Swim Straight! How to Master Sighting in Open Water
When swimming in open water, sighting is a crucial skill that allows you to keep a straight course and stay on target. Seeing the horizon is more than just looking up; it is also about minimizing disturbances to your swimming rhythm while spotting the horizon efficiently. We’ll discuss how to incorporate effective sighting techniques into your training routine in order to navigate open waters with precision in this article.
1. Quick Spotting:
You can spot your reference points while swimming by taking brief, quick glances forward without interrupting your stroke when you sight. As you continue swimming, let your visual cortex process the information while you glance forward and return your head smoothly to the water instead of holding your head up for extended periods.
Try this on dry land first when you arrive at your swim spot, whether it’s a pool, lake or ocean. First close your eyes and generally face a direction that has some interesting objects in the distance. This could be the buoys on your swim course, a marina, a parking lot or a group of people. Don’t study the area first before closing your eyes…that’s cheating! Close your eyes first and then rotate your body to facd the direction you’ve chosen, or you can have a friend help point you the right way, while taking turns.
You can also try this right where you are reading this article…when you’re ready, do NOT look up from your screen without first closing your eyes. Close your eyes THEN lift your head to face any direction that you know has some objects in front of you.
Now with your eyes closed, open and close them as quickly as you can and keep them closed. Don’t open your eyes, look around and close them again, you’re simply going to blink once, eyes open then closed again. With your eyes closed, you’ll have a visual memory of what you just saw even if you can’t identify specific objects. If you are doing this with a partner, describe what you saw. If on a swim course, you’ll probably want to identify the buoys right? Now decide what additional information you want to gather for your 2nd blink. Do you need to rotate your head a little to face a specific direction so whatever you’re trying to gather information about is more in front of you? Did you see colors but you’re not sure what the colors are? Did you see a car but thought there may be more?
Repeat the blink again, keeping your eyes closed when you’re done. You can blink at a speed that allows you to “see” more, but remember that after you close your eyes, you continue to “see” what was there. If the lighting is bright enough you may even notice a literal impression on your retina after your eyes are closed. it takes several seconds for the cells on the back of the eye to revert back to their neutral state, and during that time, you’re brain is still getting the signal of what was imprinted on the retina.
Ok, try it a 3rd time and gather any additional information that you can. Finally, open your eyes and survey what is in front of you. How accurate was your minds eye after your eyes were closed? Keep this in mind when sighting. You don’t have to “see” or even “look” for navigational cues while swimming…just use your visual memory after a quick peek (or even a blink) during your peek above the surface and you’ll save energy and swim much smoother.
2. Identify Contrasting Elements:
Look for things that are easily distinguishable, such as bright orange or yellow buoys, fellow swimmers’ caps, tree lines, or areas where water meets land. Try to spot any contrasting objects in front of you first, then refine what you see on a subsequent sighting opportunity by focusing on a narrower target in the direction you are going to swim. Like the blink exercise above, you may notice that high contrast leaves an imprint on your retina after you close your eyes. You’re not only remembering what you saw…but even after your eyes are closed, you can still “see” what the retina was exposed to as if the scene were on the back of your eyelids.
3. Maintaining Proper Body Position:
Keep your mouth and nose below the waterline when sighting, ensuring only your eyes and forehead break the surface. Maintaining a streamlined body position keeps your head low and keeps your hips from dropping, allowing you to swim efficiently. Breathing can be incorporated in two basic ways after the sight. The first option is my preferred way – after sighting with the “alligator eyes” relax your neck muscles and regain your balance in the water by letting your face fall back towards the bottom of the lake / ocean. Then take a normal breath on a subsequent stroke. This reduces the amount of disruption in your balance and alignment since you have a chance to regain perfect body alignment after the sighting, and before the next breath.
The second way is best for people who already have good to great swim form, can take a breath in the pool (under still perfect conditions) with their goggles splitting the water surface and breathing behind your bow wave, and who do not have any neck injuries, chronic neck pain, disc issues or neck arthritis. After your quick “alligator eyes” peek, simply rotate your face away from your lead arm to take a breath before finishing that stroke.
Experiment with both ways to find what’s comfortable…but be willing to spend time finding out what’s not comfortable about your less preferred choice. Why? Because often what’s most comfortable in swimming is what keeps the head above the water the longest. This most often creates a poor body position with sinking hips and knees, and makes the underwater stroke portion inefficient. For that reason we teach all of our swimmers the “peek, stroke, breath” pattern, rather than the “peek, breath, stroke” pattern.
What’s your preferred way to stroke? Leave a comment below and let us know!
4. Timing and Rhythm:
You maintain a seamless and efficient swimming motion by incorporating sighting into your stroke rhythm.
You should time your peek at the same moment your lead arm extends forward, just before your catch phase. This allows you to relax your head back into the water as or just before initiating the catch. Trying to catch while you sight creates a “doggy paddle” or “tarzan” style stroke that is inefficient.
One incredibly helpful tip that works great for turning yourself into a sleek open water swimmer who is the envy of all around you is to maintain your torso rotation during your sighting. Instead of a flat body position while sighting, maintain your rotation to the side of the extended arm. This will lengthen your body, and allow you milliseconds longer to gather visual information. When you let your head return to the water, the weight of the head movement coordinates both the recovery arm and the catch occurring together, and you’ll maintain your speed.
5. Utilizing the Underwater Stroke:
When sighting, use the latter half of your underwater stroke to minimize speed disruption. As your stroking arm is lengthening backwards, your lead arm extends just below the surface, just as you reach your peak rotation. This allows your eyes to pop up briefly without significantly affecting your speed. Be careful however not to use the pushing phase of your stroke to force your head above water, it’s simply a cue to help you time the alligator eyes. The same time your arms are moving in opposite directions your forward speed is still close to its stroke to stroke max. Use the momentum and the lead arm is a “wing” in front to help pop the head up briefly. This technique ensures a smooth transition between sighting and swimming, enabling you to maintain a consistent pace.
Conclusion:
Mastering the art of sighting is essential for open water swimmers wanting to swim the course without getting too far off track. By practicing the techniques outlined above, you can develop a sighting method that minimizes disruptions to your stroke while providing the navigational cues you need to complete your swim. Practice incorporating these skills into your training sessions to gain confidence and enhance your open water swimming performance. So, embrace the art of sighting, and conquer open water with confidence!
Change your thinking from strokes per minute to seconds per stroke. Instead of frequency, think period. This allows you to do faster analysis of your swimsperiments. 20 strokes @ .9 sec/stroke = 18 seconds. Vs 20 strokes @ 68spm = ?? (Can’t do that math in the pool quickly)
You need to test/ train tempo in a measured setting before you can use it in open water since you can’t measure progress very well
Since pace is the result of stroke rate x Stroke length, paying attention to those 2 variables will help you learn a lot about yoru technique without timing yourself (you can always multiply them to get the time, or look at your watch) But you can’t look at yoru watch until you’re done with a set, so learn to count strokes well.
Each hand entry counts as a stroke (the watch is inaccurate, except for how variable you are, the actual numbers are not helpful)
Some experiments to start with.
Use a comfortable tempo (70 spm = .86 sec/stroke), and swim 2 sets of 3 x 25. (So 6 x 25 total)
No breath, right breathing only, left breathing only, repeat. Rest for 5-10 beeps between repeats
Count your strokes.
Be sure to start your first stroke underwater after a consistent # of beeps off the way (3-5 find out what’s comfortable, and be consistent so you can compare)
Progress to 50s if you can taking 1 breath per 50 plus 1 at the wall (open turn on all 50s for comparison) Count your strokes.
This is a fun simple experiment that will usually tell you what you may already know…that breathing reduces stroke length, and that one side is better / worse than the other. You may have to practice counting strokes before you can be consistent with yoru experiments. A poolside notepad with a ball point pen is great for tracking different things.
Now with data, you can create a hypothesis…
Example (after warmup)
Tempo .85 sec/stroke
6 x 25 as Breath Right only, breath left only, no breathing, repeat. Rest 5-10 beeps between repeats, 5 beeps off wall before first stroke. count strokes.
Stroke Counts by length:
1: 20SPL
4: 21 SPL
(Left only)
2: 18 SPL
5: 19 SPL
(Right only)
3: 17 SPL
6: 18 SPL
(No breathing)
Results show left side breathing adds 3 strokes every 25 yds compared to no breaths At .85 sec/stroke, you’re adding 2.55 seconds / 25 yards due to the slowing down from breathing left. Over 1 mile that’s 2.5 minutes. Right side is better than left side, saving .85 seconds / 25 yards if you only breathed right.
You’ve learned a lot from this simple experiment.
Hypotheses:
if I practiced alternate breathing I’ll save 1 stroke / length (as opposed to same side breathing). Test it!
If I improved my breathing form I’ll save 1-3 strokes per length. Choose a skill, and practice incorporating it into your stroke with and without a breath. Practice without a tempo trainer ,then practice at a slower tempo (since thinking about your skills will take longer). Maybe add .15 – .2 seconds to drill with the TT and practice. You can repeat the test set above at this new tempo and while the stroke cont will / should be different, you can still measure the results and see if you’re improving without having to have a coach, video or time yourself.
This is just 1 test set and 2 ideas that emerge from it. There are infinite numbers of tempo sets you can do as part of improving your technique. Kirsten or I can share more, but try this one if you havn’t yet and see what you can learn.
You don’t have to swim faster to beat your best time in a triathlon
You just have to swim better than you are right now.
Many triathletes go to the pool with a soggy workout printed off the internet and a bag of pool toys like paddles, fins and a snorkel But what most end up being frustrated by is not knowing if their work with the drills and toys translates to better swimming.
When you begin to realize that just doing a drill doesn’t mean you’ve learned a better swim skill, you’ll start to pay attention to the quality of your training plan.
it’s better to have a specific body based focus that you can pay attention to while swimming.
Let’s take just one example. most triathletes carry a lot of tension in their neck which impacts their streamlining, efficiency and breathing. Here’s one way to approach improving this micro skill and improve awareness.
“25 kick, 25 swim”
Does this look familiar? “25 kick, 25 swim”. This is an extremely common example of a freestyle drill set for triathletes. It would seem that the main intent is to practice kicking, right? But without further direction or a coach on deck, it’s unclear and doesn’t give you the focus you need to improve your freestyle swimming for triathlon.
Instead of “25 kick, 25 swim”, let’s add a specific thought to direct your muscles while doing the drill.
“Relax your neck” while kicking with one arm extended for 25 yards. Stroke once to breath or roll to the sky for a breath. Then swim 25 yards while maintaining your relaxed neck. Does your neck feel relaxed with and without arm strokes?
Aside from using a few more words, what’s the subtle difference between these two drill sets? The second set addresses a specific issue that impacts your swimming in both drilling and full stroke freestyle. You see most people will tense their neck and instinctively pick their head up a bit to look ahead. This creates tension in the neck and creates misalignment. Both issues require more effort to swim, and create an even bigger problem when trying to breath.
Great swim practices move your attention instead moving body parts
By removing the arms and just kicking (with or without fins) you can move your attention to your neck and experiment with different levels of relaxation and tone. When followed immediately with swimming it’s easy to compare the results of the new focus and attention to the neck.
Since new movements feel awkward and foreign, a drill set that addresses a specific thought (“relax the neck”) rather than an exercise (“Kicking”) is a supercharged way to increase your learning speed and adopt better swim skills faster.
Next time you go to the pool and are faced with a drill set, try substituting a body awareness focal point, or simply layering it on top of the drill. Some examples
One armed swimming becomes “Stroke with your Left (Right) arm, while keepign the neck relaxed and the spine aligned during the entire arm cycle.”
Cat & Mouse drill becomes “Keep your neck relaxed while exploring how much overlap is in your stroke while playing cat & mouse. At what point in your overlap can you keep your neck most relaxed?
12 Weeks of Better Swim Practices
If you’re ready to apply these principles to your own training, my dedicated triathlon swimming plan for Olympic or Half Distance races contains 12 weeks (32 unique workouts) of practical swimming workouts just like these. Just head on overhere to purchase a dedicated triathlon swimming plan to prepare you for an Olympic or Half Distance Triathlon.
(You can apply this plan over top of any other training plan you’re currently using and just swap out the swims)
When I am totally race fit, I don’t worry about breathing or technique – they take care of themselves. -Frank Shorter
Breathing isn’t optional, but it IS a choice.
It is one of those body functions that your brain maintains whether you’re aware of it or not…like your heartbeat. However there are many circumstances in which you can choose to breath in a different pattern…faster, shallower or just differently.
Imagine how hard it would be to sing or even have a conversation if we had no willful control of when we breathe in and when we exhale? When speaking or singing, we’re able to use breath control to create phrases, delaying an inhalation until the end of a musical phrase or sentence in speech. Yet, as soon as we’re done with that activity, the brain immediately takes over again and continues respiration, in and out, indefinitely as long as we’re alive.
It’s one part autonomous, one part reflex and one part choice. When we swim we get to choose how and when we breath…and also why. My goal with swimming is to make my breathing seem so seamless that I get a sensation I’m breathing under the water. My breathing no longer becomes a conscious choice, nor an instinct of survival, but an automatic part of my stroke matched with my effort at that time.
Rocky Mountain Swimming High
I recall the first time I experienced this sensation and it was a direct result of TWO things combined that might have otherwise derailed me for that summer. The first was dislocating my thumb on my first day of work in Colorado. The second was the fact that I was working and living at 7500 feet of altitude…thin air for sure!
With the thumb injury, I was unable to ride a bike or go fly fishing for several weeks while my hand was splinted. The occupational therapist I saw made me a waterproof splint I could wear for working and swimming, so off to the pool I went for my daily exercise. Two new problems cropped up once I was int he pool. However I was so in love with swimming that I couldn’t imagine these stopping me. Instead i found a way to make these into assets for improving my breathing.
The first problem was the altitude. At 7500 feet, most folks who do not live there and are acclimated will experience an increased breathing rate both at rest and while exercising. That’s no consequence when you’re riding a bike or fly fishing. It happens and you don’t have to think about it. However in the pool, where I chose to get my main exercise those first few weeks of injury, having to breath more often was almost enough to make me question if I should even bother.
My breathing wasn’t bad by any measure, but it wasn’t ideal, and I didn’t realize how many flows there were until I was forced to breath every stroke even when swimming easily. Essentially I had created an environment not dissimilar to a beginner in which they feel the need to breath every stroke not because of a lack of oxygen, but because they are swimming inefficiently and using up a lot of oxygen…basically the same situation I was in.
While i hadn’t noticed any major flaws in my breathing before arriving at altitude, once I was there, the errors were many!
Breathing Skills Practice – Intermediate to Advanced Skill Level
Here are some of the skills I practiced during those weeks of recovering from my hand injury and adjusting to the altitude. There was no other time in my swimming career where my breathing improved so much, because I was forced to work on it under those circumstances.
Breathing Skills Practice: (total ~ 2000 – 3200)
Dry land:
Practice tall posture, pulling up through the crown of the head, draw chin back just a bit since most of us tend to slouch a little bit. Check your posture from the side with a selfie, in the mirror or with your back against the wall.
Look for these checkpoints:
Are your ears over your shoulders? (if not where are they?)
Are your eyes looking directly forward? (if not where are they looking?)
Can you inhale fully drawing air downward through your diaphragm?
Are your glutes engaged with your hips over your heels?
Bonus points: Can you stand on your tip toes without losing balance and posture?
Finally… are you relaxed and comfortable?
If you can’t answer yes to each of these questions, don’t worry, nothing is wrong, you’ve just highlighted some elements of your posture, flexibility and build that may need to be addressed through some daily exercises (or physical therapy). But now that you’ve practiced that in the locker room head to the pool
Tune up: (150)
4 x 5 yards – head lead tall posture, gentle kick. I call this “toy soldier” because it reminds me of a wooden nutcracker toy, tall and toned.
4 x 10 yds – start with arms extended, tall posture, gentle kick for a 5-10 seconds then add a few strokes
4 x 25 yds – Start as above with soldier drill, arms extended, then swim to the end, gently focusing on posture
4 x 50 “Catch & Push” Drill, alternating right arm and left arm focus. (200)
1st 25 down: With each push extend the lead arm and let your chin rotate towards the air along with your hips and shoulder on that same side. When you need to breath, take a full stroke with each arm and breath to the same side.
2nd 25 back: Swim full stroke freestyle breathing to the same side as the first 25. Try to stay relaxed in the recovery arm while extending the lead arm as you breathe.
4 x 150 (600)
Within each 150, swim as follows:
1st 50 breath every 4 to the right on the way down, and every 4 on the left on the way back. Easy effort
2nd 50 breath every 3rd stroke for the entire 50. note that you can increase your speed a little since you’re exchanging air more often
3rd 50 breath every 2nd stroke to the right on the way down and to the left on the way back. You can increase your effort even more since you’re exchanging air every time you stroke.
2-4 Rounds of (200 + 2 x 100 + 4 x 50) (1200-2400)
200s Swim very easy breathing every 4 strokes to the same side. Alternate right and left every length. Compare your posture in breathing strokes with your posture in non breathing strokes. Do you still feel tall and aligned like in the dry land activity?
100s Swim moderately breathing every 3rd stroke (alternating breathing sides regularly). Note that with a slight speed increase your body must rotate around a skewer in order to maintain access to air on each side.
50s Swim faster, breathing every 2nd stroke, switching for the 2nd half. Again note that your posture remains tall and with even more speed, you’ll have a better pocket to breath into making it seem as if you’re almost breathing under the surface of the water.
Well, if it’s too high of course. 😉 So how do you know if it’s too high?When swimming at an easy pace, ie, not adding much power or force, you should be able to move forward through the water with relative ease indicating that you’re well balanced and streamlined in the water.
Everyone will find a limit where either swimming easier turns into drilling, or there is a lower limit to how slow you can swim before you feel you start to sink. Just above that point…what’s your stroke count?
You can reduce Stroke Count or (strokes per length) by reducing drag or increasing power. Stroke count is only a reflection of two competing forces water resistance vs stroking force.
These are some additional ways to think about balancing two swim skills to achieve speed in swimming:
Streamlining vs power
Flexibility vs Mobility
Slipperiness vs Strength
Based on your height, an “ideal number” for your stroke count can vary. For a 5’2″ person, maybe 18 is a conservative lower end target. For a 6’2″ person, perhaps 15 a good lower end target. If you can’t hit those targets at ANY speed…there are streamlining and /or balance issues…basically problems with drag.
As you increase your tempo, time between strokes decreases, travel distance decreases and stroke count goes up. What’s the upper limit of the number of strokes where you still feel smooth and in control? For me…around 21-22 SPL in a SCY pool when swimming comfortably fast.
Can you choose your stroke count at will? This would indicate that you’ve got great control over your form. Does your stroke count vary widely (maybe more than 2 SPL) when swimming at the same sustainable pace ? This suggests poor technique or technique that’s not wired in…as an 18 stroke 25 yd swim at 30 seconds is a very different stroke than a 16 or 20 SPL 25 yd swim at 30 seconds.
The stroke rate ramp test is a good test…but it only shows you your current comfort level. It doesn’t help you diagnose if your SPL and tempo ranges are good for you…only what feels good to you now. Unless we all have perfect technique, what feels good can always been improved.
FWIW at 5’3″ I can swim equally comfortably at 14 SPL or at 22 SPL…the difference is speed. at 14 SPL I’m swimming 1:50/100s easily and relaxed. at 22 SPL I’m swimming 1:30s and getting tired. A sustainable 1000 yd swim for me is around 1:40/100 and 18/19 SPL…unwavering from that narrow range.
Finally, if tempo stays the same, lowering your SPL (by either improving streamlining or adding efficient propulsion) will make you go faster!
Lots of good reasons to consider lowering SPL as part of a well balanced diet of swim practice and improvement exercises.
Note: This originally appeared in the USA Triathlon Coaching email forum in January, 2013. Going through and cleaning up old emails I thought it was worth sharing here.
“The design is finished not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”
Kicking has Multiple Functions in the Freestyle Swim
The kick can help rotate the body, create forward movement, and provide lift in the back end. Each swimmer needs to understand how their kick is fitting in to their stroke, what benefit it’s giving them and how they can improve it. Some folks will use kicking to keep the back end up, while in the mean time they are pushing down on the front of the water with their stroke. If they were to fix the front end, the back end could be repurposed and the same energy used would help them go faster. Yet in many swim squads, as long as the athlete is doing a continuous or 6 beat kick the coach is happy, and hopes over time they’ll get better at it.
Kick Removed equals the popular “band swimming” drill
If you take the above quote to the extreme and “take away” all the leg movements you’re left with the ever popular “band” swimming or no kick swimming, which helps teach swimmer how to quiet the legs, create good balance in the front half and identify the core muscles better.
Progress from there to 2 beat kicking which adds additional rotational component and not a lot of lift. A 4 beat may provide more lift and compensate for balance asymmetries at various stroke points (sun yang uses a 4 beat on his breathing cycle) and often a 2 beat on non -breathing for example.
Progressing again, a well timed 6 beat kick provides rotation as well as propulsion. Each step also uses more energy and is less efficient when comparing energy spent for forward movement produced. Having the technical ability to choose your kick strategically based on energy management as well as swim speed in a triathlon is a high level goal for any triathlete.
How much Energy should Triathletes spend in the Swim?
No one suggests that a triathlete should go all out on the bike portion of a tri, or that their best tri run split should be equal to their best standalone run split. Yet many swim-centric triathlon or masters coaches will suggest swimming with a 6 beat kick during a triathlon. This inconsistency in energy expenditure is baffling.
So why the inconsistency in suggesting a 6 beat or flutter kick… is it best for a triathlete because it will result in the best speed ? It may be faster when done well…but also uses more energy than a 2 beat kick. If a triathlete needs to manage energy across 3 sports, why not use kick timing as an energy management strategy and opt for a 2 beat kick more often?
Why not spend time developing both a 2 and a 6 so you have choices? After all, you train in more than one bike gear too, right?
Triathletes Should get Confident with Multiple Patterns for Maximum Choices while Racing.
It seems like the same coaches who advise against a 2 Beat Kick are also gung-ho for the “band” swimming drill. In this drill an elastic band is placed around the ankles to remove the kick, and force the athlete to focus on balance and the front end of the stroke. I think it’s also an excellent drill…especially when it can be done as a no-kick drill withOUT the band! Learnign to control the legs adequately and keep them closely streamlined without having a restricting band, also teaches the swimmer how to control the legs while kicking in any pattern.
If the kick is a progression of frequency from no kicking to a rapid flutter kick, then a 2, 4 & 6 beat kick all fall along this spectrum. It’s incongrunent to prescribe band drills but proscribe the two beat kick. Practice all types and expand your options while getting faster as well.
Some examples of Elite Swimmers & Their Kicks…
Here’s a fast female with a 2 beat kick from what I can tell… honesty with a tempo that fast I don’t know how she’d fit in 4 or 6 beats. This is the incomparable Janet Evans, a 5’0″ powerhouse champion.
Here is Katie Ledecky, World Record Holder in the 1500m at her performance in the 2015 World championship. This is a great video to wtach because she displays a variety of kick patterns including 2, 4 & 6 beat. her 4 beat kick is an asymmetric 1-3 kick, which means it resembles a 2 Beat kick on one half of the body and a 6 beat kick on the other half. Take a look and let me know what you see…
Here’s a great one of Katie Ledecky & Simone Manuel competing in the 200m race. Simone Manuel who I have written about before, is racing at the long end of her competitive ability, and Katie Ledecky is racing at the short end. Who do you think will win? Both are using 6 beat kicks here the entire way as far as I can tell. This shows that the distance can help determine the kick pattern. In the 1500m Ledecky kicks less often.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
What are your thoughts on the best kick timing for triathletes?
Image by <a href=”https://pixabay.com/users/tpsdave-12019/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=79592″>David Mark</a> from <a href=”https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=79592″>Pixabay</a>
Swim Straight! How to Master Sighting in Open Water
You just have to swim better than you are right now.
