I am an Age Group and Masters Swim Coach While I am very comfortable working with strong swimmers, sometimes I teach lessons to adults who want to do triathlons and are fairly new to swimming. Every so often, I find a swimmer who has problems breathing. I have already read previous discussions where breathing is a problem and all the suggestions recommend improving stroke technique. I am very aware of the benefits of TI and like to encorporate it whenever I can. I have a very fit runner who now has pretty good stroke technique but after 25 yards is too out of breath to continue. Being a life-long swimmer, and having 8 year old swimmers who can go 1000 yards without problems, I can't fathom how anyone can't "breathe". This sounds very basic but in order to get a good diagnosis, I will try to be very specific. He is exhaling slowly, continuously, and completely through his nose before he rolls to inhale through his mouth. I generally have him breath every 3 strokes, but sometimes vary it and nothing seems to help. Has anyone encountered this and if so, are there better drills than just simple bobs?
Parents
Former Member
I agree breathing fully is the key to fixing "out-of-breath" problems. I am a fairly new swimmer (coming up on a year) and I found at first when I was nervous, I was concentrating so hard on breathing at the right time and breathing out underwater that I was just holding the air almost in my throat and not really breathing! I ran out of breath fast. As soon as I started bringing the air "fully into my chest" (as they say in yoga) I could feel the difference. It was like I was suddenly getting three times as much oxygen with each breath. The feeling also made me calmer and more relaxed in the water.
An added bonus is that when you pull the air all the way down and fill the whole chest cavity to the bottom, it helps the body posture in the water. When I was holding my breath high in my chest and breathing shallowly, it forced my head and shoulders up higher. When I breathe correctly, my body stays flatter. It sort of moves the proverbial "chest buoy" down a little and makes it easier to push.
I can tell if I'm getting lazy with breathing because I am panting during the breaks between laps. If I breathe right, I am still aerobic and breathing normally while waiting to take off again - even on fast sets. Your runner friend will relate to the difference. Most distance runners aren't really out of breath when they finish running. They stop and running and start breathing normally again. Since I'm not out of breath, I can do 300m reps just as easily as 50s, because it doesn't matter if I get a chance to stop and "catch my breath."
Hope this helps those newbies out there.
I agree breathing fully is the key to fixing "out-of-breath" problems. I am a fairly new swimmer (coming up on a year) and I found at first when I was nervous, I was concentrating so hard on breathing at the right time and breathing out underwater that I was just holding the air almost in my throat and not really breathing! I ran out of breath fast. As soon as I started bringing the air "fully into my chest" (as they say in yoga) I could feel the difference. It was like I was suddenly getting three times as much oxygen with each breath. The feeling also made me calmer and more relaxed in the water.
An added bonus is that when you pull the air all the way down and fill the whole chest cavity to the bottom, it helps the body posture in the water. When I was holding my breath high in my chest and breathing shallowly, it forced my head and shoulders up higher. When I breathe correctly, my body stays flatter. It sort of moves the proverbial "chest buoy" down a little and makes it easier to push.
I can tell if I'm getting lazy with breathing because I am panting during the breaks between laps. If I breathe right, I am still aerobic and breathing normally while waiting to take off again - even on fast sets. Your runner friend will relate to the difference. Most distance runners aren't really out of breath when they finish running. They stop and running and start breathing normally again. Since I'm not out of breath, I can do 300m reps just as easily as 50s, because it doesn't matter if I get a chance to stop and "catch my breath."
Hope this helps those newbies out there.
