I just found this video and realized I am doing exactly what you are not supposed to do relative to what Gary Hall Sr. and crew researched on breathing patterns and drag, I am holding my breath till the last second vs riding on my own bubbles:
They found that there was 9% less drag force on the body (not speed) lightly releasing air bubbles through the stroke to the next breath.
The video is worth watching. First they talk about naval architecture and cruise ships riding bubbles, and then in nature, penguins using it. So then they tested it to find out and came up with the 9% number with a propulsion drag meter system that pulled one of their swimmers across the pool in a steamline at 2.3m per second (so probably twice the speed of most of us, so we're not going to save 9% drag...we may only save 2% less drag force at our speeds, but still).
I think the hard part about releasing air under water, is this human instinct to hang on to air in your lungs until you definitively know you have access to air again. It feels against our instinct to release too much air too early. When I do fly with breathing every second stroke the breath holding gets even worse!
They found that there was 9% less drag force on the body (not speed) lightly releasing air bubbles through the stroke to the next breath.
The video is worth watching. First they talk about naval architecture and cruise ships riding bubbles, and then in nature, penguins using it. So then they tested it to find out and came up with the 9% number with a propulsion drag meter system that pulled one of their swimmers across the pool in a steamline at 2.3m per second (so probably twice the speed of most of us, so we're not going to save 9% drag...we may only save 2% less drag force at our speeds, but still).
I think the hard part about releasing air under water, is this human instinct to hang on to air in your lungs until you definitively know you have access to air again. It feels against our instinct to release too much air too early. When I do fly with breathing every second stroke the breath holding gets even worse!
Last edited by:
devashish_paul: Sep 5, 20 18:55