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.

For a 50 back I can easily go 15m out and then turn and swim 15m underwater again, bringing my swimming grand total to 20 yards. I have trouble doing this on the 100, but I'm working on it. I love underwater SDK on my back that's the only reason I started swimming backstroke. If you want to be able to do 15 on every turn for a 100 or 200 start working on the lung capacity, do it in practice so you can do it in a meet! FlyQueen: This is exactly why I asked what distance was being swam when using the nose clips. You didn't say anything about using nose clips so I assume you swim 2/3 of the 50 back without them. I have seen a lot of people go the 15 meters but not exceed it. I have seen more do it in short course then in long course as you would expect. I have also seen more people do it longer in the 100 and 200's in short course as opposed to long course. The question becomes is this benefical to a masters swimmer racing in the 100 and 200 distances? Will the cost of oxgen swimming underwater affect the surface swimming when you need your speed, endurance, and technique to get you thru the races. It makes sense to go the limit underwater because its faster, but can an aging masters swimmer do this and not have other factors that hinder performance? When I was at the World meet this summer I saw very few people do this in the 200 meter backstroke on the 2nd and 3rd turns. For that matter on the 200 fly, I didn't see anybody go the maximum 15 meters on all three turns and I specifically watched for this. This tells me that as a masters swimmer, the cost of oxgen in a race is more important for your speed to bring home a race then doing underwater turns and submerging and going into oxgen bankruptcy and not having the speed or stamina to bring the race home. Of course this wouldn't apply to a lot of the elite Olympic swimmers because they can master this and have the lung capacity and not be in oxgen bankruptcy. I have never been able to do this very well in a long course 200 back because as I surface after the 100 and 150 turns I have no speed because I am trying to recover my oxgen from being underwater SDK for a prolonged time.

This is exactly why I asked what distance was being swam when using the nose clips. You didn't say anything about using nose clips so I assume you swim 2/3 of the 50 back without them. I have seen a lot of people go the 15 meters but not exceed it. I have seen more do it in short course then in long course as you would expect. I have also seen more people do it longer in the 100 and 200's in short course as opposed to long course. The question becomes is this benefical to a masters swimmer racing in the 100 and 200 distances? Will the cost of oxgen swimming underwater affect the surface swimming when you need your speed, endurance, and technique to get you thru the races. It makes sense to go the limit underwater because its faster, but can an aging masters swimmer do this and not have other factors that hinder performance? When I was at the World meet this summer I saw very few people do this in the 200 meter backstroke on the 2nd and 3rd turns. For that matter on the 200 fly, I didn't see anybody go the maximum 15 meters on all three turns and I specifically watched for this. This tells me that as a masters swimmer, the cost of oxgen in a race is more important for your speed to bring home a race then doing underwater turns and submerging and going into oxgen bankruptcy and not having the speed or stamina to bring the race home. Frank: I agree. I can stay underwater much longer on the 50. But on the 100 I can't stay under as long except maybe on the start. But Heather is only 26, so she may have a little more juice than us. I'd also like to know if nose clips really cut down on sinus infections or only marginally like Rob said. It sounds painful, but I might consider one if this were true.

I do not use a nose clip, but if I swim a lot backstroke in practice and all that water goes up my nose my sense of taste is off the next day ... :dunno: I believe Jerri Moss a 2005 World Champs team member in both backstrokes wore/wears a nose plug. I think she's retired but I'm not sure ... I have seen some very impressive underwater work from some "elite" masters swimmers. When a teammate of mine swims the 200 fly he is close to blowing past the 15m mark off the start is close to 15 on each turn, this is short course. He finds it easier to stay underwater because it's less swimming. All my backstroke racing, which is very limited, I know I could easily pop 20 off of the start and probably another 15 off of the second wall. In practice when we race every once in awhile I pop up at the flags - the far ones(we don't have any markings at the 15 mark).

Rob: I read your hypothesis on the nose clip for the backstroke. If you believe this theory to be true, wouldn't these same observations for backstroke be true for freestyle? Is it because we are face down that this theory would not work for free? Everything you stated about maximizing the underwater breakouts over surface swimming would be true in freestyle. Michael Phelps is a perfect example of this as an elite swimmer when he swims free. Perhaps because the dolphin kick on your back is harder, faster and more strenuous with streamling requiring more oxgen? Also, when you raced backstroke with the nose clip, what race distance did you swim that allowed you to have the 4 to 5 yard advantage over swimming with non nose clips? I have experimented with nose clips and have found some interesting observations while using them and will share these observations with what I found out soon. I don't want to highjack this thread so I will report these findings on another thread. I have never seen you swim backstroke and I am not trying to be funny, but I recall I read here on the forums that you said you got disqualified at the 2004 LC Nationals doing the 50 back in a relay for going beyond the 15 meter mark on your breakout at the begining of the race. I have never seen anybody do that yet in masters and if this is true then maybe you do need the nose clip to stay under that long. That is quite an accomplishment in itself to do that and be able to sprint a good 50 back and not be in oxgen bankruptcy while swimming on the surface.

For a 50 back I can easily go 15m out and then turn and swim 15m underwater again, bringing my swimming grand total to 20 yards. I have trouble doing this on the 100, but I'm working on it. I love underwater SDK on my back that's the only reason I started swimming backstroke. If you want to be able to do 15 on every turn for a 100 or 200 start working on the lung capacity, do it in practice so you can do it in a meet!

Thank you all so very much! I don't feel so odd anymore...:D Does anyone know a good site for clips? I have 2 kinds: just a moon shaped one from TYR and the one with metal strip in the middle and rubber ends from Speedo. The first one keeps slipping off my nose and the second one works OK but hurts my nose a bit when I put it on. craiglll@yahoo.com how do you pick correct size and who makes such great clips? Thank you.

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

Also, when you raced backstroke with the nose clip, what race distance did you swim that allowed you to have the 4 to 5 yard advantage over swimming with non nose clips? I recall I read here on the forums that you said you got disqualified at the 2004 LC Nationals doing the 50 back in a relay for going beyond the 15 meter mark on your breakout at the begining of the race. Skip, your memory/recall never ceases to amaze me. Yes, I was DQ’ed for exceeding 15 meters in a relay at Savannah, and this was without my nose clip. And while I don’t frequently race backstroke, I will throw a 200 back in every now and then. As for adding 4-5 meters, this is in the 200 back where without a nose clip I’m usually up just past the flags on the back half, and with one on I will go nearly half a length (SCY).

I buty them from Keifer. I get the ones they make and I buy 12 at a tiem. they are for synco swimmers. There are 2 sized. the small ones I have only found in a catalogue the SCAT webpage. They are really small. I must have a big nose (doesn't look that big to me) because I have to take the large ones & stretch them. As for the entry about swimming on your back underwater. taht's how I learned to kick for butterfly. Craig: I have been doing some research on the website since I've been having a lot of trouble with my sinuses since I starting swimming again. (I also have terrible allergies.) I see that you have always answered everyone's questions on every new thread on this topic. I've concluded that I need to use saline sprays/rinses and try nose clips. I just wanted to thank you for all the advice that you've given over and over.