How often do you practice sighting?

We occasionally do sighting drills in the pool every ten strokes look over your stroke kind of deal.  OWS during Dec- March (australia!) it's all sighting, we swim to buoys etc so you have to sight. 

I always do every 10 strokes, keeps me focussed.  I've discovered I swim really straight....also nice to draft off someone with a sense of direction.

Did an OWS race Saturday tried to draft off one girl, we would have done an extra 1km if I'd stuck with her!

wouldn't that be sighting???

I think a lot of us do most of our swimming in a pool, then do a couple of OWS before race season starts and that's it.  In a race you have a bunch of bodies around you and some orange/yellow or other color bouys to follow.  So my sighting practice comes via the first race of each season.  Then maybe the second race, then O.K. the third race......By the time I think I've got it right, tri season's over :P

every time I swim...I swim a buoy chain, so I have to sight to see where I'm at.

Same on our OWS squad we swim a buoy chain of 5 buoys...then another 600m to some rocks.  Great when it's calm but when it's choppy it is really hard to see the yellow buoys.  IM buoys are even more tricky being white!  They just blend into the surf.

If you are lucky enough to have a clock at the end of your lane I like to see how fast my 50s are durring longer sets. 

It isn't always proper forward sighting, Sometimes it is looking back over my shoulder.  But it gets me use to raising my head up every lap or so and not just to pretend.  It is functional for the workout so I'm more likely to do it than forget about it.

Plus, I find that even when I'm sighting in the race looking to the sides as I breathe and behind me is often just as good as forward.

My first season I practiced sighting in the pool, then I got to my first open water swim and realized how pointless that practice was.  Sighting while in a pool, with lines next to and below you  and a target no more than 20 yards away, didn't serve me much purpose.  It wasn't as if you struggled to find your target in a pool. About all it did was got me accustomed to swimming with my head up.  

Sighting in a choppy lake, with 50-100 people around you, not sure if you're even looking in the right direction, with sun glare, and a small buoy possibly 200 yards away is a whole different story.  It's really something you just get better at with time and experience.  Practicing in actual open water would be much more beneficial, but in a pool, doesn't seem worth it to me.