Hold breath or breathe out?

There's probably no wrong way unless you're passing out :) I do it both ways... in races typically i breathe every 4th stroke and hold my breath til the end of the next 3rd stroke, then exhale quickly. All of my 100 races are done this way. For anything longer than a 100 and just about any swimming done in practice, I exhale about 30% just as i finish the first stroke and during the 2nd stroke, pause the exhale as the 2nd stroke ends, and then resume exhaling towards the end of the 3rd stroke. Trying to do one long exhale over the 4 stroke time period bothers me cause it feels like there's no rhythm to it. I would do races like this, but there's no idle brain processing power left to moderate breathing. Everything I have goes to thinking about the rest of the race so the breathing defaults to whatever feels comfortable. 50 races I breathe either once or not at all.

There's probably no wrong way unless you're passing out :) I do it both ways... in races typically i breathe every 4th stroke and hold my breath til the end of the next 3rd stroke, then exhale quickly. All of my 100 races are done this way. For anything longer than a 100 and just about any swimming done in practice, I exhale about 30% just as i finish the first stroke and during the 2nd stroke, pause the exhale as the 2nd stroke ends, and then resume exhaling towards the end of the 3rd stroke. Trying to do one long exhale over the 4 stroke time period bothers me cause it feels like there's no rhythm to it. I would do races like this, but there's no idle brain processing power left to moderate breathing. Everything I have goes to thinking about the rest of the race so the breathing defaults to whatever feels comfortable. 50 races I breathe either once or not at all.