100 Free breathing

I get this asked quite a bit from my swimmers - and I believe most swimmers do this wrong. Questions for SCY: 1. How many breaths down after the dive? Or do you simply hold your breath? Most swimmers do not breathe enough on the first 25 -- just use your normal breathing pattern - otherwise, you will pay the price. This is even more important for Masters swimmers comapred to the Elite - Lezak's race is 40 seconds - many Masters swimmers don't break a minute... 2. If you hold your breath, do you blow it all out quickly before you breath or empty your lungs slowly? If you still have to think about this, you need more race practice in workouts... 3. Should you have a pattern for breathing or simply grit your teeth and gut it out? The people who gut it out, usually die on the last 25 (or 50) 4. (unrelated to breathing). Negative split--how important is it in this race? Should it be emphasized? NEVER NEVER NEVER in a 100 - the people who think they need to do this need more sprint training. I saw Rowdy's 100 split from last weekend - 25.38 and coming home in 26.23 - that's a negative split. I call that a feel good swim. BUT - his 50 time was 23.28 - he went 2 seconds slower than his 50. He can probably do a 51 low, if he goes out faster.

Thanks folks. This helps. I see all kinds of breathing patterns in the 100 and then a totally different pattern for the 50. Probably the different for the 200 as well. - A 100 Free has a large aerobic component to it. Breathe regularly, most would do better by breathing every two. That includes the first 25m. On the last 25, if you feel you can do it, hold few breathe cycles (if you can handle the heavy o2 accumulated deficit at this point) - A 50 Free is totally different. For that one you can have a much more restrictive breathing strategy (e.g. 4 breathe on 1th 25, as little as possible on the way back). - I personally hold my breath and blow it all out at the last second before breathing in. But that's a personal thing. I do that for the increase buoyancy. But again, that's me. - Negative split on a 100 suggest that you were too conservative on the first 50m. Maybe one exception: Backstroke (because of the dive)