Problems breathing in front crawl

Brussels Sprout

I've just started lessons to go from a beginner level to an intermediate lesson. A big problem I have though is getting into a proper breathing pattern when doing the front crawl. I can fly zip along on my initial breath but as soon as I take my first breath things start to go wrong. Usually what happens is that I don't seem to take in enough air and after a few more breaths I end up having to stop as I'm out of breath completely.

I exhale under the water as I swim and I've tried breathing on every 2nd, 3rd and 4th stroke but it all ends up the same.

Another issue is that I'm afraid when I breath in that I'll take in water as that's happened to me a lot in the past. As a result I end up sticking my head up too high and my legs sink making it harder for me to start going again.

Are there are any drills or exercises that I can do to help me out?

AngryHippie

One thing I notice straight off is that you zip fly off on your first breath.

Breathing regularly is one of the most important aspects, try not to swim until you really need a breath, but rather breathe at a regular interval to maintain oxygen levels at all times.

Trickle Breathing (exhaling slowly as you swim) is quite effective at minimizing breath time as when you rotate to breathe, you need minimal time to just inhale and get the head back down. The downside to this is that you have very little air left just before the rotation.

As far as drills are concerned, high elbow drill works to improve your body rotation and shoulder roll. A little tweak on high elbow is to include a pair of pool fins to increase stability. I have found a lot of my swimmers in the past have really benefited from some fin work, as the feedback they provide helps with kick rhythm and timing of the strokes.
It sounds to me like one of two things are happening on your breath-stroke

1. Rhythm is a little out of whack, causing your arms to get out of sequence with your head turn, resulting in a rushed breath phase
2. Not enough propulsion from the legs, causing instability/wobble during the shoulder roll resulting in loss of momentum and sinking

Both of these can be resolved with some good high-elbow drill and catch-up drill. If you mention them to who-ever is instructing you, and explain the problem you are having with your breathing, they will know from watching your stroke which it is and will be able to correct accordingly.

Out of curiosity how often are you swimming and for how long ?

Ideally I'd aim to get in the water at least 3 times a week for a few weeks to correct these little issues. A little time now will really pay off in the long run.

Keep in mind that going for a lesson once a week and not practicing in between is always going to take much longer to improve. Swimming is all about muscle memory and repetition. One hour a week generally gets chewed up about 70/30 getting the hang of the skills practiced during the last time and 30% retention of whats happening in the session you are in.

ThOnda

Well, I swim only for fun, but two things helped me. Well, three things.
1 - Get classes. Fortunately, I've got free classes at university.
2 - Swim slower, much slower, so you get your swimming pace with your breathing. I inhale every third stroke, exhale all the three strokes continuously.
3 - Overdo rotating your body. Get your shoulder pointing towards the ceiling when you are rising your elbow from the water (elbow is always the highest point). Do not raise the head, keep it straight, rotate it to the side, try to look at the ceiling. Turning the whole body will give you more time to inhale.

However, I am neither a good swimmer, nor certified trainer to give any official and reasonable advice. Some pools (at least mine) have drop-in classes, where you can ask for help with anything that is causing you an issue.

AngryHippie

ThOnda wrote: »

Do not raise the head, keep it straight, rotate it to the side, try to look at the ceiling. Turning the whole body will give you more time to inhale.

Some okay advice on the first two, but I'd advise against trying to look at the ceiling. Over-rotation is just as bad as not rotating enough. Generally I'd instruct swimmers to look at the wall just above the deck of the pool. that is more than enough rotation.
Encouraging people to look at the roof can cause them to crane their necks back, this has the knock on effect of forcing the legs lower in the water and compounds the error through a loss of speed and stability.
By all means the shoulders should rotate through anything up to 90 degrees, but only if your leg power is sufficient to keep the hips almost level and provide enough stability to let your core do that work and not your arms/shoulders.

Limb track on the arm strokes quite important on the breath too. Stroking too deep on the pulling arm will make it difficult to recover the breath-side-arm with a high elbow.

Tuck your chin down a little to avoid over-extending/craning the neck.

Instructors would normally mention chin-to-shoulder during the breathing phase.

godarraghgo

i am having breathing problems too,i can only do 4x25 meters befor i have to stop and catch my breath,
this is my 6th hour of pratice and i am not getting better,
should i keep doing groups of 4 and be more patient,
i am breathing on both sides and exhale consistantly underwater

ThOnda

Thanks, AngryHippie, for correcting me. I don't know what I am doing, I just like doing it. Almost like a politician, but hopefully without bad influence on other peoples. I should stop talking then. Or they should?
Anyway, if you cannot catch your breath, your heart rate might be too high, so slow down a bit, before you get fitter. That's what I've been told about running, so I hope it applies here. And, of course, proper training routine, preferably under supervision should help more than my rambling.

godarraghgo

will try and slow down but i find it hard to swim slower that i already do.
my fitness level is good but i guess my technique is bad,worried now about picking up bad habits.
oh well try and try again
thanks for the help

Brussels Sprout

One of the major problems that I have is that I'm trying bi-lateral breathing and the third stroke seems to come by far too quickly. Like it feels like my head is only after going back in the water after breathing the previous time before I have to pull it out again to breath on the other side. Is this a sign that I'm trying to move my arms too fast?

AngryHippie

IT sounds like you are rushing it a bit yes.

It is tricky to maintain balance with a slower stroke rate, but the reality is that you can only get so much pull from a single stroke, there is a limit, beyond the optimum speed pulling harder will just create what is called cavitation, and eddy currents.

Cavitation will be indicated by a stream of bubbles in the wake of your hand/arm

Eddy currents will always be present in some form, but the harder and faster you pull, the stronger they get, up to the point when cavitation occurs.

Mastering your optimum stroke rate is tricky until you get to the point where you can finish 25m in 20 strokes or less.
After that stage, you will really start to pick up on the finer points of an efficient stroke.

Are you pulling in an S-pattern or an I pattern ?

An S pattern is typically comes from a good high elbow technique.
To help visualize, do the following.
Stand with your hands by your side, imagine a line down the center of your body from middle of forehead to middle point between your feet.
Now close your eyes and do a few three or four cycles. After the second one open your eyes and follow your strong arm line of action.

The hand should go into the water straight over your head, close to the center line, palm facing diagonally outwards (from center line) finger pointing straight up, hand relaxed.

The hand then sweeps outwards to about shoulder distance and top of head height, all the while gradually turning the palm to face the floor.

This point in the stroke is called the catch. Up until now the movement has been slow and relaxed.

From here, engage the shoulder and back muscles at full strength. The arm sweeps down in front of the chest (palm facing towards feet all the time) about one hand spacing away from the chest *Note 1
The hand/arm accelerates all the way through this phase to exit point when your hand/arm sweeps out near your hip.*Note 2

This is the S-shaped Pull.

For the purpose of learning to swim, High elbow and S-shaped pull are optimal.

the Straight arm and I pull are only suited for sprint swimmers with well developed muscles and efficient technique as they can cause Rotator cuff injuries and sloppy technique for unconditioned atheletes.


*Note 1:

The reason for keeping the arm close to the core body mass is as follows:

Imagine trying to climb a head height wall.
Do you:
a) stand at arms reach, place your hands on the wall and try and lift yourself?

or
b) stand as close as possible to the wall, bend your elbows, bring your hands in near your chest and try and lift yourself up ?

Its b) every time.

Same applies with the arm stroke. You are trying to push yourself through the water, close line of action gives you more power.

*Note 2

remember the imaginary line?

It is important to keep left hand/arm and left leg to the left of this line and right hand/arm and right leg to the right at all times during the stroke
Crossing over that line will initiate an imbalance in the stroke and a resultant snaking pattern down the pool instead of a nice straight line of travel.

I hope this makes sense, its hard to verbalize. Much easier to teach person to person.:pac:

IF everything above is being done, its just a matter of calming down, slowing down and remembering to glide between arm-strokes.
Get the stroke count down, then you can ramp up the stroke power and get the time down.:D

godarraghgo

great advice here have gone from doing 4 lenghts to doing 20 between rests, my breathing is way better now.allowing me time to think about my technique, thats a whole other story doing about 22 strokes per lenght and 50 meters takes about 1 min

Brussels Sprout

Hi, since starting this thread I've finished the swimming course that I referred to. For some bizarre reason we only covered breathing in the final class. we did some drills and since then I've had a few "Eureka" moments where it all came together for me and I was able to swim while breathing bilaterally for a session or two (doing half laps).

Unfortunately it didn't last. Last night I had a very frustrating session very I kept taking in water up my nose during my inhalation/head role. So I trickle breathe out my nose continuously while my face is in the water and then when I rotate my face out of the water I inhale through my mouth. What kept happening though is that when I went to inhale water that's sitting in my nostrils comes up my nose into my sinuses. This doesn't happen in every inhalation but it happens enough to completely unsettle me and eventually lose confidence in my technique.

So is there something obviously fundamental that I'm doing wrong here and if so what's a good fix?

AngryHippie

Try switching back from trickle breathing to explosive. A big burst out of mouth and nose just before you turn. Trickle breathing can result in some water running back up into the nose when you stop trickling. I usually just give a little snort out before I turn to clear it.
Nothing fundamentally wrong with technique by the sounds of it.

Remember to break down the stroke again from time to time. isolate small parts of it to reinforce rhythm & patterns etc. (legs only, Arms only, High Elbow, Catch up, fist drill)

Brussels Sprout

That does make a lot of sense. Something that I meant to include in that last post was that the coach told me to hold my breath for the first two strokes and then exhale on the third before and during my head turn. When I did this is when I had the success.

However I subsequently read this article which made me think that I'd be better of trickle breathing for the long term.

Is explosive breathing sustainable over a long distance? Ideally I'd like to do a triathalon in the next year so my goal would be to do at least 750m eventually (for a sprint event).

Thanks for your help by the way. I find your posts very informative.

AngryHippie

I've never found any issues over distance with it. In open water it can sometimes be a help as you may have to interrupt regular breathing patterns to crest waves or avoid kick splash from other swimmers.
Mix it up a bit and get good at both would be my advice long term. For the purpose of pool training, I would normally use trickle breathing, but always keeping enough in the lungs for a last blast to clear the nose/mouth as I roll for the next breath.
Hope it helps

Oryx

I explosive breathe most of the time. But I also wear a nose clip all the time as the pool water gives me sinus problems. You could try that.