Help with TI breathing

Hi guys! I've been practicing TI for 4 months now, in fact I just started swimming 7 months ago. I've been doing the TI drills religiously but my biggest concern is breathing. I feel comfortable with the balance drills, and I've been doing drills like skate-breathe-skate, skate-stroke 3 times-skate-breathe. My problem is that when I incorporate full stroke swimming + breathing, I cannot get air, like literally my mouth is under water. I tried to follow the chin-follows-shoulder approach, but still I am not getting air like I'm supposed to. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I am getting to the point of being frustrated but throwing the towel is not an option. Any advice please. Thanks.

I am no expert but I would start by rotating until you get air. It may even feel like a huge exaggeration of the motion. When I made the transition from drill to swim about 3 months ago I found it helped to really s-l-o-w d-o-w-n to the point where I felt foolish, but it helped the elements come together for me.

Don't give up. I've found time and again, that suddenly I become aware of something I hadn't seen. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes it take months.

[CoachJeannie]

That's a common problem. Breathing puts you into an unbalanced position, which is why it's so important to work on balance. I'm glad you continue to practice skate. How easy is skate? Do you know if you are under- or over-rotated in skate? Off your belly is enough rotation and that's harder to do than being flat or fully stacked on your side.

Another tip is to make sure your lead arm is not too deep when you breathe; in fact, it might work better if it's a little shallow. It provides balance here. If that arm is falling, you'll be lifting your head to breathe in some capacity which puts your mouth in the water. Keep your ear near your shallow lead arm and let your breath come from rolling to air... don't lift and initiate the breath before the hips help it happen. Hope this helps!

[daveblt]

Also make sure that you are not pushing your head down too far when you swim . Look down but relax the head and neck.

Dave

[CoachBobM]

One of the things that makes freestyle difficult is that freestyle breathing is really a separate skill from the non-breathing stroke. So you can be fairly good at freestyle and still have everything fall apart when the time comes to breathe.

Can you breathe okay when you are in your sweet spot/interrupted breathing position? If so, can you roll from this position to a position where your nose is pointed at the side wall (with your lower goggle underwater and your upper goggle above it) and breathe there? If so, can you roll to that side position from your skate position, get a breath there, and then roll back to skate?


Bob

Originally Posted by CoachBobM

One of the things that makes freestyle difficult is that freestyle breathing is really a separate skill from the non-breathing stroke. So you can be fairly good at freestyle and still have everything fall apart when the time comes to breathe.

Can you breathe okay when you are in your sweet spot/interrupted breathing position? If so, can you roll from this position to a position where your nose is pointed at the side wall (with your lower goggle underwater and your upper goggle above it) and breathe there? If so, can you roll to that side position from your skate position, get a breath there, and then roll back to skate?


Bob

I agree with Coach Bob. Go to sweet spot when in doubt... but don't stop moving. Even though breathing is usually not an issue for me now, I will still get out of breathing balance sometimes and need to hang out in sweet spot. Eventually it works itself out.