Freestyle Technique Tips

I can't breathe when I swim!

I need some help with my freestyle technique. I recently returned to swimming after many years, I'm in my fifties, reasonably fit, and my favoured style is freestyle, my main problem is keeping my face down in the water, and breathing to the side, I tend to end up gasping for air after a short time, any tips on breathing would be very much appreciated.

Firstly make sure you are breathing out into the water and not holding your breath. Breath holding makes swimming very difficult and many people swim holding their breath and not realise they are doing it.

Breathing out into the water, or trickle breathing as it is known, allows air to be exhaled from the lungs whilst swimming. When a breath is needed and the head it rolled to the side, then you only have to breathe in. If you hold your breath then you have only a short time to breathe out and then in again, known as explosive breathing and this can be very energy consuming.

The act of turning the head to the side should be smooth and in time with the breath out and then in, and also in time with the arm action.

Try breathing more often, even if you feel you don't need to - eg, every stroke or every other stroke. You may find you last longer.

Good Front Crawl requires a decent level of fitness and if you have only just returned to the pool then it may take a few weeks for you swimming fitness to increase. Swim fitness is completely different to other kinds of fitness so be patient!

Good swimming is all about efficiency and all aspects of the stroke technique have a direct affect on one another. Breathing can be affected by body position, arm and leg action and of course coordination.

Our best-selling book 'The Complete Guide to Swimming Front Crawl' contains over 20 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of freestyle, including breathing. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click the link below for more information

Do you need some help with your freestyle technique? Click here

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