1.  Learn to relax in the open water.  Put yourself under stress (ex. start really fast or try to catch someone) but then teach yourself to relax and achieve the same goal.  Learn to calm yourself down and swim at the speed you want to but efficiently (not tight/anxious swimming).  This is the most common thing I see most people need to do.  They get anxious in a race, get anxious in a group or simply get anxious in a lake and thus tighten up and don't swim as well as they do in a pool.

 

2.  Swim with your head down.  Only lift your head to sight on a landmark to make sure you are swimming where you want to go.  At first, you may swim crooked.  By practicing and memorizing where the landmark is even with your head under water, you gradually learn to adapt your stroke to swim straighter.  Crooked swimming comes from pulling left or right too much.  95%+ of the time we want to swim straight and only want to turn around buoys.  Thus, we want to only push back when we swim.  That makes you a faster swimmer but also keeps you swimming on course (straight).  If you are swimming crooked, pay attention to where you end up.  Then think about your stroke and see when you are pulling sideways.  It takes awhile to figure out but with practice you will get it.  Someone on shore may be able to see what you are doing with your pull and be able to help you out.  The less sighting you do, the better.  Because every time you lift your head, you create drag and your feet sink.  That makes it much harder to swim the same pace.

 

3.  Learn to use landmarks.  As I mentioned, you want to sight as little as possible.  That means, you need to sight effectively.  Scout out your course.  If you can’t see the buoys well enough, then be sure to sight off a much bigger object (a boat, a tree, a mountain, a building).  Something that is in line with where you want to go.  Landmarks are not always in front of you either.  You can use the shoreline, other swimmers, boats etc that you see when you breathe.  That is a little trickier but if you are smart about it you can help maintain your direction.  For example, if you are swimming along the shoreline and then it disappears when you breathe, you know you are no longer pointing along the shoreline and are now pointing out into the middle of the lake.

 

4.  Bilateral breathing makes long distance swimming much easier.  You can see on both sides of you (shoreline, swimmers, boats etc.) and helps keep you straight.  Also, when your head is looking down and you take two strokes before breathing, you can take a peek to see where you are going.  That way, you don’t have to lift your head as much and create less drag.  Also, bilateral or not, practice taking a short look then getting your head down quickly.  If you did not see what you wanted to, then take another short look then your head down and another if necessary.  That is better than holding your head out for 2-3 strokes in a row and much easier.