Swimming without ear plugs

Former Member
Former Member
One of my earplugs popped out this morning. Couldn't see where. Never found it. I am still not used to water going in and out of my ear when I breathe. It was weird trying to breathe on my left side because I'd feel the cold water on my eardrum (I am guessing) and it would really distract me. I know that I probably need to try to get used to this...but I didn't want to struggle throughout my workout today...so I decided to only breathe on the right side and keep going. On occasion I tried the left side again but the feeling just wasn't conducive to focusing on the other 52 things I am trying to learn. Other than "just do it" can anyone offer any words of wisdom on how to get used to swimming without nose or ear plugs? It's not that water bothers me. I've done scuba and I am perfectly comfortable in water. Something weird happens when you rotate your head to breathe in freestyle and I can't quite put my finger on it. I opted for plugging everything up so that I can focus on learning at this stage. Thanks.
Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 13 years ago
    I had the same problem when I tried to teach myself to breathe on my right side. For me, the reason water got in my ear was that I was turning too far to breathe. Once I made a point of keeping my left eye in the water (I look at the wall underwater to make sure I am doing this), the problem was resolved. Ah. OK. I'll work on rotation and see what happens. I'll do this at the gym rather than my normal swim workout. For now I'll keep everything plugged-up until I get better at all the other things I need to learn. I think that I need to be able to swim without a nose clip or ear plugs. I say this from a perspective of mere survival or even open water swimming. You have to be able to swim reasonably well without any equipment, which means no goggles as well. For training, competition, workouts I can see the advantages, but I don't want to have to have these things with me to swim well.
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  • Former Member
    Former Member over 13 years ago
    I had the same problem when I tried to teach myself to breathe on my right side. For me, the reason water got in my ear was that I was turning too far to breathe. Once I made a point of keeping my left eye in the water (I look at the wall underwater to make sure I am doing this), the problem was resolved. Ah. OK. I'll work on rotation and see what happens. I'll do this at the gym rather than my normal swim workout. For now I'll keep everything plugged-up until I get better at all the other things I need to learn. I think that I need to be able to swim without a nose clip or ear plugs. I say this from a perspective of mere survival or even open water swimming. You have to be able to swim reasonably well without any equipment, which means no goggles as well. For training, competition, workouts I can see the advantages, but I don't want to have to have these things with me to swim well.
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