eyes open or closed

I never actually thought about this idea before the thread came up. When I was last in the water, I noticed that in the beginning, I kept my eyes open except for blinks. Towards the end of the workout, I noticed my eyes were spending more time closed. I was tired, but not sleepy....or at least I don't think I was!:o

Wayne, I think your talking about a sterotype. I'm an ex-Californian as you know and don't look that great in a swim suit. And during my age group years in California most of the girls look average and I think the guys were better looking. Anyways, I image that many young people don't fit the tan blond in southern California since the largest ethic group in the LA area is more likely to come from a hispanic backgound. There are of course good looking hispanic girls and guys. However, master swimmers tend to belong to the older generation which is more likely to fit the image of the blond surfer.

Like Jim, I live in "land of the callypgean swimming nymphs, probably wearing the latest in California skin tight female swimming apparel" and it is true, I spend a lot of time with my eyes looking around during boring distance sets. We have had several of our "babes" on the cover of Swim magazine. Thus the absolute requirement for a good set of goggles and Eyes Wide Open. Do we have a great sport of what? Has anyone else noticed the best babes wear worn out - see through suits? Like Ion, I really need a set of goggles with Horse Blinders so I won't look around during races. Breaststrokers who look around lose half a second or more for each peak at our competitors. But the real reason I wear goggles and Eyes Wide Open is that breaststroke and butterfly have no leway on turns, you have to look for the wall five yards out so you hit the wall on a kick and not a pull. Wayne

I swim with my eyes open. My goggles fog so I really don't do a lot of looking around. All I see are dark shapes.

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 am surprised that with all the responses so far, only one (Ion’s) alludes to the real reason for keeping one’s eyes open all the time. The reason being: to keep an eye on your opponents in a race - except in a 50 where you only look for the wall for the turn/touch. This is especially important when you are going for a win rather than a potential ‘best time’ which always carries a risk of misjudging the pace. In Masters racing this can come into play in the Nationals where your age group competition is in your heat (and assuming winning or beating your favorite rival is more important than a good time!). If, for example you know you are faster in the shorter distances than your opposition but your opposition is better at longer distances, you should go out slower to save energy by not pushing the pace but, at the same time, not losing contact i.e. keep watching to make sure you don’t fall so far behind as to not have enough runway to overtake at the end. Hopefully you can lull competition into feeling comfortable with a slight lead and not set too fast a pace. Of course, you also need watch for anyone in the field making a break. Tools like Top Ten history and Best Times and meet results (with splits) help scouting out the competition to decide on a strategy. The long distance swimmer in the above example should try to ‘break’ the sprinter early in the race, in which case short distance guy has to revert to a ‘best time’ attempt and pace himself accordingly. The key, however, is to keep those eyes open all the time and keep track of what is happening. The least you can do, as Ion mentions, is to try to reel in those you see close to you – maybe they have their eyes shut and don’t notice you sneaking past! Ian.

I never had any luck seeing anyone but the fellow next to me. Not that I haven't tried! Ion keeps his eyes *closed*, especially in a race, because seeing other swimmers could make him go slower. Ion feels his best races are self paced, and presumably he would go fastest in a time trial where he is the only swimmer. At least that is the way I read his post, but I don't want me or Ian to misrepresent him. Anyway, happy holidays, everyone!

I remember the pre-goggle day period too since I started in 1969. But I was on novice teams which workout once a day until I was 14 and half. Its true that the mileage increase a lot during the 1970's. Shirley Babashoff went from about 10,000 yards or meters a day with Flip Darr in the early 1970's to 20,000 yards or meters a day with Mark Shubert. Goggles defintely made this possible.

I had this discussion with someone a few years ago. I keep my eyes closed most of the time but am trying to open them more. I think it is because of heavy clorine and no goggles back in the late 1960s. In the summers, we might have had our eyes open for the first workout but come afternoon workouts, they were closed tight and only looked periodically to make sure we were not crashing. We even tried mineral oil over our eyes for protection and I remember us sitting on the deck trying to cry to get all the first workout chlorine out before the second workout. This never worked either. Our second workouts were usually miserable because all we could think about was how much our eyes hurt. Someone also told me that it was around the invention of goggles that swimmers were able to workout longer which in turn times dropped. But that is a separate discussion. Does anyone know where the information on the history of swimming with the link between time drops and technology might be found? This discussion came up the other day. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

heh heh... I like closing my eyes when I swim, but then I don't. It's hard to explain. When I get lazy I close my eyes, but then I always try to remember to keep them open. Usually, a couple hits of the lane lines with my right thumb is what makes me keep them open. The pain from the bruised thumb after multiple encounters with the lane line reminds me to keep them open... sorry, I'm confusing when I write...good thing I'm not a journalism major! David;)