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.
Parents
Former Member
I used to swim with my eyes mostly closed, but one of the guys who used to be in our lane had a habit of crowding in toward on-coming traffic. Several collisions later I found that my eyes were almost always open. Absolute paranoia is absolute awareness. If I am in lactic acid agony, I do tend to close my eyes and grit my teeth.
My issue is that when I am working on technique, I forget to breathe. I just get so relaxed and focused that I forget everything else and suddenly snap to while inhaling a mouthful of water. In line with that, when I was a kid my mother used to make me carry a card with my address and phone number on it so I could get home if I got on my bike, forgot what I was doing and ended up a long way from home. We lived in north/central NJ and she once had to retrieve me from PA. She still chews my ear off about it.
I used to swim with my eyes mostly closed, but one of the guys who used to be in our lane had a habit of crowding in toward on-coming traffic. Several collisions later I found that my eyes were almost always open. Absolute paranoia is absolute awareness. If I am in lactic acid agony, I do tend to close my eyes and grit my teeth.
My issue is that when I am working on technique, I forget to breathe. I just get so relaxed and focused that I forget everything else and suddenly snap to while inhaling a mouthful of water. In line with that, when I was a kid my mother used to make me carry a card with my address and phone number on it so I could get home if I got on my bike, forgot what I was doing and ended up a long way from home. We lived in north/central NJ and she once had to retrieve me from PA. She still chews my ear off about it.
