Breathing??

Mark, It sounds like you are tense and rushing everything in general. Relax. A couple of observations: - When you say you are breathing every 2nd or 3rd arm stroke, that is a REAL LONG TIME between breaths. Terminology break: swimmers count by arm stroke. One pull with your right arm is 1. The next pull with your left arm is 2, etc. Therefore, if you breath every second time your right arm recovers, we would say you are "breathing every 4." Breathing every 6, which is what you initially described, is considered an oxygen deprivation drill (and is used as a form of punishment for showing up late to practice in some Australian masters clubs, but I digress...) An experienced swimmer competing in a middle distance freestyle event (say a 200 or a 400/500), will typically breath every 2, with no negative effective on streamlining. - I would be willing to bet that because you are waiting so long to breath, you are rushing your arm strokes and cutting them short to get to the next dang breath. We have a technical term for this: sprinting. - Lastly because you are new and you sound uncomfortable, you are probably very tense and fighting the opposing muscle group every time you try to move your arms or legs in any direction. So...to complete the picture, you're holding your breath, turning over your stroke at a faster rate than you might "normally" use when you find your groove, and giving your whole body a good isometric workout because you are tenser than a teetotaler at a keg party. WOW! No wonder you are breathless after only one length of the pool! In his wonderful web site, Coach Emmett Hines tells a story about a guy he calls “Splash.” You can read it at http://www.h2oustonswims.org/ (Go to the Articles tab, and look for “Splash and the XXLg Jockstrap”) See if it sounds familiar. So, what I would recommend is slow down, loosen up, and get comfortable in the water. Start with a relaxation drill while you are warming up. Face the wall of the pool. Start leaning back on your shoulder blades and kick lightly while leaning farther back and letting your hips float to the surface. Keep your head neutral (with a gap between you chin and your chest just about big enough to hold a large apple or orange) and feel like you are leaning on your shoulder blades. If you do that, your hips will naturally float to the surface even if you are barely kicking. If you have to kick “hard” to float your legs, you’re using your kick too much. Relax, lean on your shoulder blades some more, and let the natural buoyancy in your lungs float your body. You will float; even 5% body fat triathletes can do this. The point of this exercise is to really feel that you can float without effort, and to relax in the water. Once you have loosened up, swim your freestyle, but breath more often, like every 2 or 3, and slow down your arm stroke if you feel rushed. Remember our objective is for you to feel more comfortable in the water such that you can swim a 200, 500 or one mile comfortably. We’re not trying to break your personal record for the 25 yard free. Emmett has posted some other excellent articles to the h2oustonswims web site I think will be of interest to you. I would recommend “Breath How Often?” “Waiting to Inhale” (for rather obvious reasons) “Swimming in Circles” and “Of Air and Gravity.” Good luck and let us know how things are going. Matt

Mark, It sounds like you are tense and rushing everything in general. Relax. A couple of observations: - When you say you are breathing every 2nd or 3rd arm stroke, that is a REAL LONG TIME between breaths. Terminology break: swimmers count by arm stroke. One pull with your right arm is 1. The next pull with your left arm is 2, etc. Therefore, if you breath every second time your right arm recovers, we would say you are "breathing every 4." Breathing every 6, which is what you initially described, is considered an oxygen deprivation drill (and is used as a form of punishment for showing up late to practice in some Australian masters clubs, but I digress...) An experienced swimmer competing in a middle distance freestyle event (say a 200 or a 400/500), will typically breath every 2, with no negative effective on streamlining. - I would be willing to bet that because you are waiting so long to breath, you are rushing your arm strokes and cutting them short to get to the next dang breath. We have a technical term for this: sprinting. - Lastly because you are new and you sound uncomfortable, you are probably very tense and fighting the opposing muscle group every time you try to move your arms or legs in any direction. So...to complete the picture, you're holding your breath, turning over your stroke at a faster rate than you might "normally" use when you find your groove, and giving your whole body a good isometric workout because you are tenser than a teetotaler at a keg party. WOW! No wonder you are breathless after only one length of the pool! In his wonderful web site, Coach Emmett Hines tells a story about a guy he calls “Splash.” You can read it at http://www.h2oustonswims.org/ (Go to the Articles tab, and look for “Splash and the XXLg Jockstrap”) See if it sounds familiar. So, what I would recommend is slow down, loosen up, and get comfortable in the water. Start with a relaxation drill while you are warming up. Face the wall of the pool. Start leaning back on your shoulder blades and kick lightly while leaning farther back and letting your hips float to the surface. Keep your head neutral (with a gap between you chin and your chest just about big enough to hold a large apple or orange) and feel like you are leaning on your shoulder blades. If you do that, your hips will naturally float to the surface even if you are barely kicking. If you have to kick “hard” to float your legs, you’re using your kick too much. Relax, lean on your shoulder blades some more, and let the natural buoyancy in your lungs float your body. You will float; even 5% body fat triathletes can do this. The point of this exercise is to really feel that you can float without effort, and to relax in the water. Once you have loosened up, swim your freestyle, but breath more often, like every 2 or 3, and slow down your arm stroke if you feel rushed. Remember our objective is for you to feel more comfortable in the water such that you can swim a 200, 500 or one mile comfortably. We’re not trying to break your personal record for the 25 yard free. Emmett has posted some other excellent articles to the h2oustonswims web site I think will be of interest to you. I would recommend “Breath How Often?” “Waiting to Inhale” (for rather obvious reasons) “Swimming in Circles” and “Of Air and Gravity.” Good luck and let us know how things are going. Matt