j*****j
发帖数: 290 | 1 From http://www.swimsmooth.com/exhalation.html
Breathing Technique - Exhalation
you know your problem? you keep it all in!
Also see our related articles: Freestyle Breathing Overview and Tips and The
Power of Bilateral Breathing.
Important!
Don't forget to breathe. Doctors recommend it.
Very few novice swimmers exhale properly into the water.
Nearly all intermediate swimmers think they are exhaling correctly - at
least, that's what they say when we ask them. Do they? Very few do.
Even amongst advanced swimmers, quite a few like to hold onto their breath
under the water.
Why is this an important swimming technique? Getting your exhalation right
will make freestyle feel much easier, get you balanced in the water and as a
bonus, make you more relaxed whilst swimming. This will benefit any swimmer
, from beginner to elite.
In this article we're going to give you some very simple exercises to
perform to improve your breathing technique and this will help you become a
much better swimmer.
How You Should Breathe
At Swim Smooth we know the secret of freestyle breathing. The secret is good
exhalation.
Whenever your face is in the water, exhale constantly and smoothly.
When you are swimming you should always be exhaling except when you turn
your head to inhale.
You can exhale through your mouth or through your nose or through both, it
doesn't matter. But when your face is in the water you should be exhaling
all the time in one constant stream of bubbles.
Do you do this? You're probably thinking 'yes I do'. We ask hundreds of
swimmers this question every year, nearly all of them answer 'yes' but when
they jump in the pool and we watch their breathing technique, they are
nearly all holding their breath underwater!
How Do Most Swimmers Exhale?
After inhaling and returning their face to the water, most people hold that
breath for at least one stroke, if not two. Shortly before their next
inhalation they exhale very late into the water, often finishing that
exhalation into the air when they've turned to breathe in.
They feel they are exhaling into the water because they do a little before
inhalation, but that is too little too late.
Coaches: From the pool deck, watch for a little outward spray of water from
the mouth area as the swimmer turns to take their breath - this is a classic
sign of late exhalation. Such a swimmer will immediately feel more relaxed
from an improved exhalation technique.
Why is it Important to Exhale Constantly?
1) The most important reason is that when you hold your breath you tense up.
When you breathe out you release that tension. Imagine you're having a
stressful day and someone tells you to take a deep breath - it's not when
you take the breath in that you feel better, it's when you let it go.
Holding your breath tenses you up and that is bad for your swimming
technique.
2) When you are holding your breath you can feel that you need to breathe.
The sensation you are feeling is not the lack of oxygen, it's the build up
of CO2. By holding your breath you are keeping the CO2 in your blood stream
and lungs - this makes you feel desperate for air.
Blow them bubbles, it'll be the end of your troubles.
Breathing out constantly while you swim feels much nicer - you get rid of
the CO2 and no longer feel so desperate for air.
3) Having lungs full of air is bad for your body position - your chest is
too buoyant. Since your body acts like a see saw around your centre, this
causes your legs to sink in the water, creating extra drag.
4) Most swimmers try to exhale just before they turn their head to breathe -
or even worse, try and exhale and inhale in the short window when their
mouth is above the waterline! This is a really hard thing to do, each breath
feels snatched and panicky. If you breathe late like this, the tendency is
to lift your head to breathe to give yourself a bit more time. Lifting your
head is bad swimming technique, it causes your legs to sink - adding lots of
drag.
Conclusion: exhaling constantly and continuously is a fundamental of a good
freestyle stroke technique.
How Will This Make Me Swim Faster?
Katie Hoff demonstrates strong exhalation during her Beijing 400m silver
medal swim.
Tension is bad for your swimming. We want to develop a smooth, relaxed,
rhythmical stroke and tension stops us doing that. Tension makes us want to
lift our head and that ruins our body position. Tension makes it hard to
trust and feel the water. Perhaps worst of all, tension stops us enjoying
our swimming.
Holding your breath keeps excess CO2 in your lungs and blood stream. This
hurts you aerobically as CO2 builds up in your system (like a sprint
activity). For the same swimming speed and effort, holding your breath will
make things much harder. Next time you're running or doing something aerobic
in the gym try holding your breath for 3 seconds and then suddenly inhale
and exhale before holding it again - how much harder does this make it? Much
harder!
Without exhaling properly you're going to find bilateral breathing (
breathing to both sides) very hard. The build up of CO2 in your system from
holding your breath makes the gap between 3 strokes feel very long. In this
situation most swimmers revert to breathing to one side - their favoured
side. As you can read here, the problem with single sided breathing is that
your stroke technique tends to become lopsided and crabby. Your body roll
tends to become poor on your non-breathing side and that leads to problems
with the recovering arm swinging low over the water. Other problems with
your technique start to appear such as scissor kicks and hands crossing the
centre line. All of this because you're not exhaling!
The key to a creating a balanced symmetrical swimming technique is breathing
to both sides - and the key to that is constant exhalation whenever your
face is in the water.
OK, So How Do I Make The change?
The trick is to get used to exhaling into the water and feel relaxed doing
it. This sounds easy but you need to break the existing habit, which can
take some persistence. We recommend the series of sinking exercises below to
develop a new breathing technique and get you feeling more relaxed in the
water.
One of Swim Smooth's catch phrases 'Learn To Sink Before You Learn to Swim'
comes from this sink-down technique.
Learn to Sink!
- At the deep end of the pool tread water. When you are ready take a breath
in and let yourself sink. As soon as your head is in the water start
exhaling strongly through either your nose or mouth, whichever you prefer.
Make sure you are exhaling straight away. If you are not exhaling
immediately, or you are not exhaling strongly enough, you won't sink - or
you will sink a bit but then surface again.
Novice swimmer Sheila practises her sink downs. With practise you can stay
under longer than this.
Fancy a challenge? Try lying on your back on the bottom of the pool and
watch the bubbles moving up to the surface.
- Practise sinking like this many times through. Make sure you are exhaling
smoothly and constantly. The idea is to be able to sink straight down to
the bottom of the pool and stay there exhaling until you are ready to push
off the bottom and come back up.
- If you sink at first but then surface again, stay there and keep exhaling
until you sink. Find your 'sinking threshold' and keep practising exhaling
strongly until you can get down easily and quickly.
- To help you to relax whilst sinking, imagine you are falling into bed or
into a comfy chair at the end of a long hard day. Every muscle in your body
relaxes and goes loose. You relax and sink.
- Are you surprised how strongly you have to exhale to sink? This shows you
are not exhaling strongly enough in your normal stroke technique.
- Are you surprised how relaxed you become doing this? Perhaps you didn't
realise you were tense before? The sensation of sinking is something we
naturally fear - it's something that's keeping you tense whilst you swim.
Getting accustomed to the water and feeling happy sinking in this alien
environment will help your swimming technique a great deal.
Remind yourself to exhale into the water by making it part of your push-off
routine. Every time you push off from the wall in your torpedo position,
exhale strongly. Then carry on doing it for the whole length.
- If you're doing really well, try sitting on the bottom of the pool and
watch your bubbles rising to the surface. Or even harder, lie on your back
on the bottom and watch the bubbles.
Novice swimmers: The sink-down exercise is very important for you too. If
you are a little nervous in the water, start in the shallow end and simply
crouch to get your head under the water. Get used to this before you
gradually get into deeper water. Find out more in our key article Tips For
Beginner Freestylers.
Introducing Constant Exhalation To Your Swim Stroke
We recommend that you do a few of these 'sink downs' at the start of every
swimming session to tune in to the watery environment and release any
tension. It really is enjoyable and beneficial to any level of swimmer, even
those macho males who might think it's mumbo jumbo! Try it, we're sure you'
ll enjoy it.
Once you have performed your sink-downs, try some easy laps of swimming.
Swim at a slow pace and imagine you have all day to get to the other end.
Your sole focus should be to make sure you are exhaling strongly whenever
your head is in the water.
If you don't normally breathe bilaterally we recommend you make the switch
straight away and breathe every 3 strokes. How do you feel? Are you more
relaxed and less tense than normal? Can you now manage bilateral breathing?
Drills and Exhalation Technique
You guessed it, whenever you are doing drills you should be exhaling
constantly into the water too! It's good practise and helps you relax so you
can perform the drill better.
Do you have a drill you struggle with? Exhaling strongly into the water
might just be the key to cracking it!
Summary
Most swimmers realise that breathing technique is a fundamental of the
freestyle stroke. But most think about their inhalation only and forget
about their exhalation. Don't make that mistake yourself! Practise your sink
downs and get focused on your exhalation. You'll enjoy your swimming more
and your stroke will benefit greatly.
The complete set of Swim Smooth breathing techniques is embedded in our
Learn To Swim Freestyle Program. | L****a
发帖数: 106 | 2 求摘要。
The
【在 j*****j 的大作中提到】
: From http://www.swimsmooth.com/exhalation.html
: Breathing Technique - Exhalation
: you know your problem? you keep it all in!
: Also see our related articles: Freestyle Breathing Overview and Tips and The
: Power of Bilateral Breathing.
: Important!
: Don't forget to breathe. Doctors recommend it.
: Very few novice swimmers exhale properly into the water.
: Nearly all intermediate swimmers think they are exhaling correctly - at
: least, that's what they say when we ask them. Do they? Very few do.
| j*****j
发帖数: 290 | 3 Summary
Most swimmers realise that breathing technique is a fundamental of the
freestyle stroke. But most think about their inhalation only and forget
about their exhalation. Don't make that mistake yourself! Practise your sink
downs and get focused on your exhalation. You'll enjoy your swimming more
and your stroke will benefit greatly.
Learn to Sink!
- At the deep end of the pool tread water. When you are ready take a breath
in and let yourself sink. As soon as your head is in the water start
exhaling strongly through either your nose or mouth, whichever you prefer.
Make sure you are exhaling straight away. If you are not exhaling
immediately, or you are not exhaling strongly enough, you won't sink - or
you will sink a bit but then surface again.
【在 L****a 的大作中提到】
: 求摘要。
:
: The
| y**c
发帖数: 6307 | 4 谢谢分享。至少我是属于在水下憋气一会才开始呼气的，的确觉得憋气。不知道其他人
怎么样？游长距离的爽哥可以4个甚至6个stroke换气一次，估计是肺活量超人。：）
The
【在 j*****j 的大作中提到】
: From http://www.swimsmooth.com/exhalation.html
: Breathing Technique - Exhalation
: you know your problem? you keep it all in!
: Also see our related articles: Freestyle Breathing Overview and Tips and The
: Power of Bilateral Breathing.
: Important!
: Don't forget to breathe. Doctors recommend it.
: Very few novice swimmers exhale properly into the water.
: Nearly all intermediate swimmers think they are exhaling correctly - at
: least, that's what they say when we ask them. Do they? Very few do.
| hs
发帖数: 1549 | 5 哈，又被朋友你点名了~
我觉得吧，4个 stroke 换气是比较舒服的，因为换气时动作比较大，还是影响整体效
率；二一个像你说的，我游长距离，所以每个 stroke 消耗很小
没测过肺活量，不过我可以潜泳50y，或者潜25y的蝶腿，想来憋气能力还是有的，嘿嘿
【在 y**c 的大作中提到】
: 谢谢分享。至少我是属于在水下憋气一会才开始呼气的，的确觉得憋气。不知道其他人
: 怎么样？游长距离的爽哥可以4个甚至6个stroke换气一次，估计是肺活量超人。：）
:
: The
| R*****s
发帖数: 41236 | 6 orz..
不过似乎游开水的， 一般呼吸频率比较高？
【在 hs 的大作中提到】
: 哈，又被朋友你点名了~
: 我觉得吧，4个 stroke 换气是比较舒服的，因为换气时动作比较大，还是影响整体效
: 率；二一个像你说的，我游长距离，所以每个 stroke 消耗很小
: 没测过肺活量，不过我可以潜泳50y，或者潜25y的蝶腿，想来憋气能力还是有的，嘿嘿
| hs
发帖数: 1549 | 7 想来是吧，我今年夏天没下湖。。。
【在 R*****s 的大作中提到】
: orz..
: 不过似乎游开水的， 一般呼吸频率比较高？
| R*****s
发帖数: 41236 | 8 爽哥一般情况是4次打水么？ 俺的stroke rate又降回20下左右了，郁闷...
【在 hs 的大作中提到】
: 想来是吧，我今年夏天没下湖。。。
| hs
发帖数: 1549 | 9 我不是技术流，估计自己是一次或者两次打水
腿拖在后面想尾巴一样。。。
所以经常自嘲可以练铁三，因为游泳完全不费脚力
当然。。。我的跑步。。。真心龟速。。。
【在 R*****s 的大作中提到】
: 爽哥一般情况是4次打水么？ 俺的stroke rate又降回20下左右了，郁闷...
| u*********s
发帖数: 2077 | 10 一次打腿？ 你说的单腿？
爽哥不练铁三浪费了， 三版刚来了个小弟也是游泳高手，
刚开始练跑步....
【在 hs 的大作中提到】
: 我不是技术流，估计自己是一次或者两次打水
: 腿拖在后面想尾巴一样。。。
: 所以经常自嘲可以练铁三，因为游泳完全不费脚力
: 当然。。。我的跑步。。。真心龟速。。。
| hs
发帖数: 1549 | 11 那就两次吧。。。因为就是拖着腿游
在下对铁三也很神往啊，这周日去芝加哥，争取起早围观一下盛况？
【在 u*********s 的大作中提到】
: 一次打腿？ 你说的单腿？
: 爽哥不练铁三浪费了， 三版刚来了个小弟也是游泳高手，
: 刚开始练跑步....
| u*********s
发帖数: 2077 | 12 有空就去看啊， 应该还是很鼓舞人的.....
我开始跑步就是从围观当地的一个马拉松开始的....
【在 hs 的大作中提到】
: 那就两次吧。。。因为就是拖着腿游
: 在下对铁三也很神往啊，这周日去芝加哥，争取起早围观一下盛况？
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