Newbie Swimmer - Breathlessness and Mental Barriers

Former Member
Former Member
Hi Fellow Master's Swimmers! I'm a fairly new swimmer and started to regularly swim since the March of this year. I've been slowly working on improving my freestyle technique and my endurance. I have to say that I have seen slow improvements in my technique. focusing mainly on my balance -- keeping my head down and engaging my core to keep me balanced. I'm working on my breathing but I still have some breathlessness after swimming 25 yards. At the beginning of my swimming adventure, I was sucking air after completing a length. Today, I am winded, but not as much. Nonetheless, I still have some breathlessness. My endurance has improved as I was able to swim 200 yards total, but now swim to 600-700 yards. And my rest intervals after each length have shortened to seconds. So, I am happy about the improvements. However, I am having this mental/psychological block of continually swim with no rest. I know I can do it and I have the endurance, but I just have this barrier or maybe a fear of continually swim. What am I afraid of? And I'm not sure how to break through this mental barrier. Any suggestions? I am currently swimming 2-3 times a week. Each session is about a hour and about 600-700 yards. Most of my workout is drills on improving my balance mixed with drills to improve my pull/catch, rotations. And kicking drills too. I did take a few private lessons and was fortunate to find a great Master's team that was able to practice with and the coach has been great with giving me guidance on my technical improvement. Anyway, I've enjoyed my swimming adventure. I actually like working out and look forward to my swimming workouts! Cheers!
Parents
  • Hi Fellow Master's Swimmers! I'm a fairly new swimmer and started to regularly swim since the March of this year. I've been slowly working on improving my freestyle technique and my endurance. I have to say that I have seen slow improvements in my technique. focusing mainly on my balance -- keeping my head down and engaging my core to keep me balanced. I'm working on my breathing but I still have some breathlessness after swimming 25 yards. At the beginning of my swimming adventure, I was sucking air after completing a length. Today, I am winded, but not as much. Nonetheless, I still have some breathlessness. My endurance has improved as I was able to swim 200 yards total, but now swim to 600-700 yards. And my rest intervals after each length have shortened to seconds. So, I am happy about the improvements. However, I am having this mental/psychological block of continually swim with no rest. I know I can do it and I have the endurance, but I just have this barrier or maybe a fear of continually swim. What am I afraid of? And I'm not sure how to break through this mental barrier. Any suggestions? I am currently swimming 2-3 times a week. Each session is about a hour and about 600-700 yards. Most of my workout is drills on improving my balance mixed with drills to improve my pull/catch, rotations. And kicking drills too. I did take a few private lessons and was fortunate to find a great Master's team that was able to practice with and the coach has been great with giving me guidance on my technical improvement. Anyway, I've enjoyed my swimming adventure. I actually like working out and look forward to my swimming workouts! Cheers! With breathing work on exhaling completely. You can do that with yoga breathing exercises that will strengthen your breathing muscles. Right before you are about to do your breath, you should push out the remaining air with a push of the diaphragm. This can be difficult for those who have a hard time keeping the core engaged while swimming. So best to start with dryland breathing exercises. For the distance tolerance at least the mental and physical side.. instead of thinking in distance... think in time. target 8 min swims as your goal.. then progress from that.
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  • Hi Fellow Master's Swimmers! I'm a fairly new swimmer and started to regularly swim since the March of this year. I've been slowly working on improving my freestyle technique and my endurance. I have to say that I have seen slow improvements in my technique. focusing mainly on my balance -- keeping my head down and engaging my core to keep me balanced. I'm working on my breathing but I still have some breathlessness after swimming 25 yards. At the beginning of my swimming adventure, I was sucking air after completing a length. Today, I am winded, but not as much. Nonetheless, I still have some breathlessness. My endurance has improved as I was able to swim 200 yards total, but now swim to 600-700 yards. And my rest intervals after each length have shortened to seconds. So, I am happy about the improvements. However, I am having this mental/psychological block of continually swim with no rest. I know I can do it and I have the endurance, but I just have this barrier or maybe a fear of continually swim. What am I afraid of? And I'm not sure how to break through this mental barrier. Any suggestions? I am currently swimming 2-3 times a week. Each session is about a hour and about 600-700 yards. Most of my workout is drills on improving my balance mixed with drills to improve my pull/catch, rotations. And kicking drills too. I did take a few private lessons and was fortunate to find a great Master's team that was able to practice with and the coach has been great with giving me guidance on my technical improvement. Anyway, I've enjoyed my swimming adventure. I actually like working out and look forward to my swimming workouts! Cheers! With breathing work on exhaling completely. You can do that with yoga breathing exercises that will strengthen your breathing muscles. Right before you are about to do your breath, you should push out the remaining air with a push of the diaphragm. This can be difficult for those who have a hard time keeping the core engaged while swimming. So best to start with dryland breathing exercises. For the distance tolerance at least the mental and physical side.. instead of thinking in distance... think in time. target 8 min swims as your goal.. then progress from that.
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