A few basic things to keep in mind:
- Your head movement should be
coordinated with body rotation so that you can take a breath without
breaking your lateral alignment. This means you are just turning your
head to the side to take the breath (your opposing ear should stay in
the water). Swimmers doing the breathing incorrectly tend to lift
their entire head out of the water, which throws off the lateral
alignment. The best rule to remember is not to lift your entire head
out of the water or to pull it away from the midline of your body.
- The breath should start to occur as
your arm is sweeping up at the end of your underwater armstroke. You
are able to breathe into the bow wave that is created around your
head. Your breath takes place as you perform the first half of your
recovery stroke and your face should be returning to the water during
the second half of the recovery stroke.
- Returning your face to the water should
coordinate with the roll of your body into the entry of the stroke
toward the non-breathing side.
- Each swimmer will develop his or her
own pattern of breathing, but as a general rule in practice and in
longer distance events, it is advisable to breathe once every stroke
cycle. You do not want to go into oxygen deprivation at the beginning
of a 6000-yard practice! However, if you are sprinting, it is not
recommended to breathe every stroke cycle. This will impede your
necessary speed for the race. You will work out your own pattern, but
you may breathe once on the first 25 of a 50-yard freestyle race, and
perhaps twice on the second lap.
- Alternate, or bilateral breathing as it
is sometimes called, describes the pattern of breathing on both the
right and left sides. Traditionally, coaches have recommended this
method as a way to minimize shoulder stress and to help reinforce
symmetry. We recommend it to all beginning swimmers because it does
help to encourage the roll to both sides. You can incorporate
bilateral breathing drills into a regular or hypoxic pulling set to
hone this skill. If it does not feel comfortable to you as you evolve
your stroke, a one-sided breathing pattern is satisfactory. Alternate
breathing is probably more common for females than males.
- Remember to adjust your head position
accordingly. As a general rule, the best head position is one where
the water line falls about where your cap sits on your forehead. If
your head is too low in the water, you will have to wrench your head
out of the water in order to breathe. Since your head position does
change when you are sprinting (generally higher), you will need to
practice your breathing before you compete. Make this part of your
pre-race warm-up.
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