Improve Your Freestyle Breathing
Breathing in freestyle is the hardest part to master. It takes a lot of practice and the correct technique to learn to breathe. A lot of new swimmers struggle with breathing when swimming freestyle. Many of the beginners even roll on their backs to breathe which is not the correct technique. In this article, we will learn some tips to perfect your breathing technique when swimming freestyle stroke.
The swimmer represented in the images is Ember and she is at the very beginner stages of learning Freestyle stroke. Today, we will see how to improve her freestyle breathing technique.
Hand Position When Breathing on Your Side.
Your hand should be up near the surface of the water when breathing on your side.
Correct hand position is very important when breathing on your side. If you let your hand drop down in the water you will end up leading with your head which is far less hydro-dynamic than leading with your hand. Being hydro-dynamic in the water is very important to swim faster and more efficiently. Dropping your hands down is like applying brakes in the water. It creates a lot of resistance with water which will slow you down when swimming and you will get exhausted.
Your hand is like the front of a boat which is constantly displacing the water around your body. You need to keep your hand up when breathing to swim faster and stabilize your body in the water.
Perfecting any swimming stroke takes a lot of practice and guidance from well-trained instructors. If you or your kids are looking for private swimming lessons from the best instructors in Austin Texas, look no further! Schedule Private Swimming Lessons today and get 50% OFF on your first lesson!
Wait for each hand to tag before starting another pull.
Always practice the catch-up technique when swimming freestyle. Catch-up Freestyle is when both hands meet after each stroke, so only one arm is moving at a time. Young children find catch-up much easier to understand and learn as they are only using one arm at a time. Catch-up Freestyle will strengthen your core region so the swimmer can develop a long, powerful Freestyle stroke.
Catch-up drills allow the swimmer to work on the timing of their breath more easily.
Using Fins Will Help New Swimmers!
Fins will boost the confidence of a new swimmers thus helping them practice breathing with ease.
It can be difficult to know when and how to use your swimming equipment to get the best performance possible. Each piece of equipment can improve certain technical aspects of swimming training. If you are like most swimmers, then your kick could be the worst part of your swim training. We don’t want this to distract our breathing practice so using fins will help a lot of beginners focus. Swimming with fins improves body position by adding speed to the stroke and by teaching the body to swim faster on water.
When you are learning swimming it’s better to put your fins on so you can swim higher in the water.
Swimmers of all skill levels incorporate fins into their training as it can help improve the mechanics of each stroke, especially in the front crawl or backstroke.
Slow or Quick Breath?
For new swimmers, breathing is a very challenging part. It is very common that beginners to take slow breaths to make themselves comfortable. It is generally due to the fear of water rushing down their nose or mouth. Slow breathing can be good when you are at the beginning stages of swimming but learning to take a quick breath is important down the road.
The advantage of breathing quickly is to keep your head down and steady as much as possible. Turning your head to the side for a longer period of time will break your hydro-dynamic position and will deviate you from a straight line. So use the bathtub or a bucket to learn to breathe as quickly as possible.
Tip: Practice breathing out before your nose and mouth are out of the water. Once your nose and mouth are out of the water use your mouth to blow out the water drops and then breathe in quickly.
Watch the following video to improve your freestyle swimming.
