I'm curious if most life-long swimmers think that breath control on turns is almost completely a mental game? I've always been very good at the mental aspect of sports....at least I think I have been. Being an endurance athlete my entire life and an ultra-endurance athlete for a while, it was basically required. No way to finish a track mile or a 50-mile mountain run without feeling some pain and enduring through it. I've climbed all of the peaks in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet (14ers), and I ran up quite a few of them, so I know that my body can deal with a bit of oxygen debt.
So...I was chatting with a teammate after workout today. Our pool is extremely warm right now due to hot weather -- they seem to be unable to regulate the temperature when the air gets hot. So he suggested that I go out to the lake to swim (some of the team is out there MWF).
I responded that I really need to focus on swimming fast, clean turns and breath control because those are my weakest areas, and that is best done in the pool. Open water has been natural for me. But having never swum competitively before, I only just learned to do flip turns recently. And I'm still struggling with keeping control of my breath, especially in short course. Long course I can manage OK because the turns are so far apart. Open water is a piece of cake.
He told me that controlling breathing on turns 90%-100% mental. I didn't agree. When I'm swimming at a level where my muscles need oxygen at a steady flow, to have to hold my breath for 3 to 4 seconds every 15-16 seconds while turning simply gets me too hypoxic after a few turns and then I start coming off the turns gasping for air. Sure, I can slow down a bit and keep my turns clean, but then I'm not swimming as fast. Thinking about my running days, without question I couldn't have ran as fast if every 15 seconds I had to hold my breath (no breathing at all) for 4 seconds. So I don't believe it's as much of a mental game as he might believe it to be.
Over the last couple of years, since I started competitive swimming, I've gotten better at the "technique" of breathing. I had never even thought about it before while doing sports out of water, but one can actually make themselves tired from breathing too hard. Turns out I realized I was inhaling and exhaling too vigorously, which would tire me out fairly quickly. I've been practicing inhaling and exhaling slowly, especially after turns, and I can tell it's making a huge difference in my breath control and speed. But I don't believe it's entirely mental. At some point, I think, one's muscles simply can't perform at the same level without a steady supply of oxygen.
What do others think? Is breath control on turns entirely or mostly mental or is there some physical and/or physiological aspect to it? And if there is a physical aspect to it, is it something that can be trained beyond controlling one's breathing (i.e. not inhaling/exhaling too vigorously)?
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Like you I come from an endurance background, a bit over 20 years of half and full iron distance triathlon. I never understood how magically that swimming required less oxygen. Aerobic respiration requires oxygen in order to generate ATP. Further, holding your breath builds up CO2 which will make you feel ever worse. In my best shape for the half marathon of a HIM I'd need somewhere in the low 30's breaths per minute. This is in a sport where you can get all the O2 you want. Somewhere along the line I bought into the notion that a 1:3 breathing pattern is the only way everyone should swim. I'm 6'3" so my stroke rate isn't exactly screaming for a distance swim and was in the low 50's. So breathing every 3 that gave me about 16 breaths per minute. I always felt like crap and as if my V8 had dropped a few cylinders.
Flash forward to about 8 years ago when I said screw it and went to a 1:2 pattern. I instantly felt way better and was able to go significantly faster. PR'd swims in nearly every race that summer. Now I have learned to take a 2:3 into and out of every wall so I get all the air I want and have my breaths per minute up to ~ 28 for my longer swims in a short course pool. Open water I go 3L, bilateral switch, 3R. Worst advice I ever took on as a swimmer was thinking that swimming was somehow different than other aerobic activities and suddenly my body didn't need ATP or O2 to do it's job. Face palm.
For turns yea it will get better. For sprinting I endure it and do my best to not roll for air into and out of the flags, but I'm always slowly exhaling. Anything over a 150 and I'm 2:3 into and out of every wall and 1:2 rest.
Like you I come from an endurance background, a bit over 20 years of half and full iron distance triathlon. I never understood how magically that swimming required less oxygen. Aerobic respiration requires oxygen in order to generate ATP. Further, holding your breath builds up CO2 which will make you feel ever worse. In my best shape for the half marathon of a HIM I'd need somewhere in the low 30's breaths per minute. This is in a sport where you can get all the O2 you want. Somewhere along the line I bought into the notion that a 1:3 breathing pattern is the only way everyone should swim. I'm 6'3" so my stroke rate isn't exactly screaming for a distance swim and was in the low 50's. So breathing every 3 that gave me about 16 breaths per minute. I always felt like crap and as if my V8 had dropped a few cylinders.
Flash forward to about 8 years ago when I said screw it and went to a 1:2 pattern. I instantly felt way better and was able to go significantly faster. PR'd swims in nearly every race that summer. Now I have learned to take a 2:3 into and out of every wall so I get all the air I want and have my breaths per minute up to ~ 28 for my longer swims in a short course pool. Open water I go 3L, bilateral switch, 3R. Worst advice I ever took on as a swimmer was thinking that swimming was somehow different than other aerobic activities and suddenly my body didn't need ATP or O2 to do it's job. Face palm.
For turns yea it will get better. For sprinting I endure it and do my best to not roll for air into and out of the flags, but I'm always slowly exhaling. Anything over a 150 and I'm 2:3 into and out of every wall and 1:2 rest.
