Flip turns are still killing me

Health issues aside, are you exhaling air between breaths or when you turn your head to breathe? All of the exhalation should be done before the mouth surfaces is your main point? I have the same problem of being killed by turns - it's mostly conditioning though, but one thing that helped me was avoiding blowing out the nose on the turn.

The alternative I imagine is some kind of hypoxic training that is going to make me miserable. But I'm willing to do what I've gotta do at this point. Bingo. I had the same issue when I started back swimming 18 months ago. I do some, not a TON, hypoxic stuff. Things like 4-3-2-1-0 (or just down to 1) breathes for 50's on an moderate interval. No breather 25's....moderate, fast, underwater, kick underwater with fins, etc. Another good one is Tennessee Tumblers.....go underwater at the flags, flip turn underwater, come back up at flags. Do 200-500's like that at a moderate or faster pace. I also do some pulling where I breathe every 3,5,7, or 9 for certain distances. All this should help.

Health issues aside, are you exhaling air between breaths or when you turn your head to breathe?

Do you do any other cardiovascular work? Last summer I wound up taking most of July and all of August off from the pool. I was riding a couple hours a day to and from work though. When I got back in the pool in September I had little or no problem hopping into a lane with intervals similar to what I was doing last spring. Skip

Yeah, flip turns have been killing me too. I'm finally "hiking downhill" in getting used to them, though. Back last summer I was continually reminding myself I needed to flip instead of do open turns off every well. Meanwhile, I gradually did more and more flipturns last fall yet my swimming times suddenly came to this absolutely horrible crawl in my quest to lower them. Somewhere I had forgotten how much of a priority I had made flipturns and I just kept asking myself, "Why the downturn?" Heh. Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I was swimming when I realized that flipturns are basically second nature to me now. I don't even think, "Okay, man, do a flipturn next, tough it out, don't do a weenie open turn!" when approaching a wall anymore. And since last month my times returned to a previous rate of improvement, I guess my body's finally worn off the shock of flipturns. I agree with everyone else about the necessity of breathing correctly. I'm actually working on that right now myself. One thing I've noticed when I'm kickboarding is that I seem to kick faster when I'm consciously controlling my breathing with long, deep inhales, keeping it in for as long as I can, and then exhaling long. Someone told me it helps to breathe as much as possible so air gets to my legs which burn up the most oxygen, but I took that to mean I breathe in and out like a winded rhinoceros, no control at all. It's still just kickboarding (to say nothing of kicking when actually swimming), but it was a nice little epiphany for me about the importance of how you breathe. My new big priority is kicking. My coach remarked I need to kick much faster, to my desperate protests that I thought I was already kicking pretty fast. He said, "Not from up here, it doesn't look like that!" So, yeah, I can finally do flipturns but now I've got to get the whole flutter kicking part down pat, in addition to SDKing off every wall. Sometimes I find I'm able to hold pace with some of my teammates who have been swimming for years, but as soon as we get to the wall and turn, they zoom ahead. Breathing will obviously be crucial.

I am in complete agreement with everyone here regarding full exhalation prior to taking a breath. I would experience the same problem you have-- continually becoming out of breath-- even after doing 1.5-hour workouts 5 days a week for over a year and a half. In other words, the problem is NOT lack of conditioning! Trust me, I feel your frustration! I am one of those swimmers who holds my breath for a moment prior to exhaling, and would exhale out of my nose only. I recently realized (after doing a little searching on this forum) that even though I thought I was exhaling fully, I actually was not. I am now trying to exhale earlier, and more forcefully, from my mouth. This has helped tremendously with that out-of-breath feeling. The epiphany for me was that one day I noticed a little spurt of water as I turned to the side to take a breath of air-- this was an "Aha!" moment, since the thread I had read recommended this as one of the signs a coach could use to tell if a swimmer was not exhaling fully prior to taking a breath. Again, I had convinced myself that I was exhaling fully, but did not realize that I wasn't until last week! Now that I am practicing a more full exhale prior to turning to breathe, I feel much stronger in the water. Good luck!

I hate to sound alarmist, but how's your ticker? One of my first clues that I had a heart problem (atrial fib) was when I experienced continual "out of breath" moments during swim workouts. That was over 13 years ago, I was 49 at the time. A bit of a life changing experience but certainly manageable.

I'm guessing that you are not comfortable in the water and are tensed up when you swim? The muscles that aren't currently busy helping you swim should be relaxed. I agree with previous posts about doing a full exhale. My coach encourages us to do bobs between intervals to make sure that we are making full exhales instead of panting. Check your pulse before and immediately after a set. See how long it takes to get your heartrate down below 120 and then below 100. Physical checkup is something to consider.

The need to exhale completely is a great comment. The efficient transfer of air start with a full exhalation. Runners and swimmers breathe in too frequently while not exhaling fully. It's not as easy as it sounds. Start there and see what happens.

The need to exhale completely is a great comment. The efficient transfer of air start with a full exhalation. Runners and swimmers breathe in too frequently while not exhaling fully. It's not as easy as it sounds. Start there and see what happens. I have to definitely agree with both of these posts! I would also look into the health issues that may be causing you this stuff, and if you are clear to go I would suggest the full exhale but also work some hypoxic or just run your sets on a 3 - 5 breath rest instead of being on an interval...change the focus a little bit.