freestyle breathing help(long)!!

i know there has been a number of posts/threads on this topic and i did search the archives, but i still wanted to post this thread. ok, so i've been trying to learn freestyle since 2005, and i still haven't got the breathing right. this has been really frustrating for me. i practice almost every day on a pool that is about 5' 5'' deep at one end. i have done a lot of research-hours of youtubing and checking out swimfast dvds have resulted in nothing! i've invested about $200 into private lessons, with no significant output! my goal is very simple-to swim freestyle laps in a 25 yard pool; is that asking for too much? i'm not interested in the other difficult strokes! i think my problem lies in the fact that i don't breathe out air completely before breathing in! are there any drills to work on that? also, some swimmers say that breath out through your nose, and some say through your mouth-i'm confused! if anyone can help me out, i'd really appreciate it! i want to learn this thing, and as you can see, i don't want to give up! TIA! Hi After reading your post and the various responses, I'm under the impression that you do not exhale while your face is underwater but you probably exhale as you turn your face out of the water and then try to inhale both while your face. If that is the case, concentrate on exhaling (out of mouth and/or nose) while your face is underwater; this way when you turn (body rotation and a slight twist of the neck) the mere action of opening your mouth will cause an easy inhalation. I had this problem 45+ years ago and didn't know I was doing this. Until, one day, I was obliged to swim extremely slowly. It was so slow that, involuntarily I started exhaling in the water. I had never swum more than 100m (LCM) before. That day I believe I did 2000m+ Good luck

i know there has been a number of posts/threads on this topic and i did search the archives, but i still wanted to post this thread. ok, so i've been trying to learn freestyle since 2005, and i still haven't got the breathing right. this has been really frustrating for me. i practice almost every day on a pool that is about 5' 5'' deep at one end. i have done a lot of research-hours of youtubing and checking out swimfast dvds have resulted in nothing! i've invested about $200 into private lessons, with no significant output! my goal is very simple-to swim freestyle laps in a 25 yard pool; is that asking for too much? i'm not interested in the other difficult strokes! i think my problem lies in the fact that i don't breathe out air completely before breathing in! are there any drills to work on that? also, some swimmers say that breath out through your nose, and some say through your mouth-i'm confused! if anyone can help me out, i'd really appreciate it! i want to learn this thing, and as you can see, i don't want to give up! TIA! Hi After reading your post and the various responses, I'm under the impression that you do not exhale while your face is underwater but you probably exhale as you turn your face out of the water and then try to inhale both while your face. If that is the case, concentrate on exhaling (out of mouth and/or nose) while your face is underwater; this way when you turn (body rotation and a slight twist of the neck) the mere action of opening your mouth will cause an easy inhalation. I had this problem 45+ years ago and didn't know I was doing this. Until, one day, I was obliged to swim extremely slowly. It was so slow that, involuntarily I started exhaling in the water. I had never swum more than 100m (LCM) before. That day I believe I did 2000m+ Good luck