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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I have to agree with Rain Man on this one I mean what if you run into a wall. From one response it sounds like it could cause some real serious damage. Although its kind of funny because when I ran track in highschool I would run with my eyes closed: when at practice a lot of times, when it would get real intense, and also even when pushing myself really hard at the meets. I think it was because if I kept them open I would just get discoraged about the amount of distance I still had to run. And also reading the back of one of my teamate's shirt that said "if you see this your in second" I didn't like that shirt very much because I was slower than her. That could be why I kept my eyes closed, I still do it when I run real hard. But in swimming they've always stayed open unless I'm in the lake and then I don't neccasarily want to see what I'm swimming next to in the first place.
I have to agree with Rain Man on this one I mean what if you run into a wall. From one response it sounds like it could cause some real serious damage. Although its kind of funny because when I ran track in highschool I would run with my eyes closed: when at practice a lot of times, when it would get real intense, and also even when pushing myself really hard at the meets. I think it was because if I kept them open I would just get discoraged about the amount of distance I still had to run. And also reading the back of one of my teamate's shirt that said "if you see this your in second" I didn't like that shirt very much because I was slower than her. That could be why I kept my eyes closed, I still do it when I run real hard. But in swimming they've always stayed open unless I'm in the lake and then I don't neccasarily want to see what I'm swimming next to in the first place.
