How to Swim Straight in Open Water

One of the challenges of open water swimming is learning to swim straight. In the pool, it’s a piece of cake. With a wall at either end, lane lines on both sides and a big black line at the bottom of the pool, you would have to try to not swim straight. In the open water, all of these boundaries and markers are gone. Even if there was a black line on the bottom of the lake, you probably would not be able to see it because of the depth and murkiness of the water. The following four tips will help you to swim straighter in the open water.

Swim With Your Eyes Closed
Next time you are at the pool, try swimming one length with your eyes closed. You may be surprised to find yourself drifting into a lane line or a wall. This drift is caused by an unbalanced stroke.

Imagine a line running through the center of your body, extending past your head. Your hand should not cross this line when entering the water. If you are drifting to the left it is likely because your right hand is crossing the imaginary center line and vice versa. Likewise, if your stroke is too wide, you may find yourself drifting to one side. Focus on keeping your arms straight out from your shoulders.

Learn to Bilateral Breathe (Breathe on both sides)
The next tip for swimming straight is to learn bilateral breathing (a fancy term that just means breathing on both sides). Many, or maybe most, swimmers have a “strong” side that they prefer to breathe on. Breathing only on your strong side can cause unbalance in your stroke and cause you to drift. It takes time to get comfortable breathing on your weak side, but the effort is definitely worth it.

Learning to breathe on both sides has other benefits besides helping you swim straighter. It is useful for sighting (especially if you are following a shoreline) and keeping an eye on the competition. On longer swims, bilateral breathing can reduce neck and shoulder fatigue. If you find yourself being blinded by the sun or getting hit by wake or another swimmer on one side, you can simply switch to breathing on the other side.

Learn to Sight
One of the most important skills for open water swimming is sighting. For those new to the sport, “sighting” simply means lifting your head to see where you are in the course.

Sighting is most efficient when incorporated into your stroke cycle. I have found that the best way for me to sight is to lift my eyes out of the water, take a quick peek straight ahead and then turn my head to the side to take a breath. Other swimmers prefer to take a breath first and then sight. Either way, when you work sighting into your stroke you save time and energy by not stopping and starting each time you sight. You can find a lot of good sighting videos on YouTube by searching for “open water sighting”.

There is a delicate balance between sighting enough and sighting too much. On one hand, you need to sight often enough to stay on course. On the other hand, the more you sight the more you will wear yourself out (if you don’t believe me, try swimming a length or two of the pool with your head out of the water). Your body is like a seesaw and each time you lift your head to sight, the other end of the seesaw (your hips and legs) sink into the water. This creates drag and makes it more difficult to swim. If you are just starting out with open water swimming and triathlons, you may need to sight more often. Sighting every 6 to 8 strokes is a good place to start. With practice you will begin to swim straighter and can reduce the number of times you sight.

Use Landmarks
What do you look for when you sight? If you are racing in an open water triathlon you will most likely be looking for large, brightly colored buoys that mark each turn of the course. Depending on how the course is laid out, buoys can become difficult to see when the sun rises and creates glare on the surface of the water. In this case you should look for something to sight on that is above the surface of the water. This could be a tree, rock, building or other large object above the shoreline. Arrive early to the race so that you have time to look for landmarks in case you lose sight of the buoys after the race starts.

You should “follow the leader” at your own risk. There are countless stories of swimmers following the kicking bubbles of the person ahead of them only to find out that the person they were following was off course. Unless you know who the swimmer ahead of you is and trust their navigation skills, you are better off sighting on a buoy or landmark.

Swimming straight is one of the many challenges of open water swimming. Learning this skill will not only help ease some of the anxiety of open water swimming, but will also help you to have a faster swim split.

Josh Green lives in Salt Lake City with his wife and two young boys. He has been swimming practically since birth and got hooked on open water swimming after his first triathlon several years ago. He is currently working on developing an open water swimming race in the Great Salt Lake to be held on June 11, 2011. Josh shares his love for open water swimming on his blog (www.utahopenwater.com) and can be reached at joshuakgreen@gmail.com.