Goggles are cheap, universally available, and probably the single most useful piece of equipment a swimmer owns. Most of what is worth saying about them is practical rather than clinical, which is convenient for a publication that does not do clinical.
What goggles actually do
They keep water out of contact with the eye surface, and they let you see. Those are two separate benefits and the second one is a safety benefit that gets underrated.
Being able to see clearly underwater changes how a swimmer behaves: they can see the bottom, the walls, other swimmers and the lane. In open water, sighting is the whole navigational task and it is done through goggles. A swimmer who cannot see is a swimmer who is not orientated, and that is a supervision problem as well as a comfort one.
Fit is most of it
Goggle problems are almost always fit problems. A goggle that leaks slowly is the most common complaint and it is fixable rather than tolerable. Practical points:
- The seal should hold with light pressure before the strap is tightened. If it needs a tight strap to seal, it is the wrong shape for that face.
- A tight strap does not fix a bad seal. It produces pressure marks and discomfort and the goggle still leaks.
- Nose bridge width matters as much as eye cup shape, and adjustable bridges exist for that reason.
- Children need goggles that fit children, not adult goggles tightened.
- Goggles degrade. Seals harden, anti fog coatings wear off, straps perish. They are consumables.
A child fighting leaking goggles is not learning to swim. They are managing equipment. It is worth a minute at the start of a lesson block to check that everybody's goggles fit, and it is worth telling families that goggles need replacing rather than passing down. The same applies to a squad: a swimmer doing a whole session half blind is not training properly.
Glare, which goggles in the water do not solve
Glare is a different problem from water contact and it arises from the reflected component discussed in reflection and the water surface. A water surface reflects light along the surface, and an open water swimmer sighting forward is looking directly into that path, repeatedly, for the whole swim.
Three practical consequences:
- Sighting becomes hard. Which is a navigation and therefore a safety problem in open water.
- Tinted and mirrored goggles exist for this reason. They reduce glare in bright conditions, and they are correspondingly worse in dull conditions and in murky water where you need all the light you can get. Open water swimmers carry more than one pair for exactly this reason.
- Supervision is affected. A lifeguard or coach watching a water surface in bright conditions is looking into the same reflected path, all shift. That is a genuine supervision problem and it interacts awkwardly with policies on sunglasses, which is covered in lifeguards and poolside staff.
| Problem | Solution | Not solved by |
|---|---|---|
| Water contact with the eye | Well fitting goggles | Tint, which does nothing about contact |
| Not being able to see underwater | Clear or lightly tinted goggles that fit | Tinted goggles in murky water |
| Glare when sighting in open water | Tinted or mirrored goggles in bright conditions | Clear goggles |
| Glare out of the water | Sunglasses and a brimmed hat | Goggles, which you are not wearing |
| Glare while supervising | Position, shade and a stated sunglasses policy | Anything the individual can do alone |
Out of the water is where the eye exposure sits
Ultraviolet exposure to the eyes is an outdoor question and it applies to the time out of the water at least as much as the time in it. Public health guidance on sun protection from the NHS and Cancer Research UK, sun, UV and cancer addresses eye protection alongside skin, and a brimmed hat plus sunglasses is the ordinary answer for the sitting about and marshalling parts of an outdoor day.
At an outdoor pool or a gala, that is most of the day. See competitive swimmers.
Stinging that settles after a swim is one thing. Pain, persistent redness, discharge, light sensitivity, changed or blurred vision, or anything affecting one eye and not the other is a clinical matter and can be urgent. That is an optometrist, a GP, NHS 111, or urgent care depending on severity. We do not offer eye advice, we do not suggest remedies, and there is a lot of informal advice about swimmers' eyes circulating that we are not adding to.
What is the eye problem here?
Water contact and, where a hall has an air quality problem, irritation from the compounds above the water surface. See indoor pool air and ventilation. Goggles help with the first and not the second.
Glare indoors comes from artificial lighting and windows and is a supervision issue managed by lighting design and blinds, not by swimmers.
Water contact plus real glare from surface reflection, plus ultraviolet exposure to the eyes out of the water.
Tinted goggles for the swim in bright conditions, sunglasses and a brimmed hat for everything else, and remember that at an outdoor session most of the day is everything else.
Whether swimmers can actually see at this session
Owns having goggles that fit and replacing them when they stop working. Owns carrying a tinted and a clear pair for open water. Owns saying when they cannot see, which children in particular will not volunteer.
Owns checking that the group's goggles work, particularly with children, and owns telling families that goggles are consumables. Owns recognising that a swimmer struggling with equipment is not learning or training. Owns their own glare exposure while supervising, which is continuous.
Owns water clarity, without which nobody can see anything, and owns lighting design and window treatment indoors. Outdoors, owns shade over supervision positions and any stated sunglasses policy for staff.
Where a duty attachesSun protection including eye protection from the NHS and Cancer Research UK, sun, UV and cancer. Pool water clarity under Health and Safety Executive, HSG179 Health and safety in swimming pools and the code of practice from Pool Water Treatment Advisory Group. Staff exposure under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Contact lenses and prescription goggles
Two practical points and one boundary.
Practically, prescription goggles exist, in both made to order and standard increment forms, and a swimmer who cannot see well without correction is a swimmer who cannot see the wall, the lane, the bottom or a signal from the poolside. For a regular swimmer that is a safety consideration and not a convenience, and it is worth raising with an optometrist rather than assuming nothing is available.
Also practically, in open water the consequences are larger, because sighting is the whole navigational task and there is nothing else to orientate by. A swimmer who cannot sight is dependent on following other people, which works until it does not.
The boundary: whether to swim in contact lenses, and what to do about them in water, is a question for an optometrist. There is a settled professional view on this and we are not the ones to relay it. Ask the person who fitted them.
Fogging, which is a real safety issue and not just an irritation
Goggles fog because warm humid air inside the eye cup meets a cooler lens, and every anti fog coating is a consumable that wears out. A swimmer with fogged goggles is swimming with reduced vision, and in a busy lane or in open water that matters.
The practical points are unglamorous: coatings wear out and goggles need replacing, treatments exist and are sold for the purpose, wiping the inside of a lens removes the coating and makes it worse permanently, and children in particular will keep using fogged goggles for an entire lesson block without mentioning it. Checking is a leader's job because the child will not raise it.
Summary
Get goggles that fit without a tight strap, replace them when they stop working, and check children's rather than assuming. Tint solves glare, not water contact, and the two problems are different. Most eye exposure at an outdoor session happens out of the water, so sunglasses and a hat matter more than people expect. And anything actually wrong with an eye is urgent enough to go to somebody qualified rather than to a search engine.