Puzzled and fatigued

I recommend concentrating on your head position. The human head is pretty darned heavy. When I have taught beginners they tend to swim with their heads up high, usually panicking. They can barely make it 10 feet from the shear exhaustion. Try drilling with a jellyfish (dead man's or survival float). Preferably in water in which you can stand, float on your stomach, relax completely and let your limbs dangle towards the ground, concentrate on looking directly at the ground. If you find you are bottom heavy and can't maintain proper alignment use a pull buoy between your legs. Relax your neck completely. When you need air exhale completely into the water, turn your head to the side, keeping your opposite ear facing the ground, take a breath, and repeat. My suspicion is that the more you are concerned with getting a breath, the higher up your head is going. When you are comfortable with this take it out very slowly, using a pull buoy between your legs for added support. Exaggerate your stroke, try at least a slow three count with each pull, feel the glide and acceleration as you bring your arms through the water. Concentrate on not lifting your head when you breathe, exhale in the water, turn your head keeping your opposite ear pointed towards the ground, inhale and bring your head right back into position, looking at the ground. Don't worry about running into the wall. If you follow the lines on the ground you will see the T mark that tells you the wall is near and it's time to turn. The slower you practice your stroke the less splashing you will have and the more confident you will become with your breathing. When you are accustomed to all of this, you can add your kick in. Maybe use some fins when you add your kick, but do some separate kicking drills to work on that as well. There is also a chance that you may be hyperventilating a bit, which can make you exhausted. This is why it is so important to exhale well before you take in more air. I hope this has helped you somewhat. Don't give up, you can do this! :applaud:

Easier for a beginner to develop good habits. They don't have any bad habits to break. I agree. As an adult beginner, I knew that alternate side breathing was the best way to go since my kids were already swimmers at the time I learned. I put it in right away and was able to learn it, and now don't have to struggle to relearn a breathing pattern. When my kids were small, the Y only taught single side breathing because they felt it was easier. With my youngest, I did a lot of teaching her because she was stubborn(not sure where she gets that), and the teachers had touble with her. By the time she was 5, she was easily alternate side breathing. So young and old can learn this right away.

Wouldn't it be better to teach breathing to both sides than to teach breathing every third stroke? I regularly argue with a woman on my team who swims primarily distance events and always breaths every third stroke because "breathing less is faster". It seems to me that limiting your oxygen intake is a bad strategy for sustained speed.

Are you practicing on your own? It sounds like you are not coordinating your breathing with your stroke. Even a little difference can have you out of breath quickly. Make sure you are exhaling completely before your head comes out for the next breath. A good exercise for breathing is a series of slow bobs. Go down until you feel like breathing and then come up, blowing as you rise. Take a breath and go down again. Continue this for about five minutes. Easy swims with plenty of rest will help you relax as you swim. There's no way to get around it. Good swimming requires practice.

Long and slow Your canoe tips over a mile from land. You decide to swim for it. It's a nice summer day and you've got plenty of time. What breathing and stroking patterns/rates will you use? I think the temptation to go out too fast is common to swimmers in the initial stage. Try slowing down to a ridiculously slow speed. Single-arm stroking drills might also be useful, as they put focus on balance while moving energy output down a tad. Good for diagnosing arm stroke differences and for practicing breathing to both sides, while seeing how breathing coordinates with stroking (and kicking). I would use flippers or a pull buoy, at least initially. Another idea: position a pull buoy at the wall where you start getting breathless and use it for next 25. Or alternate laps with and without pull buoy. It takes time. :coffee:

Been swimming for about 3 months (always 'swam' but never any real extended period for fitness until now). Started bilateral breathing about 2 months ago, basically natural to me now. If by bilateral you mean you are breathing every third armstroke or more, stop that! Next time you go to the pool breathe every two armstrokes and you'll get a BIG gain in time to exhaustion. Guaranteed. You can work on breathing veerty third stroke a little later. If you want to practice breathing to either side, then do so, you can switch the side you breathe to every 25 yards or every 50 yards whatever. You'll have less CO2 buildup and will be a happier swimmer.

If you want to practice breathing to either side, then do so, you can switch the side you breathe to every 25 yards or every 50 yards Another pattern that works well is 3-2. That gives you two breaths on each side, then a switch.

Easier for a beginner to develop good habits. They don't have any bad habits to break. Actually. the bilateral was my own idea. As I had mentioned, although I had never swam competitively, I had gone through the standard Red Cross swim curriculum when I was a teenager (including a lifesaving course). My wife had signed up for a college intro swim course about 10 years ago and had learned the basics, but never really pursued it as an exercise until we decided to give it a try recently (we basically walk about 3 miles a day and lift for strength training). I read Whitten's and Hine's books and ordered the Total Immersion text (only to find that Hines was basically a flavor of the TI approach), and as both recommended bilateral breathing, I began using it-- it took about two weeks for it to become fairly natural. I had also read about stroke counts and was abashed to find myself having a 30-count for a 25m length, when various online resources were talking about sub-20 counts being the least one should be shooting for. Most of the (what seem to me) good swimmers where we work out are in the 18-22 range, so I knew I could stand with much improvement. At the same time my wife began taking lessons (with a WSI-certified member of the college swim team), and as she was being taught bilateral, I figured I was doing a good thing. I was simply trying to increase my yardage and endurance (no lessons). I asked her instructor to look at my form, and he basically said it was OK, but just OK. And then, we hung around one day while the team worked out and I watched him swim. Forget about the fact that his body looked like it was being propelled, forget about the endurance-- he had a stroke length of about 12 across the 25m. At which point I went over to him and asked for lessons-- not that I expected to get anywhere near that level, but this was a whole new world-- it was like comparing my horse and buggy to a sports car. That's been about two months, and I've made some progress, but as I said this endurance issue is a real obstacle. What's frustrating me is reading things like 'it takes six weeks for the average person to swim a mile', or looking at beginngers drills that call for warm-ups of 300m, when I can barely do 100 during my main set. Are you practicing on your own? It sounds like you are not coordinating your breathing with your stroke. Even a little difference can have you out of breath quickly. Make sure you are exhaling completely before your head comes out for the next breath. A good exercise for breathing is a series of slow bobs. Go down until you feel like breathing and then come up, blowing as you rise. Take a breath and go down again. Continue this for about five minutes. Easy swims with plenty of rest will help you relax as you swim. There's no way to get around it. Good swimming requires practice. Bobbing is no problem-- as I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm very comfortable in the water, can tread endlessly and even when out of breath on my fourth length, I am not panicky or fearful-- simply upset that I'm once again unable to go further. We're working out about 40 minutes 5 days a week, and I try to incorporate the previous lesson's points into the workout. I've asked him for workout suggestions-- he's told me to try to increase the continuous yardage as much as possible, and do kicking work. Thanks, -- Gerald

Last April I quit smoking and started walking. About 50 yds, rest, another 50 and so on. Now I can walk 500 yds before the burn forces me to stop. Swimming I started in Oct about the same yardage although I run out of air swimming not walking and swam once a week not every day. This past week I spent my vacation swimming twice a day and can now do 17 s 25's for 8 or so reps with an easy lap in between. Anyway try coasting once your arm is in the water in front of you. Leave the other arm at your hip until you take another stroke. Try waiting a two count between strokes. It is easier than trying to swim slow.

(was exhaling through mouth, instructor told me to switch to nose, and am doing so now). I have to exhale through both my nose and mouth to get it all out. Maybe you're not getting rid of all the CO2. If this is the case, you may feel OK at first and start to crater pretty quickly. I've experienced this when bilateral breathing because I tend to hold my breath for about a stroke before exhaling. I remember someone more knowledgable than me stating that the limiting factor in underwater swimming is CO2 buildup rather than oxygen debt. They said this is what tells you it is time to surface. I would go back to breathing every two and exhaling through both nose and mouth. If this works, build up your endurance before trying bilateral breathing again. In the meantime, you can breath on opposite sides on alternate lengths.