Sighting Basics for Open Water Swimming
Swimming in the open is freeing. However, the freedom of not having lanes or walls while swimming comes with a challenge — sighting.
In this short Odyssey Open Water Swimming guide, we’ll cover the basics of sighting for open water swimming and share tips from our swim coaches and safety support staff,
What is Sighting?
How do you know you’re going the right way? When you’re swimming, sighting is like keeping your eyes on the road while driving. Sighting is an important skill in open water swimming that allows you to see where you’re going and be aware of your surroundings by looking up without slowing down your pace.
Sighting Tips
Sight Regularly
“Sight about every 5-10 strokes, even if you believe you’re swimming straight,” recommends Warren Wallace. “When there’s a strong current or challenging conditions, you may want to sight more than every 5-10 strokes, and less in calm conditions.”
Make Sighting Part of Your Stroke
Warren recommends building sighting into your stroke “while you pull.” Due to the disruption to your stroke, since sighting will alter your movement, this may take some practice to get used to. “During your first few open water swims, if it’s an awkward movement that interrupts your stroke, that's ok, keep doing it, and keep trying to incorporate it naturally until you get the hang of it,” says Warren.
Lifting Your Head
“Develop ‘alligator eyes’ to limit how high you raise your head, leaving your nose and mouth under water,” says Captain Taylor. “Take a quick glimpse every four to six strokes so you don’t turn a complete circle between looks.”
Instead of trying to get high enough to get your mouth out of the water and breath, keep your breathing as a separate motion. The higher you lift your head, the more your hips drop and the more you become vertical in the water, which kills your momentum. If you can't easily see the next marker in the course (buoy, finish flag, etc.), look for a large landmark behind it that you can use to sight off of. At Odyssey Berkeley swims, this is often a building, tree, bridge, hillside, etc. Just check back when you can and make sure it's still lined up correctly.
Avoid Sighting Off Others
A common mistake when sighting is sighting off other swimmers. You can’t assume that the swimmer ahead of you is going the right way. There have been many swims where our staff has witnessed a swimmer or group of swimmers follow someone way off course. .
Jeff Collins says:
“Don’t blindly follow the person in front of you during a crowded swim/event. While this often works, there are times when you’ll just be following someone who is off course. Check your own course occasionally - even if you have a strong and experienced open water swimmer in front of you.”
When You’re Off Course
If you notice you’re off course, don't beat yourself up about it. Adjust your aim and keep going while making tweaks along the way. Sight regularly so that you can make small adjustments instead of discovering too late that you’ve veered off and added extra distance and time to your swim.
Stay One Snapshot Ahead
Captain Taylor says to “Take mental snapshots of what’s ahead and process while you’re face is down to exhale to limit the interruption of your strokes.”
Sighting Off an Object
“Choose something big/clear enough to see easily — and distinct. This frequently will not be a buoy, and will need to be something behind it - a distinct building, a big tree etc,“ says Jeff Collins.
Thank you to Jeff, Warren, and Captain Taylor for the tips!