my experience with tethers is rather limited, but i do not think they give any accurate representation of actually swimming. they are better than nothing, that is totally true. my advice would be to try to swim either in a full length pool at least once a week, or find a lake/ocean where you can do some open water workouts. swimming on a tether has never given me the feeling of being buoyant, or sinking when you feel very tired and your stroke is suffering. also, any kind of tempo/sprint training is almost impossible with these, in my opinion. if the tether is the only thing that you have access to then you will have to make it work. good luck with the training!

Attach it above the water level, it will not be a problem.

This is the super swim http://www.superswim.com/

Thank you to the both of you. This info helps a lot.

I may go with a "non fishing pole" one, because our pool has a basket ball hoop that I think I can attach a regular tether to, and it would have a similar effect.

Morty

I got a Lanegainer (lanegainer.com) tether to use in my pool so I didn't have to go to the Y for all my swim workouts. After some initial getting used to it, I found it made the swim stroke a little more difficult and so it became kind of a weight workout. Also, though it did feel uncomfortable, sometimes like I was sinking because my kicking didn't really keep me horizontal, getting used to this and relaxing helped ease any anxiety I had when swimming in open water. But for sure, make sure you do as much non-tethered swimming as tethered, unless you really can't manage it.