"Sighting" While OWS Swimming

My swim coach has us practice sighting in the pool. I don't know how to describe it, but it can easily be integrated into your stroke.

How often to sight? I guess I've never really thought about it but if you swim straight, sight less.

You should sight as often as you need to. i am a fairly good swimmer so i can go fairly straight and the few guys that are in front of me are also good swimmers so I focus on them and follow them. Once in a while I check to make sure that I am still going straight toward the bouy.

On the pool workouts, I try to "sight" at least once every 25 yards just to get used to the motion. Last year in my first Tri, I did not practice sighting and my neck was sore afterwards

How often do you sight? Close your eyes in the pool and see how many strokes you can take before touching the divider. That's a good indicator of how often YOU should site. Others may be able to swim straighter and thus take more strokes before getting off course. Generally 5 - 10 strokes is reasonable.

I find that because of the up and down motion of the ocean where I OWS, I need to sight about every 3 or 4 strokes to keep from getting confused and start heading off toward Hawaii. Also if the water is choppy, you might need to breathe on the side away from the waves, which might be a little more disorienting. The way my coach taught us how was to look up, then breathe, in one motion. The alligatoring is good too, when you just peek your mask out of the water (she calls it stealth sighting), then turn your head to breathe. Like any of this, you have to find what you're comfortable with and practice the hell out of it. If you practice sighting every time your in the pool, you'll be more natural at it in the open water. If you feel you need to look up every 10 strokes, then that's your deal. I think it's all about what makes you comfortable mentally. If looking up more often comforts you, then do it. Don't force yourself to do something you don't like to do. In a philosophical sense, anyone can attain the physical prowess to do triathlon if they really want to. The secret to competing in them is the mental toughness to push yourself forward in pain. That's why you should find your comfort level in all aspects of the tri, because eventually you're going to start hurting, and you want to be as mentally comfortable with the situation as you can so you can concentrate on overcoming the pain and enjoying the race despite the pain.

Marmadaddy has a quote on here somewhere that is roughly, just because you're in terrible pain doesn't mean you can't have fun. I think that idea, enjoying the race or workout in the face of pain, is the very essence of this sport. Therefore, there is no one right way to do any of this, you have to find the way that makes you feel most able to push past that pain barrier. For me I like to sight a lot, others don't need to.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Just come back from tonights swim. Tried swimming with my eyes closed and I actually go pretty straight. 4 laps before I hit the lane rope.

Tried alligator sighting and breathing while raising my head. I'll practice both for the next few weeks.

LOL, I tried this at lunch.

Smashed the crap out of my fingers on the lane divider....