Thanks everyone. I’m off to the pool now to practice. Sorry for the slow reply - I’ve been asleep (I’m in Scotland).
I’ll post again later, after the swim.
Bobbing Drill
Before you take a stroke and when you first jump into the water (use a shallow lane) practice breathing normally by bobbing up and down. Fully exhale under water and take a breath when you come up, reapt about 20-25 times everytime you get in the pool and during breaks between sets. Helps get you accustomed to breathing “around” the water.
Excellent, thanks. All great advice, fellas - it’s appreciated.
I had 20 or so minutes in the pool after my weights session this morning.
I wore my HR monitor and found that at the end of a 20m length, if I was a bit breathless then my HR was about 120; if after 2 continuous lengths, I was much more breathless, but still my HR wasn’t much higher than 130.
So, my HR is low (my LT threshold is about 165) and I’m still struggling.
I think (though it’s hard to say exactly) that I’m getting enough air in but perhaps I’m not exhaling enough. I may not be expelling enough CO2 because I’m holding my breath before I exhale (underwater). I find the trickly thing no problem when I’m doing my drills but as soon as I start whole stroke swimming, I think I stop doing it.
I had been spending a fair bit of time practicing the breathing whilst stationary but I stopped doing it. I’ll start it up again.
I’m going to have a full session tomorrow, doing all my drills and then swimming for, say, 15 minutes, at the end. I’ll see how that goes.
My other issue is kicking - I think I’ve been kicking a bit too frantically whilst swimming (I don’t have a problem kicking during drills, which has probably added to my breathlessness.
I did feel that once I could swim a length, I’d just be able to keep upping the distance (like you do with running and cycling) as my swimming fitness improved. But it hasn’t worked out that way so far, which has been a wee bit frustrating.
Hopefully, once I nail the breathing and kicking, it’ll give me the leeway to improve the rest of my stroke. Up til now, I was kind of under the impression that those things were working and my stroke was the issue.
Any more advice is more than welcome. Thanks all.
I know this sounds simple but what helped me the most was learning to relax. Just get comfortable and relax. Get into a rhythm
I was in the same boat as you. After learning TI at a weekend clinic, my main problem was not knowing how to breath. I struggled with it for a while.
Be sure you are exhalling enough. Exhale just a little more than you feel is comfortable.
The breathlessness is not so much from a lack of oxygen but from a build up of CO2.
Also, just time in the water will help you figure this out. Good luck.
TI is good, you already know breathing is the issue…either not exhaling enough and/or inhaling enough (short breathing, your lungs fill with CO2)…Slow yourself down, when you rotate out to breathe, stay in the sweet spot as long as you need to comfortably breathe…we tend to cut our inhaling short as we are in a rotation rhythm…so slow it down and really suck the air down…just focus on that, forget any other issues…swimming is just like golf, your swing goes to hell when you try to incoporate too many things…if you can just figure out balance and breathing, you can swim forever…speed comes many moons later…in my case I still don’t have that much speed, but I do have swim endurance…
Thanks. I’m going to spend as much time as I can working on breathing, kicking and balance now. I don’t think I’m too far off but getting to that point is proving … elusive.
Luckily, I don’t really want to be fast as much as I want to be able to swim long.
Thanks.
I also learned to swim through TI just a few years ago and I also struggled to integrate breathing often feeling like I wasn’t get enough air. I think you’ve got good advice but I’ll add my opinion that part of the issue is that TI tends to ingrain long gliding strokes through the drill progression. There is a strong emphasis on fewest strokes to complete a length and bi-lateral breathing every 3 strokes. Add these together and you can cover quite some distance without getting any air. I found that if I started breathing every other stroke (every right or every left) that I got a lot faster and felt a lot more comfortable and less out of breath. I’ve also found that for me working to increase my stroke rate a bit and trying to “glide” less is helpful as I’m not face-down for so long at a time. I still consider myself in learning mode as a swimmer and my times prove that, I’m starting to feel more comfortable but I think a lot of the comfort comes with time and becoming more fluid.
One other thing. I sometimes find that I’m not completely exhailing underwater. Then when I rotate to breathe I’m breathing out first then sucking in, this cuts down my time to get air.
I’m sure it’s breathing related and that you do not exhale underwater. Not exhaling all the air creates problems: 1) You cannot immediately inhale air as you tilt your head to the side during the “breathing phase” because you first have to exhale. Not good. 2) in most cases when somebody forgets to exhale, their bodies stiffen. Kind of like a panic mode you put yourself in. RELAX. Breath out underwater. 3) obviously when you don’t breath properly (lack of exhalation, not enough inhalation) you tire yourself out as there will be a build up of CO2 and LA.
Here’s my drill for you.
Push off the wall and focus on breathing out slowly. No need create any tension in your body. It should feel good to exhale, you should feel relatively relaxed. Don’t worry about inhaling during this drill. Just push off the wall and start swimming while you slowely exhale. Once all the air is out, you can switch on your back and back kick the remaining distance to the other side. Do it again, and again.
Now, once you’ve done that 12x I want you to reflect back on how much air you had remaining in your lungs before you switched on your back to begin back kicking. Not much, right? That’s how it should feel before you tilt your head to the side. Obviously, you will have to exhale at a greater rate when breathing every 2, 3, or 4 strokes. But I see many “beginner” swimmers rely too much on breathing every 2. No need for it. Your lung hold enough air. DON’T PANIC. Just let the air our slowely and breath every 3 or 4.
Breathing is very important for any type of activity. It certainly is the key to swimming as we cannot breath whenever we want to while under water. You have to get the breathing down, no need to work on other stuff until that sits. We don’t want to practice bad habits.
And remember, if you don’t breath out under water, you will have to breath in while you have your head tilted to the side during the “inhaling phase”. But if you have to exhale during that phase, you won’t have enough time to inhale sufficient air. And then the trouble begins…
RELAX.
I’ll give that a go tomorrow, thanks.
people are offering sound advice with regards to breathing. That is exactly the case. But you do not want to ask yourself to do MORE than you already are, as that is part of the problem, too much to DO and so breathing gets ignored or axed bc of thatto-do list. Take your breathing to dryland. How about right now? Take some deep breaths and become aware of the breath going in and going out. How it changes your posture? Feel the muscles used and where your breath is located? You can look online and find all kinds of drills to enhance breathing. We are not effecient breathers, so although the suggestions are good, they fail to set you up for success. Raise your awareness of your breath on land. This will translate to better awareness in the pool.
Now, when in the pool, avoid giving yourself MORE to do IE RELAXING. Just become aware of areas where you are carrying tension and allow them to release. Now you are not asking yourself to do something else like RELAX, you are becoming aware of what you are doing and thus able to shut off that tension causing reaction.
All the best,
daved
I was in the same situation as you in June/July/August/September of this past year. Two things helped me. One which was mentioned was just forcing yourself to get in the groove and relax. I still struggle until I get to around 300 meters, then I begin to get in a groove and slow the breathing down. It is similar to the sensation you have when you start a run. Sometimes you feel really sluggish and want to quit, then after a few miles you get into the groove. The other thing that helps me is to concentrate on two things that help with body position and breathing:
- When rotating to breath, try to focus on keeping one eye (half of goggle) in the water. The other is to finish your stroke.
SJ