Searching everywhere and not finding much, I think I have an unusual breaststroke problem: I struggle to get my head out of the water for breathing, and then it drops down deep, so that on my next stroke I have to stuggle to get my head ... and round and round it goes.
Moreover, I read about swimmers having the opposite problem; their heads go too high! And indeed I've seen pictures of breaststrokers with their bodies out of the water down to their waists! I know it's bad form, but wow!
I can't even do a head-up breaststroke; my head just won't stay up.
Anyone else have/had this problem? Any suggestions?
I don't even understand what is supposed to bring the head up; where and when is the upward force being applied and by what?
Fighting for breath on every stroke is causing huge anxiety for me; I usually end up with water instead of air in my mouth and I have to abort the swim and have a coughing fit. It's a showstopper.
Alan
Parents
Former Member
Experimenting, I notice I do get a little head-raising effect when I quickly recover my legs and my body pivots at my hips, but I've been doing the leg recovery too late in my stroke for it to help. I'll see what I can do about that.
Anyway, I think most of my problem is that I exhale everything (through my nose, to keep the water out) immediately after inhaling, which causes me to lose my buoyancy and down I go. So I'll try humming (to slow down the outgoing air flow to keep most of my buoyancy but still keep the water out of the nose), and forcefully exhaling the rest (again, through the nose) while surfacing to inhale (through the mouth). That, doing small, quick, accelerating arm movements with a strong insweep, and possibly Allen's idea of strategically timed kick recovery should do the trick.
Alan
Experimenting, I notice I do get a little head-raising effect when I quickly recover my legs and my body pivots at my hips, but I've been doing the leg recovery too late in my stroke for it to help. I'll see what I can do about that.
Anyway, I think most of my problem is that I exhale everything (through my nose, to keep the water out) immediately after inhaling, which causes me to lose my buoyancy and down I go. So I'll try humming (to slow down the outgoing air flow to keep most of my buoyancy but still keep the water out of the nose), and forcefully exhaling the rest (again, through the nose) while surfacing to inhale (through the mouth). That, doing small, quick, accelerating arm movements with a strong insweep, and possibly Allen's idea of strategically timed kick recovery should do the trick.
Alan
