Proper breathing while swimming

The ability to stay afloat and the ability to swim are far from the same thing: you may have noticed how a person who sincerely considers himself an experienced swimmer is forced to stop after swimming a dozen meters at most in order to restore his breath. The reason for this is the inability to breathe in and out correctly, that is, a person does not have the ability to breathe properly when swimming.

Breathing while crawling

Whatever the swimming style, front crawl, breaststroke, etc., the principle of breathing is always the same:

a sharp deep breath above the water and a longer exhalation into the water

Moreover, the correct breath is much more important to do, and this is what you should learn in the first place if you want to swim for real.

Pay attention to the large number of bubbles on the swimmer! This is a long exhalation, with a large amount of exhaled air.

At first glance, this may seem simple, but the fact is that the swimmer is actively moving, overcoming the resistance of the water, and for a deep breath he will need much more effort than when he is on land. For this reason, it is believed that swimming is much more effective in increasing endurance than running.

Only by learning how to breathe properly when swimming can you swim long distances calmly, mastering this art is even more important than mastering a certain style. And even your front crawl technique will improve markedly. But can an ordinary citizen learn such wisdom, or is it only for experienced athletes? Everyone can master the correct breathing technique, use the simple recommendations of experienced trainers for this:

While in the water, control your breathing by linking inhalations and exhalations to certain movements. Try to keep their rhythm constant.
Since the speed generally drops during inhalation, due to the increasing resistance of the water, aim to make it sharp and deep. Exhalation should take about twice as long.
Be sure to hold your breath for a few seconds between inhalation and exhalation.
The inhalation is made as deep as possible, and the volume of exhaled air should be the same as the inhaled one, otherwise the next time the full cycle will not work, you will lose the rhythm and start to suffocate.
One last thing: many swimmers succeed until water accidentally enters the respiratory tract. This happens even to experienced athletes. Gradually, you will learn to clear your throat without slowing down the pace of swimming.

When starting training, tune in to the fact that at first you will have to constantly keep your breathing under control, not for a moment forgetting about the correct alternation of inhalations and exhalations. But gradually it will become a habit, you will begin to reflexively adhere to the correct rhythm, having stopped thinking about it, and you will be able to fully enjoy swimming, causing the envy of your friends sitting on the shore.

Breathing technique in any swimming style depends not only on training and following instructions, but also on how the swimmer feels his own body and how freely he controls it.

In order to properly capture air, the swimmer needs to synchronize this action with the movement of the hands and the stroke process that they make.

The whole mechanics of inhalation-exhalation in crawl can be represented by the following scheme:

The position of the hands when capturing air: hand-1 finishes the stroke, and hand-2 makes an influx.
Turn your head towards hand-1 exactly at the moment of completion of the stroke. The movement of the head should be quick, but not abrupt, and should be synchronized with the movement of the shoulder girdle. Try not to turn your head too much: eyes should be directed to the side or down, but not up.
Grab some air by pulling the top corner of your lips up a little. You can’t take in too much air: you need to breathe relaxed, because in the crawl, the swimmer does not have time to delay and exhale sharply. Practice on inhalation time: it should be no more than 0.5 seconds.
Finish inhalation at the start of passing the hand through the air. The head is then lowered to its original position without delay.
Exhale should be when the face is completely immersed in water. Breathe out powerfully without delay. The slightest delay knocks down the entire rhythm of the swimmer's breathing: the moment of the next breath is delayed and the risk of making unnecessary movements increases.

See also the breathing pattern in this illustration:

Air pocket

Breathing technique for crawl swimming is inextricably linked with the concept of "air bag". It is formed when the athlete's head, cutting the water surface, bends the front wave, as a result of which the water line decreases in the swimmer's face. Because of this, the air is in front of the athlete in an access zone that is much lower than usual. It is this phenomenon that is called “air bag/pocket”.

To use the so-called "air bag" while swimming, follow this scheme of actions:

Keep your head horizontal along the axis of your body while rowing. In this case, you should look strictly in front of you towards the bottom.
The subsequent turn of the head and a powerful breath mark the completion of the process.
Watch the rotation of the body: if it is in the wrong position, you will want to turn your neck to take a breath, and this is wrong.

Improper breathing and swimming itself is fraught not only with a decrease in the effectiveness of training, but also with injuries and pain in the body. To avoid such troubles, athletes should study the theory well, communicate with more experienced swimmers and listen to their own body.

Typical mistakes

Common crawl breathing mistakes include:

Head rotation between breaths. The head should be strictly parallel to the bottom and turn only to take a breath.
Raising or tilting the head. This happens when the swimmer comes up to breathe. This is not necessary, since it is necessary to breathe when swimming with a crawl without raising your head, otherwise such a position of the body (with a raised head) disrupts the process of sliding on the water surface. To inhale, just turn your head.
Deep turning of the head when inhaling. If an athlete does not have enough “maneuver” to inhale and he twists his neck a lot in order to get to the air, then his body is not working well. Such sharp / deep turns cause pain in the neck and throw off balance.
The swimmer must turn not only the head, but also the shoulder girdle in order to inhale correctly.
Insufficient body work. Without the ability to spin, a swimmer will not be able to develop proper freestyle breathing technique. For the development of the body, special exercises are used.
Holding breath while inhaling. It is fraught with loss of strength, lack of time for other movements, exhalation and the next breath.

Exhalation

The freestyle swimmer must exhale throughout the entire time he is moving underwater. Exhalation is done through the nose or mouth, but in fact, most experienced athletes advise doing it with the mouth, because it is easier to control the speed and amount of air released with the mouth.

You can not hold your breath even for one or two strokes. Remember that you must exhale as soon as your face is submerged back into the water. The air should end before the head turns for the next breath. If you do not follow these rules, the athlete will experience fatigue, stress and poor gliding on the water surface.

How to breathe - on one side or on two?

There are two types of breathing for a rabbit: unilateral and bilateral(bilateral).

One-sided involves turning the head only in one direction (to the right or left), and bilateral - in both directions alternately.

How to breathe correctly when crawling - on one side or on both?

The one-sided is easier to learn and is loved by beginners or young athletes who have just come to swimming. Unilateral breathing can only be used for short workouts, because. abuse of it during freestyle swimming leads to stoop("swimmer's shoulder").

The classic style of breathing in crawl is bilateral, where you can implement several schemes for its application:

Alternate breathing in different directions for every 3, 5 or 7 strokes.
Individual complicated schemes. For example, an athlete can take two breaths in a row on one side, take five strokes and take another breath, but on the other side.
In one direction of movement, the athlete breathes on one side, and in the opposite direction - on the other.

Mastering bilateral breathing is not easy, especially if the athlete is used to unilateral breathing. But the advantage of bilateral breathing is that it allows not only to save strength and increase the acceleration of the body, but also that with the help of bilateral breathing, a person retains the natural symmetry of movements and the ability to rotate.

Thus, correct breathing when swimming crawl is, of course, bilateral breathing.

Teaching lesson

If you would like to conduct a lesson in the pool, dedicated to breathing, we recommend the following exercises for this.

Float

Stand on the bottom of the pool and take a deep breath, hold your breath. Press your chin to your chest and slowly bring your knees to your stomach, wrapping your arms around them. Hang in the water with your back up. You can’t breathe into the water - you will go to the bottom. Repeat this exercise, increasing the time you hold your breath. Start from 15 seconds.

Exercise "Float"

Jellyfish

Group up as in the Float exercise, and then relax your limbs while face down in the water. Stay in this state for as long as you can.

Restoration of breathing

Exhale into the water

Holding on to the side of the pool take 10 exhalations into the water in a row. You can increase this number.

Horizontal exhalation

Holding on to the side with outstretched arms, place the body in a horizontal position, face in the water, the back of the head does not stick out above the surface.

Release the air slowly at the moment when you realize that it will soon be missed. Resurface with empty lungs.

Useful video

Many questions on breathing are well discussed in this video:

Conclusion

Breathing is the basis of crawl style. If you want to become a professional athlete or a competent amateur, pay special attention to breathing technique. It is this that makes a real swimmer out of any person, in which every part of his body and all the movements made are in harmony with each other.

Swimming for beginners - what about breathing ?!

After my lesson “How an adult can learn to swim in 30 minutes”, in addition to numerous responses with gratitude, I received many letters asking: “How to breathe correctly?”.

Remember the main rule of breathing with any swimming technique: inhale only through your mouth, exhale through your mouth and nose! This is how you will breathe when swimming breaststroke, crawl, butterfly and any other ways.

Why exactly?

Because you are doing 2 things:

First: to inhale as much air as possible - this can only be done with the mouth;

The second is to prevent water from entering the nose and mouth - this can only be done by exhaling through the mouth and nose at the same time.

Even a small drop of water in the nose will cause discomfort. Yes, and the consequences can be different - why do you need water with different "filling" inside yourself?

The first exercise (on land) - breathe through your mouth

First you need to train yourself to breathe through your mouth. This exercise is best done on land, because it is important to develop a habit here.

Just inhale slowly through your mouth, then exhale. At first, you can even pinch your nose to get used to it, but then train yourself so that even without pinching your nose remains “inoperative”, as if it were stuffed up.

The second exercise - getting used to lowering your face into the water ... in the shower and in the bath

Therefore, the first exercise for them is under the shower. Sit under the shower so that warm water gets only on your back. Water should run weakly, dissipating.

Breathe through your mouth and start softly, very slowly, moving your head under the water. Be sure to keep breathing through your mouth! They breathed - they removed their heads from under the water.

In this way, you will gradually accustom yourself to the fact that water flows over your face, and you breathe only through your mouth. The psychological barrier will be removed.

The next step is to lower your face into the water in the bath for literally half a second, for one second. Sit in the tub, take a gentle breath in through your mouth, and put your face in the water for a second. It is possible - and this is even good - to do an exercise in glasses in order to gradually accustom yourself to being in them.

When raised to the head, just in case, exhale through the nose. Even if there is no water there, this action should become automatic so that not a drop of water is in your nasopharynx.

If the exercise does not cause you discomfort, increase the time when the face is in the water. In this case, while raising your head, begin to exhale through your mouth and nose - to free your lungs for the next breath and so that water does not enter your mouth and nose.

Only after you have become good at this exercise, you can go to the pool and use the noodles.

The third exercise - we practice breathing in the pool using noodles

I keep saying that you can't learn to swim well using all sorts of inflatable vests, sleeves, and so on. But at first, practicing proper breathing, noodles - devices in the form of flexible floating sticks - will help you a lot.

I emphasize: noodles can only be used after you have learned to swim while holding your breath (see my lesson “How an adult can learn to swim in 30 minutes”).

Position the noodle so that it covers the chest, and slide the ends under the armpits. You will need a noodle so that you have a few seconds to calmly, fully inhale with your mouth and control your nose, which should not be inhaled.

Take a deep breath with your mouth - control your nose! - and put your head in the water. We swim “like a dog”, exhale into the water with both our mouth and nose.

Important point! When you raise your head out of the water, you need to continue to exhale through your nose. You finish exhaling through your nose when your head is completely out of the water.

We exhaled, inhaled deeply through the mouth again and - gently lower our head into the water, work with our hands and feet, exhale through the mouth and nose, raise our head and continue to exhale until the head is completely in the air.

Noodles in this case support you, allow you to calmly inhale and exhale, control all movements and get used to proper breathing on / in the water.

The fourth exercise - we swim and breathe without the support of noodles

Once you're good with noodles, try to give up the fixture.

We swim with our arms and legs. We inhale through the mouth, lower the head into the water, exhale through the nose and mouth for about 15 seconds, raise the head and continue to exhale, especially through the nose, so that not a drop of water gets into it.

Having worked out the correct breathing to automatism, you will create an excellent base for mastering all swimming techniques!

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Breathing is a very important part of learning to swim. The most important if you are a beginner swimmer. Swimming your first 100 meters freestyle without stopping and not swallowing water is almost impossible if you don't know how to breathe properly when swimming!

How to learn to breathe correctly

Without proper breathing skills, you:

You will crash often.
swallow water mouth or nose.
The constant feeling that short of breath.

The reasons may be the lack of rhythmic breathing. Often beginner swimmers go into a long delay under water, or frantically try to jump out of the water as quickly as possible in order to grab some oxygen. I suggest you don't rush. Better yet, stop!

Try to start practicing breathing in a shallow part of the pool or where you don't have to stay on the water due to supporting movements. After all, extra effort will raise your heart rate and prevent you from concentrating on breathing.

To concentrate on breathing, put on glasses, they will help you not to be distracted by rubbing your eyes and not stop. Next, we present swimming breathing exercises

Exercise 1

Stand straight in shallow water
Take a deep breath mouth
Raise your head again

Do 10-15 repetitions. Do not think about what exactly to exhale, nose or mouth, but remember - you need to inhale with your mouth! This is an important switch, otherwise the water flowing down your face will definitely get into your nose if you breathe in through your nose!

Sometimes 5 minutes is enough to get rhythmic breathing. Often, many are eager to fight so as not to waste time blowing bubbles on the spot and swim swallowing water. Having swum 25 meters instead of a head, they have a large aquarium! From which it will take a long time to shake out the water.

You can go this way too! But it seems to me that it would be more environmentally friendly to try different exhalation options first.

Exercise 2

Stand straight in shallow water
Take a deep breath mouth
Dip your head under the water and exhale nose
Raise your head again

Do 10-15 repetitions.

Exercise 3

Stand straight in shallow water
Take a deep breath mouth
Dip your head under the water and exhale mouth
Raise your head again

Exercise 4

Stand straight in shallow water
Take a deep breath mouth
Dip your head underwater and hold your breath for 3-5 seconds
Then exhale mouth and nose simultaneously
Raise your head again

Do 10-15 repetitions.

While swimming, use the type of exhalation that will be convenient and comfortable for you. But the most important thing in these variations is that your rise out of the water ends with an accentuated exhalation on the surface, without pauses and pauses in breathing when you cross the water line.

Having made 20 continuous exhalations into the water on the spot without failure, you can hit the road, take and practice breathing in motion.

Exercise 5

Lie on your stomach with the plank stretched out in front of you.
Perform water kicks with your feet
Head above the water
inhale mouth
Exhalation ends on the surface of the water and inhale again mouth
The head goes under the water and exhalation is performed

Swim in this way 3-4 pools.

If you have difficulty with footwork, the pelvis is sinking and there is no forward movement, this will be ballast for you, affecting breathing and hand coordination. To make it easier for you to move forward in the water, you can use, or other means that will raise your pelvis.

Buy Joss sausage

Thus, you will not need to ensure that your feet are high relative to the surface of the water. The bun will do it for you. Your task will be to breathe correctly.

After practicing proper breathing when swimming with, you can try to swim your first 100 meters freestyle without stopping.

Buy a board for swimming

Watch a video example of the correct breathing technique when swimming and an analysis of the most common mistakes:

Breathing in different swimming styles

Breathing in different styles of swimming is not very different. When breathing, pay attention to the following points:

Inhale on the surface of the water with your mouth.
Exhale underwater through the nose.
Exhale ending at the exit of the head from the water, through the nose and mouth.

Accordingly, this is how you need to breathe when swimming crawl, also breathe when swimming breaststroke and butterfly. The backstroke breathing technique is different in that the head is not submerged under water and therefore breathing is done naturally, through the nose or mouth, as you wish. Remember that when inhaling through your nose, there is a chance that water will get into it, which will make you stop. In the pool, an athlete swimming by, who created splashes, can provoke water ingress, and in open water, you can be covered by a wave while you wanted to inhale. If you inhale through your mouth, then the maximum that threatens you is to take half a mouth of water.

Remember that when inhaling through your nose, there is a chance that water will get into it, which will make you stop.

Breathing according to distance

If you have already mastered the front crawl and were able to swim your first couple of hundred meters. You will most likely face the question of how long to pause under water, and how many strokes to take a breath? It depends on how far you are going to cover.

Sprint

If it's a sprint or if you want to test your skills in a short distance, the best option is to swim while holding your breath. Or with the fewest breaths. Since the extra vibrations caused by twisting the body for inhalation reduce the efficiency of the arms and legs. Thus, after the start, you make the maximum number of strokes while holding your breath, then take a breath and row again for as long as possible.

At medium distances

At medium distances, both unilateral breathing (for every second stroke) and bilateral breathing (breathing on both sides) are used. If you are swimming in the pool and breathing through an even number of strokes, it will be convenient to change the side of the breath, every 25 or 50 meters.

Breathing in swimming is meditation and concentration. Everyone makes mistakes. Be calm, make movements consciously and you will be able to swim long, far and comfortably.

Bilateral breathing on 3, on 5

As we said earlier, bilateral breathing is when you inhale to the right side and to the left side. An example of bilateral breathing would be breathing every 3 (3 through 3) or every 5 strokes. In this way, every third or every fifth stroke, you will always inhale on different sides. This is useful for several reasons:

Your technique gets better. Inhaling on the same side, you always have the same supporting hand. Swimming technique improves with symmetry of loads and movements.
Swimming in open water will make it easier to navigate. You can look in both directions without resorting to stops.

Long distance

Long distances or stayer distances, such as the Oceanman or Bosphorus series races, are usually completed without holding the breath, breathing to one side (every other stroke). If you have worked well on bilateral breathing and it will not be difficult for you to swim breathing in both directions, this will be a plus for long distances! You can't change anything!

If you are swimming for results, then with long races, bilateral breathing is not quite suitable. A long swim at a high pace while holding your breath will sooner or later affect your well-being due to a lack of oxygen. Leave it as a strategic reserve. Use ticketral breathing at various times along the course. Such a strategy will help you not lose sight of your rivals and stretch your neck muscles.