Breathing in Freestyle

One of the most common mistakes coaches see in novice and intermediate swimmers is their breathing. Being able to breath correctly will make freestyle swimming much easier. It will improve your balance in the water and surprisingly will make you a lot more relaxed in the water.

The secret here is to become more relaxed at exhaling and to do this whenever your head is in the water. That way you only have to breath in when you rotate your head to breath.

Most of the time swimmers can be seen to be exhaling just before they turn their head to breath, getting ready for the inhale when the head is turned.  Exhaling whilst the head is in the water has several effects. 

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1. It relaxes the swimmer, as it does when you exhale out of water, holding onto the air tenses the body and makes it difficult to then relax. 
2. The most buoyant part of the body is the lungs, by holding onto the air swimmers have a tendency to drop their feet, which increases their drag in the water, making things even harder.
3. When you hold onto the air you also get a build up of carbon dioxide in the body which makes you then means you feel desperate for a breath and rush the breathing process, this results in swimmers lifting their heads higher out of the water to have time to breath. 

Watch the video and listen to advice on the focus areas of breathing, before coming down to the next session to practice some techniques that will help you breath more relaxed in the pool.