I have been at this sport for about 4 years and swimming continues to be my limiter. Though my overall form is fairly good (per my coach), I continue to have problems with the sensation of air hunger. This makes me degenerate into breathing every other stroke. My bias is that it is “all in my head” and I don’t really need that extra breath as my heart rate isn’t increased, etc… I exhale while my head is in the water and think I am doing the right things. When I am distracted thinking by other things (thinking about work, etc.), I seem to do better which seems to be confirmation that some of my problem is psychological. Any advice on getting past this problem would be appreciated.
Whats the issue with breathing every other stroke. Before I started masters, I was doing every 3 strokes, and would
always have issues in races. Now that I do every other stroke breathing, I have yet to have a race swim issue.
Dave
Few things are better for an excellent stroke balance, and breath control, and endurance work, than hypoxic, bilateral breathing sets. In my experience, I get in shape a lot quicker when I go through the pain of super ugly and wretched sets, concentrating on my breathing and completing my stroke. Nothing harder after you’ve logged in a 3,000 meter workout than to do 15 or 20 50s breathing every 3 strokes, then every 5 strokes for the 2nd, and every 7 strokes for the third, - then back down to 3 strokes for number 4 and so on…
After swimming sets like that, - breathing and swimming every two or three strokes becomes so much easier and simpler. You’ll also learn pretty quickly that you need to expel your air before turning your head to breath…
Cheers,
I love it when our coaches make us go to 9, and then the entire 25 yard length w/o breathing.
Once they told us to do the 50 w/o breathing, I did not get close. :o(
Dave
Yeah…
I despise those sets whenever they come up in practice. And, I never give them to myself whenever I’m doing my own workout. But man, do I feel super fast after doing those sets and going back to my normal breathing pattern. As a distance swimmer, I breathe every other stroke on my left, and I probably should train myself to breathe every 3, which I know will help with compensatory roll, - but I just can’t bring myself to train that way…(maybe someday).
Since I believe it is important to be able to breath comfortably on either side, I force my self in practice to always switch.
So, on my first 50, I breath so I am always looking south on both directions. And then on my next 50, I breath so I am always
looking to the North on both directions. When I race, I find myself usually breathing to my right, but in practice I do 50%
on the right and left. It is critical in a race that I can breath on both sides, to see folks, buoys, etc.
Dave
Whats the issue with breathing every other stroke. Before I started masters, I was doing every 3 strokes, and would
always have issues in races. Now that I do every other stroke breathing, I have yet to have a race swim issue.
Dave
I agree what is wrong with breathing every other stroke?
It doesn’t sound like you are out of breath from exertion, more that you have a panicky feeling that your are out of breath and drowning, correct?
True that…
When I started masters and was breathing every 3rd stroke, if I tried to do any type of speed work, I would
quickly start to feel like I was out of breath and drowning. I looked around and saw basically no one
doing anything other than 2 stroke breathing. Once I changed to 2 stroke while trying to swim fast,
it completely changed swimming to being something fun for me.
Dave
I have to agree. 2 years ago I had right shoulder surgery and to breathe every other (to my left side) put a strain on my shoulder despite being faster as opposed to bilateral breathing. To reduce strain on my shoulder I am trying to breathe bilaterally or every third.
now if you can get rid of your shark phobia…
You hit the nail right on the head! I have done 4 IM’s with swim times of 1:20- 1:30 (I am 47 yo) realizing this is not fast, I still feel air hunger within 200 yards and somewhat suffer there after.
SOunds more like a relaxation issue, and to a lesser extent conditioning. The conditioning part is easier to deal with than the mental part! Go through your checklist of things than make you out of breath: are you kicking too hard, are you exhaling all your air underwater, is your breathing pattern correct etc. You had some good suggestions above for breathing. On to the mental side. Are you a bit freaked out in the open water? Does the wesuit bug you or does this happen even in the pool? I’ll bet a large percentage of triathletes would admit to some level of anxiety in open water swimming. One thing that helped me a lot last season was to just spend some quality time in my own pool getting comfortable in the water without the pressure of masters group and others scrutinizing me. I could concentrate on my balance, feeling the water on the catch, feeling my kick grab the water when I do it right. It was totally relaxing and enlightening. So I would say, just work on relaxing in the water. I’m sure others will have some good suggestions on this.
Well, from my experience, if you breath every third, you will never be able to go fast, long. I know I could not.
Good luck
Dave
Thanks for the advice. I actually am less “air hungry” in open water (unless there are 2,000 other people around me) than in the pool. I also do better in a wetsuit or when I use a pull buoy which might suggest issues with the kick or balance yet I think per others observations that my kick is not too vigorous and my balance is pretty good. Time with a psychologist might help. I like the idea of hypoxic sets others have mentioned.
It might partially be a balance thing. When I swim with a PB and paddles, it elevates me such that breathing is real easy and swimming is a pleasure. Why not try breathing every stroke and see if that makes you comfortable.
I don’t quite understand what you are asking. If you breathe every other stroke, do you feel like you are getting enough air?
The best I can offer you is to find a comfortable breathing pattern and do it enough that you do not think about it. That might be breathing every 3 strokes, it might be breathing every 2. This may also vary with the distance you are swimming. For instance, I will breathe every 2 strokes if I am doing 4 x 800 or something like that (fun set, BTW 
) but if you give me 10 x 200, I would probably breathe every 3 strokes. It is something I don’t really think about…
I agree with most of what is above. As I’ve been gaining experience I find that switching up breathing patterns from every 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 once in awhile makes me much more comfortable at any rate. I race at 2,3,2,3 which is my most comfortable rate for a mod-hard effort. That way it is even both sides but gives me between 2 and 3 strokes per breath. I’ll sight after that cycle, so every 10 strokes.
…try jumping in feet first in the deep end, breast stroke 25 underwater, do an underwater flipturn (or ugly somersault in my case), then breaststroke back. Took me a YEAR to do it many moons ago. Could barely do 25 now.