Water in Mouth During Breathing

Not sure exactly how to explain this. Some people will over rotate their head but not really a good idea. Also, with you mouth, if breathing on your left side, your right side of your lips should be sealed, and the left side open for air. When your face is in the water, blow air out your nose, so that when you breath, you just blow out a very little, take a breath and get your head in the water. You could try practicing on your other side, but in all reality, it took me a while to get the breathing down without choking every few laps. Another thing, then you breath, you could try to imagine putting the top of your head down and your chin up. :) Phelps breaths this way. :) Some of it depends on when you take the breath during your stroke. Hard to say with really nothing to go on.

Do you blow out air when you are about to inhale? Most of us do this instinctively without remembering that we do this. You can always spit the water out as you close your mouth. If you are going slow then more water will enter. As you go faster the water will go around your face/head allowing a "pocket" to form that you can get air without water being there. Do you have a coach?

Your best bet is to work with a coach to assess and correct the issue. Breathing issues can come from a number of areas. One common problem is swimmers lifting their head instead of rotating from the chin. If you lift your head to breathe, the last part coming out of the water is the mouth; but if you rotate from the chin your mouth is out of the water first and your head stays low to keep buoyancy balance. Other typical issues are under rotation and timing. An eyes-on coach can work through all of these. All of this. This is probably easy to correct with a bit of practice but not being able to get a good breath is usually a symptom of something else. One additional possibility is if you are not blowing bubbles out when your face is in the water when you turn to take a breath, it can take awfully long to breath out and back in. If it takes too long, water could stream in due to the things that break in timing does with your stroke.

Your best bet is to work with a coach to assess and correct the issue. Breathing issues can come from a number of areas. One common problem is swimmers lifting their head instead of rotating from the chin. If you lift your head to breathe, the last part coming out of the water is the mouth; but if you rotate from the chin your mouth is out of the water first and your head stays low to keep buoyancy balance. Other typical issues are under rotation and timing. An eyes-on coach can work through all of these.

Yesterday while swimming my workout I actually thought about this predicament and what may be causing it. There are a couple of constants that I think a swimmer just has to deal with (with regard to breathing). The first is that you have to breathe through your mouth. It might be possible to swim breathing only through your nose, but that just won't work for long if you're swimming with intensity. Secondly, you're going to get water in your mouth...and probably even ingest some. So I realized that once I turn my head and my mouth is above the surface I actually open my mouth very wide to inhale. I don't attempt to seal one side of my mouth or the other. But, I'm only rotating/turning my head just enough to get my mouth out of the water. Therefore, the water that does get into my mouth collects or "pools" in my cheek. Then, when I rotate my face back into the water, it gets blown out when I exhale. If I happen to rotate so that my mouth is higher out of the water...what water that gets in my mouth then wants to run down my throat. So, try adjusting your rotation so that your mouth is just far enough above the water to get air, yet only far enough that whatever water gets in your mouth pools in your cheek and doesn't run down your throat. Hopefully that's and easy-to-understand explanation. Good luck. Dan