breathing techniques

Question
QUESTION: Dear Paul

I would like to ask when swimming the 4 swimming strokes,do you breathe in with your mouth or nose or both? What about when you breathe out? Do you breathe out with nose or mouth or both.

Thank you.

Edward

ANSWER: When you swim, you should be only breathing out from your mouth. Breathing from your nose and both can cause you to choke on water. For all 4 strokes it's that way, even for backstroke. In backstroke breathing from your nose is quite possible but it really causes a lot of water to go into your head.
I hope this helps.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the answer. If I may ask further, when you breathe in do you breathe deep or what they call diaphragm or stomach breathing (used by singers etc) or you just breathe normally?

Thank you.

Ed

Answer
Hello Ed,

There really isn't an official way to breath. I would say breathing normal would be more effective than diaphragm breathing especially if you're already used to it. In swimming you basically want to do whatever makes it more comfortable and easier to finish a race. Diaphragm breathing sounds very complicated when it comes to swimming and it might actually deplete your energy faster than regular breathing.

Hope this helps

Good Luck!