Breathing problems,still!!

[dgk2009]

T.I brothers and sisters,I have made huge improvements in my swimming over the last year or so,2 beat kick is coming along,balance better,more horizontal in the water,more relaxed in the water in general,bilateral breathing is pretty much second nature now,and I can pretty much keep half my mouth in the water while breathing without freaking out,everything improves except endurance,still trouble with swimming laps,about 75 meters on a good day and out of breath,still think I am holding my breath to a certain extent,how do I overcome this,I've come too far to go back now.

[tsumrall]

I'm no coach and have plenty of my own issues, but I have noticed my breathing becoming much more automatic and beneficial by doing lots of:
1. one arm drills-while I am doing the drill I do the breathing progression that Coach Suzanne talks about in the big breathing thread here in this forum...I'm sure you have read that. Anyway, that's the biggest benefit of one arm drills-make sure you breath on every stroke and you will eventually find a rhythm and imprint timing that will become automatic in whole stroke.
2. hip-flexor and thoracic spine mobility work - All of these body parts and systems are connected and it could be that tension in one place is restricting your breathing and sucking up alot of energy.

[CoachBobM]

Originally Posted by dgk2009

still think I am holding my breath to a certain extent,how do I overcome this,I've come too far to go back now.

Have you tried focusing on exhaling? You want to time your exhaling so that your lungs are more or less empty at the point in your stroke when you take your next breath.


Bob

[dgk2009]

what is hip flexor and thoracic spine mobility work??

[tsumrall]

First, I think Coach Bob brings up a simple and obvious point. Sometimes old habits die hard. However, if you have exhausted all the obvious breathing check-points (be sure to read Coach Suzanne's big breathing thread-I'm sure you already have), then it may be time to look past all of the obvious explanations for your problem.

Here is some links to Thoracic spine and hip flexor dry-land exercises...

http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscA...57&ItemId=5219

http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscA...71&ItemId=5514



http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscA...71&ItemId=5396

http://blip.tv/swimmingworldtv/dryla...-spine-6275153

There are plenty of other tennis ball and foam roller movements for the T-spine on the internet, but I'm sure you don't want a whole page of links. Enjoy!

[tsumrall]

A couple of the links are missing above...

http://blip.tv/swimmingworldtv/dryla...-spine-6190688

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-t...#axzz2IGjHWHE9

[dgk2009]

hey thanks for the info.