choking

i have been swimming all my life competitive, triathlon and now masters, over the past few months i have choked whilst swimming, usually fly or brst, on one occasion the lifeguard had to help me...i am not terrified of swimming strokes other than free...i also coach so have changed sessions to suit just free does anyone else do this or is there an underlying condition We are all older, slower and fatter my friend! I found when I first started back swimming after 15 years (this was just last year) that I was taking in some water from time to time with my air, even choked myself a few times. I suspect its because of what I mentioned at the beginning. It will sort itself out. Depending on how much/often you are in the water will determine how quick you get past it. Also, are you swimming in a big group? Alone? Open Water?....sometimes WAKE/WAVES happen, and you eat one. Try working on some different breathing techniques (depending on stroke)....breathing a fraction earlier or later in the stroke, rolling the hips/torso more on free, etc. Breathing for me (and holding my breathe on flip turns) was the hardest things for me to relearn when I started back swimming.

Do you roll your tongue up to keep the water out? Basically, put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth (behind your front teeth) when you breath. It helps to keep the water out.

There is a condition, not sure if same as what you describe, that involves a pressure on lung capillaries causing them to work incorrectly. The athelete experiences a huge drop in VO2(max) chokes and sometimes cough's up blood. More common with tri-geeks and OW swimmers. Have to search a little to find the article.

If you've been swimming all your life and only just now started having this problem, you should get checked out by a doctor. Unless you've made drastic changes to your technique, it's likely not a swimming thing.

You may find that at a certain swimming speed, a "trough" will develop in the water right by your face while swimming freestyle. The trough means you can get air with less head turning. It could be that you are now swimming more slowly than that threshhold speed. It will probably be different for each person; I am guessing about 1 yd/second. For ***/fly, not sure.