Swimming Breathing Techniques

Many who enjoy swimming or do it as a sport have developed swimming breathing techniques to become better. Breathing while swimming is quiet different from breathing during other activities. It really does take skill.

1. Mastering a strong swimming breathing technique that is routine and effective is important before moving on to improving stroke. Breathing needs to follow a rhythm and not leave the swimmer gasping for air.
2. Swimmer must learn to exhale underwater during strokes. This way less time is spent with the head out of water trying to exhale and inhale. Exhaling underwater allows you to keep a normal breathing pattern and eliminates the need to hold your breath.
3. Hold your head still between breaths. This increases coordination. You should only turn your head to the side to breathe in. At first this may seem a bit unnatural, but with practice will start to feel second nature.
4. One swimming breathing technique requires the swimmer to breathe into the pocket. The pocket is the small trough created next to the swimmer's face as he strokes back. Your body and hands cut through the water similar to the bow of a boat creating a wave. As you stroke back, the water surface is actually lower next your face than the water surface. This means when you turn to inhale you do not need to lift your head as far. Swimmers can actually turn their head slightly and breathe into the pocket.
5. Swimmers should not lift their heads to breathe. Lifting up the head makes the rest of the body dip down further into the water instead of staying parallel to the surface. Over rotating the head cause the same problem. Swimmers should only need to rotate their heads about 90 degrees to be out of water and take a breathe.
6. Another good swimming breathing technique is to breathe bilaterally. This means a swimmer should breathe on both sides instead of favoring only one side. For the best technique, a swimmer should breathe on the right, take three strokes, and then breathe in on the left. Breathing bilaterally helps you to swim a straight line and develop an even pattern in breathing.