-6 and #7-9.
The closer together your times, the better and more efficiently you are practicing your sighting.
The Swimming Wizard 