Guys I really struggle with breath control while swimming. After about 75 yds I start to get out of breath and sometimes have to roll over to backstroke to get some air. This is not due to exertion, I just can’t get the mechanics of breathing down. I have been swimming with a coach for about a month and my workouts have gone from about 600 yds on the first day to 3k now. I feel like I can swim probably about 800 yds before I start to get any type of muscular fatigue, but I am just out of breath from having my face in the water and then trying to suck in enough oxygen. I am breathing bilaterally every third stroke, which then degrades to every two strokes after about 50 yds to get more air. I am pretty sure that I am blowing out all of my air while under water, so I don’t think that exhaling when I should be breathing is the issue. Can anyone help with some drills or any other suggestions? Is this just part of the progression as a new swimmer and one day it will just click as I put more time and yards in the pool? I am pretty frustrated. Also posted on Gordo’s site.
i coached for a few years and i noticed often times that new swimmers would exhale with too much force underwater. try slowing it down and regulating it. also, you may want to try and breathe every stroke rather then 3. many coaches advocate every 3/4 as it regulates body positioning. however, if you’re having difficulty with breathing, it negates the effect. hope this helps and good luck.
First of all SLOW DOWN and work on your technique.
Second use your legs only to keep them afloat do not kick excessively this way you will need less oxygen.
My kick is now very slow, one of the first things we corrected
And then in reply to a question about your breathing…
“I don’t know for sure”
Perhaps it might be time to figure out what is happening…if you cannot determine if you’re fully exhaling/inhaling, etc., this will be a hard one to correct. I am far from a swimming guru but in terms of general technique in any sport it’s helpful to know what exactly you are doing now so it can be corrected. If you cannot explain it in words, get someone with some knowledge to analyze your stroke in person.
when you start your pull you should already be exhaling some. Then as you start t oroll you need to start getting ready to breath in. Swimming is realy hard to correct online. What says your coach about your problem?
Maybe work on ironing it out with a pull buoy so that you don’t have the added exertion from kicking.
When I am warming up, I always start the first couple hundred yards with the buoy to get the blood flowing into my upper body. If I don’t I get all out of breath until my blood flow catches up.
I’ll second this suggestion for a pull buoy. I’m in pretty much the same situation as tricop regarding the integration of breathing into my stroke. Being new to swimming (since June) my kick is so bad at this point that I go faster and get less behind in my breathing if I simply don’t kick, or do it very minimally. Warming up with a buoy and slowing down allow me to better focus on breathing and technique over longer distances during workouts. Alteranting lengths with 1 length breathing every stroke and 1 length breathing every 3-4 seems to work well for me at this point.