when to breath free style

Thanks. That was really my point, I just don't have the gift of succinctness.

I think we can agree that there should be no breathing after the flags at the finish, no breathing for a stroke or two after the start (depending on the race), and no quick gasp of life giving oxygen a stroke before and after your turn. I love, love, love, air. I would almost consider becomming a backstroker, but I just can't seem to overcome the stigma.

I would almost consider becoming a backstroker, but I just can't seem to overcome the stigma. :lmao: This may become my new signature line... I'll give you credit for the quote, of course...

Hi I really mean when is the right time to exhale. Should I slowly exhale while swimming or should I hold my breath until I need air exhale and then turn to inhale? Thanks for helping out this newbie Slowly exhale throughout your strokes...definitely don't hold your breath! You want to make it as normal of a breathing process as you can (compare it to when you are walking around, etc).

"What we have here is a lack of communication", line from Cool Hand Luke, a great film with Paul Newman. First, what makes you hunger for air isn't the need for oxygen but the need to exhale the carbon dioxide that is building up in your blood stream. If you exhale through your nose on a flip turn because you can't avoid water entering by just holding your breath, then you will want to breathe pretty fast. If you swim a straight 50 with one, or two or no breaths it doesn't matter, as you can accumulate all the C02 and then at the end of the lap you can breathe thusly expiring the air and getting rid of the C02 and starting a fresh cycle. If your lung is inflated it will continuously remove C02 from your blood, however as you exhale you have less and less alveoli to remove the excess C02 in your blood that is driving you to breathe. BUT, if you wait to exhale all at once you might not have enough time to breathe in...so you have to dose what you want, according to your speed and distance. 25 yards, don't exhale at all. From then on to 1500 exhale slowly so you won't have to exhale all at once but don't exhale to fast that you won't have any alveoli left to remove your excess C02. Clear and to the point (I think not), but even I after many sleepless night on the internet have yet to figure the validity of non breathing drills or holding your breath from flag on and so forth. No bubbles from Cielo on his way to win the 50 free...billy fanstone

Slowly exhale throughout your strokes Maybe for little kids that learn how to swim and "blow bubbles" but not for good swimmers - you exhale right before you take your breath.

I've tried, but I have a hard time exhaling through several strokes and then breathing. It was hard to tell from the videos posted by Michael whether any of these swimmers does that. The first video of Thorpe clearly shows him holding his breath and only expelling his air maybe a stroke before he breathes. In most of the other videos, the swimmers were breathing every 2 strokes, in which case of course they're going to need to be expelling almost immediately. I'd be surprised if most swimmers constantly exhale while breathing every 3 or more strokes... I'm with ehoch on this.

Andy: there is only one reason to hold your breath, and that is so you can remove more C02 from your blood, so as to diminish the "urge" to breathe. Notice this: if you can hold your breath while doing the flip turn you will last longer going out then someone who exhales (usually to prevent water from entering nose) during the turn. I personally am trying to exhale less, just enough to avoid water in nose, so as to last longer till the next breath out of a turn. At a certain age or at a certain lack of training (not as efficient energy expenditure and producing more C02) one has to breathe more often and I think the gain from not breathing as to maintain streamlining might not be so important as getting a breath and "feeling better". I have given up taking strokes after the turn before breathing. It isn't making ME any faster but causes some distress from the urge to breathe. Most of the oxygen consumption and need of are at a cellular level and have little to gain from breathing more or less up to a certain level. You use up most of you cellular oxygen the first 20 seconds of your sprint, and from then on it is alternative energy pathways, the oxygen you breathe in will help you immediately. So on a sprint, all you have to be concerned is about controlling your urge to breathe to get rid of the accumulated carbon dioxide in your blood. The resulting acidosis won't hinder your energy or speed, because before it has any impact on your muscles the race is over. This is dificult to undertand, and I won't even go near the Lactic Acid "build up", or the turning point in the lactic acid, where breathing plays an important factor such as in running over 400 meters or swimming longer. Finally, if you can hold your breath all the way on a 50 or longer swim, good for you, but your speed is not dependent on this unless you factor in the streamlining gained or lost from moving your head. Before anyone wants to argue that not breathing is deleterious and dangerous, I must say that I am talking about short sprints where anaerobic metabolism rules. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this supports the theory that you should only exhale immediately before your next opportunity to inhale.

"the oxygen you breathe in will help you immediately" Correction: the oxygen you breathe in has no immediate effect at a cellular level. Believe me, I have held my breath while using a pulse oxymeter and I was finished, with strong urge to breath and my saturation was still above 95%, which means that although I felt a strong urge to breathe my oxygen at a cellular level, in my circulating blood was still high.

Everything I've read, and everything my coaches have told me say that holding your breath is not correct. I'm not sure exactly why, but when various books and coaches tell me something, that leads me to believe it is correct (especially when I see it done by the big guys and gals). Now, as far as breathing when you're taking more than 2 strokes between breaths, I'm not really sure how it works, since I don't do that. But, I have seen videos of Stefan Nystrand swimming an easy 50, and he does sort of a combination of holding and exhaling. If you watch the video, he breathes every 3rd stroke, but sometimes he's holding it, and sometimes he's exhaling. I guess it just depends on personal preference really.