Breathing better and correctly Freestyle

SWIMMER BREATHING ISSUES

I see lots of issues with breathing for swimmers.  Some of them are just breathing but others are due to technique of the swimmer.   Bottom line, your goal is to streamline your swimming so that you stay almost parallel with the water surface with your whole body, only using your stroke to pull you forward, not to push down to lift the head. 



Issues due to technique

Body Position effects are one of the reasons technique can cause a problem for proper breathing.  If your legs are sinking or you aren't rotating well, you may feel you need to lift your head up like the swimmer at right.  This will have several undesirable effects.  What causes you to feel you need to lift your head so high? 
A. If you lift your head, your momentum slows because for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  When you push down to lift yourself up, you will then sink down below the water into the heavy lower layer and slow down, losing buoyancy, making the next attempt to breathe even harder. 
Skill:  Practice floating on your stomach, turning your head gently to get a breath.  You can use the kickboards and buoys to help with body position to get the feeling of breathing in proper body position. 
B. You will feel like you're drowning because your head will be below the waterline as you get ready for the next breath, causing you to have to push down harder to get your head up to the surface. This will increase the amount of turbulence and the struggle you have to get air, further making you wallow in the water. 
Skill: Using the swim buoys, practice your stroke to get a forward pull and breath trying to keep your lower eye in the water. 
C. You end up swimming longer distances because you are swimming up and down as well as forward so you have increased your effort, increased the distance and likely will end up feeling rather breathless more quickly. 
Skill: Using the swim buoy, swim slowly with one arm.  Watch how much your body moves up and down and try to correct your stroke so it ONLY pulls forward and not down. 

Issues due to breathing timing 

A. Breathing out:  If your body position is good but you are still struggling with getting air, you may not be breathing out sufficiently underwater.  Holding your breath or not completely breathing out underwater, causes CO2 to build up in your lungs and this molecule triggers the body to feel as though you are suffocating.  This can increase the tendency to panic attacks and responses like lifting the head which is described above. 
Skill: Using the kickboard, put both hands on the board, extending your arms fully as you kick.  Practice breathing out with your head underwater, then stroke with one arm and breath in keeping your head level with the water surface. 

B. Breathing in can also be an issue.  Swimmers can find it difficult to get the mouth above the water surface if there is insufficient flexibility in the neck to turn the head.  Take a look at the two photos below to get an idea of how far the head really has to turn.  With a slight body rotation and turn of the neck, you should be able to get the mouth mostly above the water.  If you leave the bottom eye in the water and tilt the head down, you should be able to mimic this head position. 
Skill: Using the swim buoy, focus on even strokes and turning the head to try to keep one eye in the water as you breathe in. 


C. Timing is sometimes an issue for novice swimmers.  If you are waiting too long after you turn your head to breath or ending your breath in too early, you won't get enough air.  The rule of thumb to remember is to breath as the arm is coming forward, ending as the hand goes into the water.  This video has some nice visuals of the breathing cycle.  Breath Cycle
Skill: Using the poolside, hold on with both arms, head in the water, and practice breathing through a stroke.  Do this until you feel it's a habit rather than new.  This is to embed the muscle memory so you won't have to think about it during the swim.