Breathing technique when swimming
Discussion
Does anyone have a technique for pacing your breath while swimming. I find I get very out of breath when swimming front crawl. Not because im unfit I just don't control my breathing pattern very well.Is it something you have to train - like holding your breath exercises I dunno,
Sometimes I feel like i'm going to pass sometimes when you push of the wall and glide underwater for a bit haha
Sometimes I feel like i'm going to pass sometimes when you push of the wall and glide underwater for a bit haha
I've been learning so I can compete in Tris next year. Done one this year, the swim nearly killed me!
It is so hard! Remember as a 12 year old seemingly being able to swim all day long and be fine. Now, ill do two lengths at a reasonable pace (I'm reasonably fit now, so majorly fit some months back) and that's me, done. Needs a rest.
I've been taught bi-lateral breathing. Three strokes then breath, each side. Twisting your whole torso in the water to enable your head to clear the water, but not so much to interrupt your flow. Your mouth should be only slightly above the water line, as the wake you create should clear a gap... Easier said.
My problem is I only have one speed - fast as f*ck. Great for showing off, until you get made to look a knob by the real swimmers. I need to learn to slow down while retaining my technique.
It is so hard! Remember as a 12 year old seemingly being able to swim all day long and be fine. Now, ill do two lengths at a reasonable pace (I'm reasonably fit now, so majorly fit some months back) and that's me, done. Needs a rest.
I've been taught bi-lateral breathing. Three strokes then breath, each side. Twisting your whole torso in the water to enable your head to clear the water, but not so much to interrupt your flow. Your mouth should be only slightly above the water line, as the wake you create should clear a gap... Easier said.
My problem is I only have one speed - fast as f*ck. Great for showing off, until you get made to look a knob by the real swimmers. I need to learn to slow down while retaining my technique.
You need to do both. Also, are you breathing out through your mouth? The key is to breathe out through your nose so when you turn your head to breathe you are only really breathing in. You might look like a dick doing it, but practising just standing at the end of the pool with your face in the water might help.
Also just try and relax, dont think of it as 'holding your breath', you'll just tense up and being tense will cause you to shorten your breaths. Almost don't think about breathing underwater, it's just breathing. As Mr Miyagi would say, 'don't think, feeeeeeeel'
Also just try and relax, dont think of it as 'holding your breath', you'll just tense up and being tense will cause you to shorten your breaths. Almost don't think about breathing underwater, it's just breathing. As Mr Miyagi would say, 'don't think, feeeeeeeel'
Edited by Highway Star on Wednesday 10th October 23:13
It really takes a lot of high intensity aerobic work just below and at and over the VO2 max to build up lung capacity for swimming I used to be able to do 150m underwater using dolphin/butterfly kick. But that was with 4hrs training a day. Bilateral technique will help balance and body position. if you want to increase your lung capacity go for sets of 200m at a reasonable pace and lenghten your breathing pattern. Start with 2 4 2 4 etc. Then after that becomes easier move to 2 4 6. Then 4 6 etc. Do faster shorter sprints with no breathing for 25m then build that up to 50m.
OneDs said:
It really takes a lot of high intensity aerobic work just below and at and over the VO2 max to build up lung capacity for swimming I used to be able to do 150m underwater using dolphin/butterfly kick. But that was with 4hrs training a day. Bilateral technique will help balance and body position. if you want to increase your lung capacity go for sets of 200m at a reasonable pace and lenghten your breathing pattern. Start with 2 4 2 4 etc. Then after that becomes easier move to 2 4 6. Then 4 6 etc. Do faster shorter sprints with no breathing for 25m then build that up to 50m.
Thing is I find holding my breath makes me work harder for some reason - its like a vicious circle! I guess I need to relax more so to speak.
tom2019 said:
Thing is I find holding my breath makes me work harder for some reason - its like a vicious circle!
I guess I need to relax more so to speak.
Swimming is a highly technique based aerobic sport, any energy wasted through bad body position, stiff shoulders and arms in recovery, splashy entry, lack of hyper extension, slipping your purchase at the front of the stroke. Just using arms and hands without the right elbow angle to help increase leverage and include the shoulders and lats in the pull phase and not finishing off the stroke past your thighs, will make harder than it has to be and then you become even more inefficient.I guess I need to relax more so to speak.
If you then add in timing, body role, breathing, leg kick and the optimum body position for the speed your swimming, everything starts to become more complicated. The worst thing is if you start thinking about this stuff when you're swimming you end up confused and even less efficient, so you're right you do end up in a vicious circle.
My coach used to say practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Basically there is no use training in errors, due to the nature of swimming any errors in training are just exacerbated when you try to go faster.
You have get to a place where you can intuitively feel when it is right and you can not do that if your not calmly focused and the right frame of mind. This does not mean relaxed.
An exercise that may help and increase your efficiency and speed is to count your total strokes per length and try to reduce it but keep your turnover rate the same. You can cheat a bit with better turns but then your turns are better too and that's win anyway.
Lots of drills and slow swimming will help your technique, try and replicate that when your doing faster sets, don't just try and bash your way through the more intensive sets.
Edited by OneDs on Thursday 11th October 09:24
Swimming isn't about holding your breathe, it's about breathing. I breathe to the left every other stroke - I find bilateral drains me too much over longer distances (as in longer than 200m!) - and turn my head so probably half my mouth is above the water line. I find the wash from my head creates a trough and I breathe behind that.
Anyways, big breath in through the mouth, don't worry about a bit of water going in, spit it out when you put your head back down, then blow out hard through the nose and/or mouth so that by the time you turn your head on the next stroke you're ready to breathe in again.
Try it more slowly at first, even if it's only for a few widths at the shallow end. It's important to get your technique right first, then when your comfortable your speed and stamina will follow as you're not having to concentrate on breathing and balance. Also, and this always sounds daft, but wear goggles too - if you can see properly it doesn't half help and reduces the panic that sets in when you can't see whether your face is out of the water or not.
Anyways, big breath in through the mouth, don't worry about a bit of water going in, spit it out when you put your head back down, then blow out hard through the nose and/or mouth so that by the time you turn your head on the next stroke you're ready to breathe in again.
Try it more slowly at first, even if it's only for a few widths at the shallow end. It's important to get your technique right first, then when your comfortable your speed and stamina will follow as you're not having to concentrate on breathing and balance. Also, and this always sounds daft, but wear goggles too - if you can see properly it doesn't half help and reduces the panic that sets in when you can't see whether your face is out of the water or not.
Antony Moxey said:
Swimming isn't about holding your breathe, it's about breathing. I breathe to the left every other stroke - I find bilateral drains me too much over longer distances (as in longer than 200m!) - and turn my head so probably half my mouth is above the water line. I find the wash from my head creates a trough and I breathe behind that..
Absolutely concur, breathing efficiently is the biggest challenge in crawl, it puts you off balance as you over rotate and results in turning forward motion into lateral motion. Also by turning your head to the side this drops your shoulder lower in the water and presents a flat static surface to the oncoming water flow to increase resistance. Swimming crawl without breathing is far more efficient, look at the 50m sprint hardly anyone breathes unless they have too.The point in these exercises for extended breathing ratios is to increase your aerobic capacity in training and also give you an opportunity to feel what a balanced body position feels like for the majority of the time. The other way to do this is to swim with a snorkel.
With respect, you probabyl think you're fit, but swimming is a whole different type of fitness IMO! If you're strugglign for breath when pushing off the wall and gliding for a few seconds, that's purely down to your fitness! I struggled with it at first aswell, even though i'd been running and cycling and was reasonably fit. It's just practice!!!
tom2019 said:
Does anyone have a technique for pacing your breath while swimming. I find I get very out of breath when swimming front crawl. Not because im unfit I just don't control my breathing pattern very well.Is it something you have to train - like holding your breath exercises I dunno,
Sometimes I feel like i'm going to pass sometimes when you push of the wall and glide underwater for a bit haha
I've been swimming, competitively, for over 15 years.Sometimes I feel like i'm going to pass sometimes when you push of the wall and glide underwater for a bit haha
Over that time I have heard lots of different opinions on breathing and I think it very much depends on what you are doing. In freestyle, you rotate the body with each stroke, the rotation helps you reach your hands further forward. Happily this rotation also allows you to breath to the side quite easily. The long an short is that this action slows you down. There is a reason Olympic freestyle sprinters will do the 50m in one or two breaths. Australian sprint freestyler James Magnussen has been known to do at least the first 50m of a 100 without a breath and he is one of the fastest in the world.
However, that is short duration. You couldn't possibly do that for a longer swim. Here you breathe often, more breaths slow you down but its traded off by keeping a good supply of oxygen so that you can burn energy in a way that isn't going to kill you after 100m. Watch the fastest distance swimmers.... they breath every 3 strokes, some every 2 strokes (my preference) and some, like Sun Yang seem to breathe when they want. Sun Yang can be seen breathing every stroke at various points of his 1500m swim and this is the guy that absolutely demolished Grant Hacketts 10 year old World Record in the event.
I like breathing 2's but I think a good place to start is trying to breathe 3's (bi lateral) as this keeps your stroke even. The key is to not breathe in too much air (actually works against you trying to hold so much in) and to let the air out progressively. Don't hold it in and let it out just before you take another breath (try this at your desk, its a horrible way to breathe!). Take a breath then just after the first stroke let it out in a controlled style. Its like in the gym, you wouldn't hold your breath while lifting, you blow out and you lift the weight. Same applies.
As for underwater push offs, again don't breathe in too deep. It works against you. And again don't just hold it, let it out progressively or in little bursts as you feel that odd pressure building sensation in your lungs. Lastly, you might feel like you are going to pop or pass out, but its just a mental thing... you can go longer than you think.
To practice breathing in swimming I do the following type of sets:
4 x 100m FC where you can do 100 breathing 3's (every 3 strokes), then 5's, 7's then 9's or you can do each 100m the same an breathe 3's on the first length, 5's on the second etc. I hate this one because at 9 strokes I only get 1 breath per length!
Similarly you can do 50's, 75's or 100's specifying a total number of breaths. I like to do a pyramid of 8x50's where I am allowed only 4 breaths on the first one, 3 on the second etc down to 1 on the 4th, then back up to 4 breaths for the last one.
One that is more suited to the underwater bits is to just do lengths under water. Doesn't matter how you propel yourself, the goal is to just make that breath last. To make it harder we do 75's where you swim the first 50m then try do the last 25 under water off the turn.
I do recommend bi-lateral breathing though. I think its better for your stroke. I do try to do it more in training but when doing 400's since I have such a long stroke, my heads in the water for a long time and eventually I have to switch to breathing 2's to keep myself going at a good pace. It can make your stroke lopsided though... I definitely have a preference for breathing to the right, breathing to the left is beginning to feel a bit unnatural. Anyway I am a backstroke swimmer and we can breath easy there!
Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Friday 12th October 12:14
One good bit of advice I got when I first started was to practice breathing out fully before starting a swim session. From a standing position just relax, bend your knees and drop yourself down so your head is underwater and then exhale fully (slowly), allowing yourself to sink as you do so.
As you empty your lungs you'll sink lower and lower until you'll end up sitting on the bottom - don't try this at the deep end of a diving pool! Doing this a couple of times before each swim helped me get into the habit of fully exhaling before turning to inhale - I just better understood what it felt like to fully exhale with my face in the water.
I regularly swim 1500-2000m continuously now. Back in March I couldn't do more than 100m without needing a rest and getting the breathing right was key, although I did find that my overall pace increased when I slowed down a bit as it made it easier to maintain good technique. Now I just need to work on going a bit faster.
As you empty your lungs you'll sink lower and lower until you'll end up sitting on the bottom - don't try this at the deep end of a diving pool! Doing this a couple of times before each swim helped me get into the habit of fully exhaling before turning to inhale - I just better understood what it felt like to fully exhale with my face in the water.
I regularly swim 1500-2000m continuously now. Back in March I couldn't do more than 100m without needing a rest and getting the breathing right was key, although I did find that my overall pace increased when I slowed down a bit as it made it easier to maintain good technique. Now I just need to work on going a bit faster.
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