A helpful hint that I like to emphasize to my swimmers is breathing quick air
not slow air. Now what's the difference between quick air and slow air
like we said before, breathing slows you down so you want to do with it
as smoothly as possible
The quick care is actually hugging within about an
inch to the surface of the water. The slow air is
all of the air that's about that. A lot of times the younger or developing swimmer
likes to turn their head REALLY BIG in order to catch a breath
Now that motion in and of itself actually
disrupts the stroke even more and makes it harder to get back into form after
you take a breath. So you really want to have a slight
motion with your head. Here's a little trick to it--as you're swimming
the water level may be here but as you're moving forward
the water actually bends around your head. It's actually lower it makes a cusp
at the bottom down here so the quick air that you want to breathe
is actually much lower than you think that it might be. You don't have to turn
your head that drastically
to catch a full breath of air. A lot of times with the more advanced
swimmers
they'll only expose half or a quarter of their mouth to take a full breath
and they have very little head motion. You may not even be able to tell when
they take a breath because they barely have a slight turn to their head
and they know that the cusp is there, so they're catching
that with the
side of their mouth. So keep that in mind, breathe quick air
not slow air--because slow air is 'hey'
its gonna slow you down
Make sure you take full breaths
That is taking a full breath in and being able to
exhale all of your air in between. What you want to do is when it's time to take
your next breath
you want to make sure that all you're doing is breathing in. What you don't
want to do
You see this a lot, especially with developing swimmers, is you don't wanna have to
breathe out
when you turn your head to take a breath and breathe in with the same motion
That makes an elongated breath, it slows the stroke down
even more because breathing slows the stroke down
and it really causes a problem with the stroke
So keep that in mind, you wanna be able to take full breaths
deep breaths in and be able to exhale
when your head is in the water-- full breaths out
Okay so keep that in mind, full breaths in and full breaths out
Now this is one of the most important things with breathing
You need to make sure you develop a nice pattern with breathing
Meaning you need to do it at a consistent rate
Whatever you choose. Lets talk about freestyle
if your gonna breathe every stroke, make sure you breathe every stroke. If you're going
to breathe every other stroke or every third stroke
whatever your coach has you doing at the time make sure you're consistent
because your lungs will be much more efficient if you're good to them
if you have a set pattern of breathing out and breathing in
at a consistent rate, they're going to give you much more
bang for their buck
If you confuse them by breathing every stroke then every third stroke and then
two strokes then you go five strokes without breathing
if you mix it up and if you confuse your lungs
as far as their breathing pattern then they're gonna wear out on you a lot
more quickly and they're going to be less efficient
So in breathing whatever pattern your coach has you doing
stay with it and make sure that it's consistent. If you're good for your lungs
they'll be good to you
Alright guys, I wanted to add one little point of emphasis onto the end of
the breathing section. Once you get the skills down and you become
comfortable with breathing as far as freestyle, the head motion is not
a real head motion
You actually allow your head to move
with the natural body rotation of your body and it's not a distinct
separate head turn that occurs
So once you get the skills down, the way that I approached it in the video
was really controlling
the massive head turn that a lot of developing swimmers like to have
But once you become comfortable with breathing
then there's really not a head turn at all you really just
allow your head to rotate with your body
while you're swimming the stroke, in a slight manner, you don't want to have a big turn on
that either
So that's the next skill. Once you become comfortable with breathing
try not to have any kind of head motion just allow your head to
roll with your body in order to take the breath. Alright, so I hope you guys are
doing well at this point and good luck