swimming breathing technique

[Tiny K]

The more swim 'fit' you get, the better your breathing becomes. I was always told to do bilateral breathing but as the OP said, it is uncomfortable.

 

When I still did swimming competitively I would breathe every 4 strokes and if I found I ran out of air, I would breathe on the second stroke, sometimes mixing it up 4,4,2,4,4,2, etc. The idea is to limit the disturbance of body position in the water.

 

Hypoxic work is good but not for a long distance race. I am sure it has it's benefits in the pool. I used to swim a 50m sprint without taking a breath after leaving the starting block. 1500m swims I breathed every 4 strokes.

 

A buddy of mine (mariusl) did the total immersion thing and he said it improved his swimming dramatically but he did join a club as far as I remember.

[camerons]

I used swimsmooth a bit but I found that without anyone around to critique my stroke I was never really sure I was doing it right. It definately made me improve though and is worth a look.

 

The very best thing I did for my swimming was join a masters swim squad. Suddenly I was forced to swim really really hard and my swimming came on in leaps and bounds. I was probably a bit guilty of just costing through my swimming training before this.

[GSNieP]

Do you think its better to do this course or get a swimming coach?

 

Total immersion

[bigjoe]

I must admit Total immersion has worked for me.

 

I used to swim 3 lenghts of a 25m pool and I would be exhausted. Went to the Total Immersion course and within 2 weeks i could swim non stop for 2km, without getting out of breath.

 

Managed to finish 70.3 and Full IM without any issues this year, having started swimming last year! Sea was really choppy in PE, but i had the confidence before the start. This really helped me!

[LeTurbo]

Total Immersion is great. First, you find out where your real centre of balance is - more at the hips than the chest so you swim more level (they take underwater video, so you see how *** your normal swimming is). At first, it feels like you're swimming downwards.

 

Then, strangely, you punch the water instead of pulling your way through (you'll swim with ping-pong balls at one stage). It's much more relaxing and easier on the shoulders. You also glide further.

 

They call it "fish-like" swimming, because you rotate your body, twisting like a corkscrew. That also aids your speed by making you more streamlined.

 

That said, I've never tried it anywhere except in a pool. But I can't see why it would be any different in open water.

[dracs]

I must admit Total immersion has worked for me.

 

I used to swim 3 lenghts of a 25m pool and I would be exhausted. Went to the Total Immersion course and within 2 weeks i could swim non stop for 2km, without getting out of breath.

 

Managed to finish 70.3 and Full IM without any issues this year, having started swimming last year! Sea was really choppy in PE, but i had the confidence before the start. This really helped me!

wow... this is starting to sound appealing to me! did a little googling and seems this is a full weekend with a shorter 6 hr option (but similar price). Can't see me giving up a full w end any time soon... which one did you do?

[Wheelsuck]

U need to work at getting swimfit, meaning there will be some Hypoxic training.

So u can start by swimming lengths with breathing every 2nd stroke then lengths breathing every 3rd stroke then every 4th till breathing every 5th stroke. Do it as a pyramid. Also think Swimsmooth will do wonders as you need to get comfortable in the water. Once you are comfortablethe proress will be easy.

[dracs]

U need to work at getting swimfit, meaning there will be some Hypoxic training.

So u can start by swimming lengths with breathing every 2nd stroke then lengths breathing every 3rd stroke then every 4th till breathing every 5th stroke. Do it as a pyramid. Also think Swimsmooth will do wonders as you need to get comfortable in the water. Once you are comfortablethe proress will be easy.

Ya I've al;ready learned so much from looking at the website - keen to try out a few things in the pool - esp the slow breathing out and trying to breath in the pocket... As camerons said above though I guess it will always be difficult to know if you are doing it correctly so that would be the limiting factor.

[Giant]

If you struggle to breath on the left, only breath on the left for 3-4 sessions.

You will feel and swim like erik the eel, however as that starts feeling sort of natural, you should be able to breathe every 3rd stroke (bilaterally)

Worked for me.

I started getting shoulder injuries as my swimming was not ballanced due to more rotation on the breathing stroke and was forced to change to from left only to bilateral

Edited May 11, 2012 by Giant

[mtbgirlz]

wow... this is starting to sound appealing to me! did a little googling and seems this is a full weekend with a shorter 6 hr option (but similar price). Can't see me giving up a full w end any time soon... which one did you do?

 

It is not strictly speaking a full weekend - Saturday afternoon and Sunday Morning

[mon-goose]

I've just recently started practicing to breath on both sides and at first is felt very unnatural. It's slowly getting easier though and I can feel that I'm out of breath less often. The problem I have though is when I breath to the left, my right shoulder wants to fall and sink. I know I left my head to far out of the water when I breath and I have to practice keeping it lower in the water and just tilt the head sideways and not lift it. But I'm getting there so not stressed at the moment.

 

Started swiming again at the start of March and my original goal was to simply swim 600m open water comfortable by the end of the year. Have now upped the goal to 1.5km by the end of the year. Joined the ATC club in CT and the goal is to do their 1.5km canal course comfortable by end of December. Would be happy with that and then next year worry about sea swims.

[Azonic]

I breathe on every "right arm" stroke. Feels like I'm suffocating if I do it any less.

[mon-goose]

I breathe on every "right arm" stroke. Feels like I'm suffocating if I do it any less.

 

That's every 4th stroke. I can't push it more than that as well but found that breAthing every 3rd stroke helped a LOT

[Azonic]

That's every 4th stroke. I can't push it more than that as well but found that breAthing every 3rd stroke helped a LOT

 

I got two arms bru. Every right arm stroke means every time my right arm comes out of the water. When I did IM I did train the pyramid thing, but on the day you just fall back into old habits, and whatever gets you through it.

[mon-goose]

I got two arms bru. Every right arm stroke means every time my right arm comes out of the water. When I did IM I did train the pyramid thing, but on the day you just fall back into old habits, and whatever gets you through it.

 

sorry man it's friday and my mind isn't working properly.

[Disylizzy]

Most of the pointers have been covered already, but in my experience the most important ones are:

- Just get comfortable in the water, you waste a lot of energy and oxygen when you "fight" the water.

- Practice breathing on both sides, even though it feels uncomfortable at first you'll adapt quickly.

- Practice hypoxic breathing - breathing every 5, 7, or 9 strokes. Ie do a set of a 100, where you swim 25 breathing every 5, 25 breathing every 7, 25 every 7, 25 breathing every 5

- And then just practice, practice, practice. The only way you will get good at swimming, is swimming!