Greetings
This is my first post on this great site. I have learned a bunch from all of the posts so thanks for that. I swam my first OW swim yesterday and had a great time. My biggest problem was sighting and swimming straight. I always veer right and even made it into oncoming traffic on the out and back course. Hope the leaders took it in stride! Anyway my two big struggles were seeing anything meaningful when I sight and swimming straight. I breathe on the right only. Does that cause me to curl right all the time?
Anyway your thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks
Spudfin
Breathing to the right does not cause veering, although it can contribute to improper stroke technique, which does cause veering. The simplest way to straighten out is to adjust your hand placement on entry. Try moving your left hand out about 6 inches further out from your center line to correct veering to the right. Usually before each open water race I will do some steering correction warm-up; I aim at an object (marker buoy, etc.) swim 100 strokes, stop and see if I’m on target, if I’ve veered right, I’ll repeat the process moving my left hand out a bit and if I’ve veered left I move the right hand out. I repeat this until I can swim the 100 strokes straight to the object.
“seeing anything meaningful…” Unless you are out front there should be caps to follow, and there are course marking buoys, or a shore line or trees/buildings, or the sun. There are lots of meaningful things to use for sighting. You just need to become aware of what works best for you.
Breathing to the right does not cause veering, although it can contribute to improper stroke technique, which does cause veering. The simplest way to straighten out is to adjust your hand placement on entry. Try moving your left hand out about 6 inches further out from your center line to correct veering to the right. Usually before each open water race I will do some steering correction warm-up; I aim at an object (marker buoy, etc.) swim 100 strokes, stop and see if I’m on target, if I’ve veered right, I’ll repeat the process moving my left hand out a bit and if I’ve veered left I move the right hand out. I repeat this until I can swim the 100 strokes straight to the object.
“seeing anything meaningful…” Unless you are out front there should be caps to follow, and there are course marking buoys, or a shore line or trees/buildings, or the sun. There are lots of meaningful things to use for sighting. You just need to become aware of what works best for you.
