Is it possible to compete with a nose clip on?
Due to some sinus problems (so the doc thinks) I need to swim with a nose clip which is ok if I swim just for me, but a couple weeks ago our coach mentioned something about a some competition in the summer...... I feel so stupid wearing this thing on my nose..... Am I the only one? If there a better way to fix my sinus problem? Can it be related to the pool water or am I just making it up? :frustrated:
Skip,
Rob's observation is right on the money for my experience with backstroke. When I don't exhale, water flows right in. When I do exhale it keeps out the water but shortens the breakout.
With freestyle, I don't have to exhale and water doesn't flow into the head. I'm presuming that this is purely the orientation of the body and how the water pressure acts in the nasal passages. When you are on your back, water can easily displace the oxygen in your nose and get into the head.
When you are on your stomach, the trapped air bubble is much harder to displace from the nose, so freestyle is easier without the need for a nose clip.
You can think of this as an open jar submerged: If the mouth of the (open) jar is down (toward the bottom), the air trapped in the jar will remain (like freestyle). If the jar mouth is pointed up, the air escapes and water enters.
-- mel
Mel:
This makes sense to me. When the body is submerged on the stomach with your nose facing downward as opposted to upward on your back, gravity will aid the body so oxgen will be harder to exit and water would be harder to enter your nose as opposted to when your on your back and gravity will not work for you, thus the nose clips will combat what gravity can't do for you. However, do you feel there is a cost associated with having the nose clip on when swimming on the surface and not being able to breath with both the mouth and the nose.
The reason I bring this up is because I have never seen any of the elite swimmers recently use nose clips for there races especially in the 100 and 200 distances of backstroke. Perhaps the 50 back, but I don't recall who they are.
Two things come to mine when thinking about this.
1. That the oxgen cost of swimming on the surface is worth to much to save oxgen on the turns, especially in a Long Course 100 and 200 Back when using the nose clip.
2. That the elite swimmers are so good at staying under water for long time, that they would not need the nose clip and it would not hinder the breathing pattern with the mouth and nose working together.
Of course if a masters swimmer can't stay under for that period of time and thus gets water up the nose a lot, then the cost of not breathing on the surface thru the nose would be worth the use of the nose clip.
Skip,
Rob's observation is right on the money for my experience with backstroke. When I don't exhale, water flows right in. When I do exhale it keeps out the water but shortens the breakout.
With freestyle, I don't have to exhale and water doesn't flow into the head. I'm presuming that this is purely the orientation of the body and how the water pressure acts in the nasal passages. When you are on your back, water can easily displace the oxygen in your nose and get into the head.
When you are on your stomach, the trapped air bubble is much harder to displace from the nose, so freestyle is easier without the need for a nose clip.
You can think of this as an open jar submerged: If the mouth of the (open) jar is down (toward the bottom), the air trapped in the jar will remain (like freestyle). If the jar mouth is pointed up, the air escapes and water enters.
-- mel
Mel:
This makes sense to me. When the body is submerged on the stomach with your nose facing downward as opposted to upward on your back, gravity will aid the body so oxgen will be harder to exit and water would be harder to enter your nose as opposted to when your on your back and gravity will not work for you, thus the nose clips will combat what gravity can't do for you. However, do you feel there is a cost associated with having the nose clip on when swimming on the surface and not being able to breath with both the mouth and the nose.
The reason I bring this up is because I have never seen any of the elite swimmers recently use nose clips for there races especially in the 100 and 200 distances of backstroke. Perhaps the 50 back, but I don't recall who they are.
Two things come to mine when thinking about this.
1. That the oxgen cost of swimming on the surface is worth to much to save oxgen on the turns, especially in a Long Course 100 and 200 Back when using the nose clip.
2. That the elite swimmers are so good at staying under water for long time, that they would not need the nose clip and it would not hinder the breathing pattern with the mouth and nose working together.
Of course if a masters swimmer can't stay under for that period of time and thus gets water up the nose a lot, then the cost of not breathing on the surface thru the nose would be worth the use of the nose clip.
