Happily Following

Switching from pool swimming to lake swimming (referred to as open water swimming) presents many challenges, the first being the ability to navigate oneself in a large body of water, commonly known as sighting.

Sighting is the extra work that a swimmer now has to do. The ability to know the most direct route from start to finish and avoid deviating from that path, adds more work for the swimmer and makes it harder to reach the finish line.

It is easy to navigate while swimming in a pool. A swimmer has to make very little effort since there are visual markings that are all around the swimmer. From the black lane that is painted on the bottom of the pool to glancing at the lane rope every time a swimmer takes a breath of air, the swimmer knows these landmarks in a pool are constant. Therefore navigation is easy. The environment of a pool allows for the hard work of navigating to disappear for the swimmer altogether because it is already set up for the swimmer. Not to mention, a pool is a much smaller swimming space. The swimmer can spend more time on building up his/her endurance levels and perfecting stroke mastery instead of constantly wondering if he/she is swimming straight. After swimming in open water, when I swim in a pool, I feel like I am swimming in a baby pool because everything is so much easier.

So how can one sight while swimming in open water since it is a huge body of water?

There are several tips that enable swimmers to make sure they are swimming straight. Most of these tips are independent of the other swimmers in the water, except for following another swimmer. This is my favorite because it takes the least work, which allows me to concentrate on the other challenges of open water such as water current, marine life, water temperature, and wind/rain. When I am doing a group swim, whether it is during a practice or a race, the easiest sighting technique for me is to follow a swimmer that is swimming diagonally from me. While my head is underwater, I can see the swimmer’s legs out of my peripheral vision, and this acts as a black lane that is painted on the bottom of the pool so to speak. Although this “black lane” is mobile and is not limited to straight lines, but curves, I happily follow my leader because I know he/she is more experienced than me since he/she is ahead of me. I happily let him/her lead because he/she is doing the hard work – navigation. I am just following his/her GPS radar through the water.

He/she is having to do independent sighting techniques such as crocodile eyes; this technique allows the swimmer to look up before turning the head to the side to get a breath. This extra movement of the neck is more work because it involves extra neck muscles on top of correcting the direction of swimming, as well as meeting all of the other challenges like choppy waves of the lake or ocean.

I love following while swimming in open water. It takes the stress off of me. I can focus my energy on sustaining my swim in the midst of other challenges that are absent from pool swimming. This focus makes it easier for me to complete the swim at hand and not quit.

In life, there are some areas in which we will lead and other areas in which we will follow. One area will never change – being a follower of Jesus Christ. Are we noticing the benefits of being a follower so that we will be the best follower of Jesus by following wholeheartedly those that God has chosen to be our leaders?