Breathing is the foundation of swimming. Getting a comfortable and regular air supply allows our bodies to relax and enjoy swimming. If the supply of air is irregular and inconsistent our bodies become stressed because CO2 levels rise to a level that our body cannot tolerate (surprisingly it’s not low levels of oxygen). When this happens your body sends signals to your brain that you're going to drown if you don’t take immediate action.
Many swimmers get in touch with me because they struggle with breathing. They can’t manage a length of swimming pool without getting ‘gassed’ i.e. CO2 levels get too high. Often these swimmers hold their breath when their faces are in the water, which leads to the body becoming tense. Some people overcome this by swimming with their head up but this can be exhausting so they end up doing mostly breaststroke.
When swimming with your head in the water you need to breathe in a manner as close to how you breathe when you’re out of the pool.
For front crawl, you should breathe out gently (trickle breaths) when your face is in the water. Then turn your head to the side (as if you’re impaled on a skewer) and take an easy sip of air. The number of arm strokes you take between breaths depends on what feels right for you. If breathing on just one side feels most comfortable (take 2 or 4 strokes per breath) or breathe on both sides if you prefer (taking 3 strokes per breath) - known as bi-lateral breathing. Learning and perfecting this can take time but once it does you will start to feel an enjoyable flow to your swimming, along with renewed confidence.
Please get in touch if you would like some help with learning how to improve your breathing technique by emailing me on james@roundtheislandswimcoaching.co.uk