My teammates and I were discussing the following apparently inane topic, and I thought it would make a good poll question. To wit, during practices, which of the following apply to you:
1) I swim with my eyes open pretty much all the time, except for regular blinks.
2) I close my eyes when my head is underwater, but open them during breaths.
3) I close my eyes during breaths, but open them when my head is under water to make sure I am not wandering off track.
4) I close my eyes much of the time on each length, and try to remember to open them before crashing into the wall.
Note: just realized I don't exactly know how to format this as a poll. If anyone else does, please feel free to do so--or send me a note about how to do it myself.
BTW, I often swim with my eyes shut; not quite sure why, other than swimming practice seems to induce a mild level of narcolepsy in me. Or perhaps it is a reflex action from the pre-goggle days when closing your eyes during practice was necessary to keep your corneas from being eroded by chlorine.
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Former Member
Perhaps my face is oddly shaped, but I play hell finding goggles that strike a proper balance between leaking steadily and sucking my eyeballs out. I've found some that I like, but they pull on my face such that holding my eyes closed for more than a blink makes the seals leak. Therefore I MUST keep my eyes open.
And what a tragedy that is! I swim in a horrible, crowded YMCA where I wish I could keep them closed. There are a few lovely swimming nymphs that appear on occasion, but they are small in number compared to the truly frightening sea monsters that crowd the lanes. I realize that's a terrible thing to say, but it's true. I'm also frightened of the creatures moving around in the layer of scum on the bottom of the pool. What ARE those things? I don't want to see any of this!
Luckily, even though I'm terribly out of shape, I'm fast enough to avoid all the creatures in the pool, most of which appear to be too wrapped up in their struggle against drowning to attack the swimmers. When viewed from the relative safety of the deck, it appears most of them are locked in some violent life and death struggle against the water itself, endlessly beating against it and making a terrible ruckus whilst making almost no forward progress. Look away! It's horrible!
And Tom, when I was a kid I used to get a good jolt of speed in the deep end because of the sharks. I thought I was the only one who saw them.
Perhaps my face is oddly shaped, but I play hell finding goggles that strike a proper balance between leaking steadily and sucking my eyeballs out. I've found some that I like, but they pull on my face such that holding my eyes closed for more than a blink makes the seals leak. Therefore I MUST keep my eyes open.
And what a tragedy that is! I swim in a horrible, crowded YMCA where I wish I could keep them closed. There are a few lovely swimming nymphs that appear on occasion, but they are small in number compared to the truly frightening sea monsters that crowd the lanes. I realize that's a terrible thing to say, but it's true. I'm also frightened of the creatures moving around in the layer of scum on the bottom of the pool. What ARE those things? I don't want to see any of this!
Luckily, even though I'm terribly out of shape, I'm fast enough to avoid all the creatures in the pool, most of which appear to be too wrapped up in their struggle against drowning to attack the swimmers. When viewed from the relative safety of the deck, it appears most of them are locked in some violent life and death struggle against the water itself, endlessly beating against it and making a terrible ruckus whilst making almost no forward progress. Look away! It's horrible!
And Tom, when I was a kid I used to get a good jolt of speed in the deep end because of the sharks. I thought I was the only one who saw them.
