Breathing freestyle swimming

[Rajan]

Dear All,

I would like to know that slow moving of rotation of head for breath can cause entering of water in the nose.

Thanks
Rajan

[CoachBobM]

It is most often caused by inhaling water, which can easily happen if you exhale all of the air from your lungs before your nose clears the water. Instead, save the last 20% of the air in your lungs and blow it out through your nose just as it's clearing the surface.


Bob

[Rajan]

Thanks for your respnse. Do we save this 20% air for rotatation, means, I want to ask 20% of the air to be breathe out completely when our body is moving to our side just our nose clear the surface. Is it so ?

Originally Posted by CoachBobM

It is most often caused by inhaling water, which can easily happen if you exhale all of the air from your lungs before your nose clears the water. Instead, save the last 20% of the air in your lungs and blow it out through your nose just as it's clearing the surface.


Bob

[Alex-SG]

Originally Posted by Rajan

Dear All,

I would like to know that slow moving of rotation of head for breath can cause entering of water in the nose.

Thanks
Rajan

Hello Rajan,

My view is that whoever rotates the head slowly to breathe probably has an incorrect swimming stroke.
Because the back arm/hand is always moving and it is beneficial to immediately bring the arm forward during the recovery, that requires the breathe to be quick. As soon as your recovery elbow is over the head, it should be the end of the inhale part.

It is common to see people rotate to air slowly to breathe, while the pull arm stays behind and the recovery is delayed. The end result: a non-continuous stroke, causing the body to come to a stop and a loss of balance. ALEX.

[CoachBobM]

Originally Posted by Rajan

Thanks for your respnse. Do we save this 20% air for rotatation, means, I want to ask 20% of the air to be breathe out completely when our body is moving to our side just our nose clear the surface. Is it so ?

The purpose of keeping 20% of the air in your lungs is to keep you from trying to inhale while your nose and mouth are still under the water. So you don't want to exhale it until the moment when they clear the water and you are ready to inhale (which I presume you do through your mouth).

In general, your head should be rotating with your body (i.e., your body roll should be bringing you to the air).


Bob

[Rajan]

Your guess is right I breathe in through mouth. I would like to ask whether we can breathe in through nose also instead of mouth

Originally Posted by CoachBobM

The purpose of keeping 20% of the air in your lungs is to keep you from trying to inhale while your nose and mouth are still under the water. So you don't want to exhale it until the moment when they clear the water and you are ready to inhale (which I presume you do through your mouth).

In general, your head should be rotating with your body (i.e., your body roll should be bringing you to the air).


Bob

[borate]

Originally Posted by Rajan

I would like to ask whether we can breathe in through nose also instead of mouth?

That really doesn't work. Take a quick, easy mouth breath (not a gasp) as the recovery arm leaves the water. Try slightly 'scrunching' your lips sideways, as Popeye did in his cartoons.

Study Terry's video at :46.
Or Keri-Anne at :25

[swimmermike]

Hi folks

Thanks for the thread.

My question deals with an asymmetry to my breathing: fine on the right, but on the left , for some reason, I tend to arch my head up and probably slightly backwards to breathe. I am sure that this makes me "yaw" in my stroke, away from the direct laser line forward. It likely has other effects as well of which I am unaware.

My question is: what element of the stroke can I practice to help adjust this asymmetry? I have tried skating slowly, switching slowly, visualizing the right (seemingly correct) technique and imitating it on the left, but I seem unable to un-train this left side without another mental tool.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Michael

[tab]

I like Keri-Anne's advice, Practice makes perfect. I just need to practice more.

Breathing in at all through the nose will allow you to take on water, for sure. I suspect there is some unconscious mechanism shutting off the nose while breathing that still need training, for me at least. If I get too comfortable or forget what I am doing I will get water down my nose. Flip turns are a bugger, getting better though.

[CoachBobM]

Originally Posted by swimmermike

My question deals with an asymmetry to my breathing: fine on the right, but on the left , for some reason, I tend to arch my head up and probably slightly backwards to breathe. I am sure that this makes me "yaw" in my stroke, away from the direct laser line forward. It likely has other effects as well of which I am unaware.

My question is: what element of the stroke can I practice to help adjust this asymmetry? I have tried skating slowly, switching slowly, visualizing the right (seemingly correct) technique and imitating it on the left, but I seem unable to un-train this left side without another mental tool.

The TI drill sequence begins with drills that are far enough removed from whole stroke swimming that deeply engrained (and often faulty) muscle memories don't kick in, allowing you start with a clean slate and engrain new muscle memories. So you may want to back up to a point in the drill sequence where you don't experience asymmetries in your stroke and then work on those drills for awhile, so that the new muscle memories you are developing have time to become deeply enough engrained that they can displace the faulty muscle memories you have been using in your whole stroke swimming.

Another thing you can do is analyze exactly what you do differently on the two sides (which it appears you have already done to a significant degree) and then try to change what you do on the bad side to match what you do on the good side. For example, I was originally taught to breathe on only one side and was never able to swim a lap breathing on both sides until I went to a TI workshop in February of 1999. But I was still a little more comfortable breathing on my familiar side than on my unfamiliar side. When I analyzed it, I realized that when I was breathing on my good side, my eyes were looking back over my shoulder, but when I was breathing on my bad side, they were looking at the side wall. So I started looking back over my shoulder when I was breathing on my bad side, and immediately it started feeling more comfortable!


Bob