Guiding visually impaired swimmers

Matt, Thanks so much for your advice. I kind of ended of with a mixture of techniques. The athlete I swam with is totally blind, but he was awesome. He's run several marathons, so even though he wasn't the best swimmer, he gutted it out. It took him about half the race to find a decent rhythm, but I was very pleased because he put his face in the water the whole time--so at least he understood the basic technique. My partner tended to drift left because he wasn't as polished with his left so I tried to emphasize the use of both arms. I provided directions from my partner’s lleft side and it took a few left arms to the noggin to realize I didn’t need to be so close. I used a 12' bungee from REI and a couple of old credit cards to tether my partner to me. Credit cards with the bungee worked like the small tube that is threaded thru swim paddles. Thanks to my buddy Chuck for coming up with the credit card idea. The swim took longer than expected, but we were allowed to start 10 minutes in advance so our start was a lot less crazy than other waves. My partner got into a decent rhythm over the last 500 yards (1500 yard swim) and swam his way right along a swarm of sprint distance swimmers. Definitely got a taste of triathlon swim exit nuttiness. Thanks again for the advice.

Matt, Thanks so much for your advice. I kind of ended of with a mixture of techniques. The athlete I swam with is totally blind, but he was awesome. He's run several marathons, so even though he wasn't the best swimmer, he gutted it out. It took him about half the race to find a decent rhythm, but I was very pleased because he put his face in the water the whole time--so at least he understood the basic technique. My partner tended to drift left because he wasn't as polished with his left so I tried to emphasize the use of both arms. I provided directions from my partner’s lleft side and it took a few left arms to the noggin to realize I didn’t need to be so close. I used a 12' bungee from REI and a couple of old credit cards to tether my partner to me. Credit cards with the bungee worked like the small tube that is threaded thru swim paddles. Thanks to my buddy Chuck for coming up with the credit card idea. The swim took longer than expected, but we were allowed to start 10 minutes in advance so our start was a lot less crazy than other waves. My partner got into a decent rhythm over the last 500 yards (1500 yard swim) and swam his way right along a swarm of sprint distance swimmers. Definitely got a taste of triathlon swim exit nuttiness. Thanks again for the advice.