Front Crawl Breathing Difficult

I am finding front crawl breathing difficult. I am a beginner, and I have recently tried to do the front crawl, but am having a hard time with it. I would like to get better at it and be able to breathe all throughout without feeling that I will sink!

The feeling that you are going to sink could be caused either by your legs beginning to sink behind you or by you becoming breathless due to the exertion of the swimming stroke, or a combination of both.

The key to easy swimming is to relax into the stroke, which is easy to say and not so easy to do when you are a beginner learning to swim!

Begin learning front crawl by practising a ‘push and glide’. This exercise establishes the correct body position and teaches you how your body can move efficiently through the water.

The key to good push and glide is to get your arms and hands out in front from the start, keep your head tucked down between your arms and then the magic ingredient to all swimming – relax.

If your stroke is not relaxed, your movements will become disjointed and robot-like, and the heaviest parts of your body, usually the legs, will begin to sink.

To learn how to become more relaxed in the water, you must become more confident, and to achieve this, you must practice breathing and submerging.

Standing in the water of about shoulder depth, hold your breath and submerge under the water keeping your feet on the pool floor. As you become more confident, try submerging and taking your feet up off the pool floor.

Once you have practised arm and leg techniques for front crawl, go back to your push and glide. Push off and glide for a short time, then add your arms and legs but swim slowly at first.

Breathe out under the water and turn your head to
breathe in again whenever you need to. There is no right or wrong time to breathe but ensure your arm has pulled back to make room for your head to turn.

If you continue to swim in a slow, relaxed way, you will find that you are able to swim longer distances using fewer strokes and, therefore less energy.

Over time your stamina and fitness will increase and bring your front crawl to a new level.

My ebook How To Swim Front Crawl contains over 20 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of front crawl, including breathing. It is perfect for beginners. 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.

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