Many beginners are told that the way to learn breathing is to put their nose and mouth in a big bowl of water. I may have tried it once and didn't like it at all (granted my bowl was not very big ;)) and didn't think it could help learning breathing in swimming. Breathing in a bowl of water and breathing while swimming freestyle--when you are in continuous motion--are so different. So I wonder, did most of you learn breathing this way?
Former Member
I thought that was east coast lingo for a swirley.
My pediatrician is from another country and never learned to swim. She's been asking me about learning as an adult but she has a fear of water. I think (with a much bigger bowl or in a bathtub) she might start out with some kind of trick like this to get used to the feeling of the water on her face. Baby steps, like Dr. Leo Marvin would say...
Not a bowl for me - we went into waist deep water and "talked to the fish" (blew bubbles out) and "listened to the fish" (turned to the side with one ear in the water). Guess this only works in a lake though.
Not a bowl for me - we went into waist deep water and "talked to the fish" (blew bubbles out) and "listened to the fish" (turned to the side with one ear in the water). Guess this only works in a lake though.
That's a nice idea!
I learned when I was roughly 2-3, and wanted to swim very badly. La mere, quite experienced at fending off small children's demands, told me to put my face in the bathtub and blow bubbles. Which I did. For a year. Never had any problems with breathing during swimming, when I got to swimming.
The fishbowl idea seems roughly akin to tying one end of a rope around the closet door and the other around your neck and then jumping off, as a way to learn how to fly.
Not at all, I learned by doing freestyle.
I put my face in the water while I'm at the pool and do it a couple times but that's after a kick set and my face is burning up.
Well I'm glad your replies confirmed this is not a necessary step to learn breathing. "Baby steps," that's what I thought, perhaps for someone never putting his face under water. For those who have never heard of it, I read it in quite a few places but here is one I can find for now.
Never heard of this training method, but I imagine the goal is just to get them familiar with blowing bubbles out all the time while under water so that water doesn't come into your nose. Then you can get to the point where you know how to just hold the pressure in your nose just at the point where you aren't blowing bubbles out, but you aren't letting water in either.
I find this is one of the hardest things that early beginner swimmers have to get down and perhaps practicing in a bowl of water lets them not deal with the other issues of timing their strokes, etc. Most of the people I have seen that dont know how to keep water out by blowing air out will never get their stroke because they keep getting water in their nose, etc.
