when to breath free style

Don't believe everything you read. If you are bilateral breathing and as soon as your face is in the water you start exhalling you will soon stop bilateral breathing. If you swim a 50 and only breathe in 2 or 3 times during the 50 don't start exhalling as soon as you put your face in the water. Several will say blow out all your air, I say hold a little back. Many exceptions to what you have read. But you are welcome to do whatever you wish.

Repeating: if you exhale, your C02 removal from the blood will end and you will soon have the strong urge to breathe. If you are breathing every stroke than you can exhale as you wish, if you are taking your time to take a new breath, then exhale appropriately, exhaling stronger when you will be taking a breath. I went swimming today and noticed that I breathe in then hold for a little while then slowly exhale, but harder when I am approaching the time to breathe again. As I only breathe to the left, If I am holding my breath, skipping a breathing opportunity, then I will not exhale until I start the next cycle, which in my case is always one sided. If I am swimming fly then I wait to exhale at the cycle that I will take a breath that might happen every two and eventually every stroke. Keep in mind that the relaxed exhaling during the stroke is only that, it has no influence in your performance, but might make you distressed by the stronger urge to breathe once you have exhaled completely. Once you have exhaled completely, your strong urge to breathe will hit you fast. I speak not as a swimmer, but as a gas passer....billy(passing gas professionally and sometimes on his own)fanstone

Don't believe everything you read. If you are bilateral breathing and as soon as your face is in the water you start exhalling you will soon stop bilateral breathing. If you swim a 50 and only breathe in 2 or 3 times during the 50 don't start exhalling as soon as you put your face in the water. Several will say blow out all your air, I say hold a little back. Many exceptions to what you have read. But you are welcome to do whatever you wish. I hear what you are saying. I'm not trying to tell anyone how to swim, and I'm sorry if that is what it looks like. Basically, I'm just saying that I have tried both ways, and when I don't exhale continuously, I feel like I'm huffing and puffing. For what it's worth, I don't breathe bilaterally.

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 definitely agree that there is no "one breathing style fits all" in the swimming world, and if there is then that person needs to fill us all in to rectify this discussion. However, I absolutely agree with the above statement!

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 I definitely think this is a good description of what could be done with the breathing as well! Let me ask this to the forum: What is the benefit of holding your breath versus continuously exhaling throughout the stroke (or vice versa)?

No breath for me in a 50 long course, 1 breath during a 50 short course after the turn. I always expelled air out of the nose during the turn.

When I swam the marathon races there was a lot of discussion amongst the swimmers. It was believed by most that the breath should be held in as long as possible and expelled just before you where ready to breathe in. It was thought the body held a better position in the water if we did this. More air in the lungs for a longer time better floating ability, more streamline. I have expelled air and have found at times crashing waves sometimes did not allow you to breathe in, the secret is to be adaptable. I definitely think this is a good description of what could be done with the breathing as well! Let me ask this to the forum: What is the benefit of holding your breath versus continuously exhaling throughout the stroke (or vice versa)?

Personally, I have tried holding it in until right before I am ready to inhale. When I do that, I feel like I'm not getting enough air in my lungs, which may be because I'm either not exhaling all the way, or I'm spending too much time exhaling when I should be inhaling (mouth out of the water, obviously). When I exhale continuously--even when breathing every 3 or 4 strokes, which I do very infrequently--I find that my breathing is more natural. When I'm walking around, I don't take a breath and hold it, then exhale quickly and inhale again.

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. I absolutely love it! This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

When I swam the marathon races there was a lot of discussion amongst the swimmers. It was believed by most that the breath should be held in as long as possible and expelled just before you where ready to breathe in. It was thought the body held a better position in the water if we did this. More air in the lungs for a longer time better floating ability, more streamline. I have expelled air and have found at times crashing waves sometimes did not allow you to breathe in, the secret is to be adaptable. I agree; you have to be able to adapt to the conditions, distance, intensity, etc in order to be a better performance swimmer.