Whenever you practice sighting in the pool, make sure you have something to sight. This can be as simple as putting your water bottle, a cone, or a kickboard at the end of the lane.

The easiest and surest way to sight is to stop swimming freestyle and do a couple strokes of breaststrokes to find your way, then continue with freestyle.

Try to keep moving as you do this, so you don’t lose too much time.

The fastest way to sight is to look forward and then turn and grab your breath -- all in one smooth motion.

When you look forward, try not to come up too high with your head, because this will make your legs sink and will slow you down.

Lift just enough to get your goggles out of the water and take a quick “snapshot” of the buoy, then turn and get your breath. By staying low, you maintain your momentum and body line and you save energy by not having to kick so hard to get going again.

A good way to practice this technique is with a short set of 25s, where you sight two or three times on each length.

In a longer set, it’s good to throw in a length of sighting on every repeat. If you practice this skill on a regular basis, race-day sighting will seem natural and easy.

Another fun way to practice sighting is to pretend that your coach is a big, inflated buoy. It helps if she can wear a bright T-shirt... or hold a big beach ball or traffic cone.

As you swim, the coach moves back and forth on the pool deck. When you sight, you have to find the coach. Lift the head forward, scan the horizon for the coach, then turn the head to the side for a breath and continue swimming.


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Sighting - Sara