Breathing Techniques in Swimming

Video Transcript

"In this section I'll be explaining to you your breathing techniques. And this is step eight of freestyle swimming. Breathing technique--we all have different ways of breathing, but it basically comes down to, when you breathe, the reason why I showed you in the very beginning of floating, is because that's the fundamental of when you breathe. So, when you breathe your head is straight down when you're floating, and now when you breathe you're either going to turn your head to one side and take in breathe through your mouth, and then just rotate your head evenly back into the water. And now you do the other side. You're going to rotate to one side; your chin is touching your shoulder. Not literally, but close enough. And you just want to take a deep breath. I've seen people come up like this, or like that, moving their whole shoulder. Always remember when you're swimming, especially freestyle, your shoulders never move, okay. They stay completely straight. And your whole body is aligned with what--and all you're doing is a nice, slight little turn up, right, take that breath in through your mouth, your chin should be kind of close, touching your shoulder, and then you just rotate it back in. Put your head back in, you're doing the stroke. When do you breathe you may ask? Okay, don't ever try to breathe when your arm's in front of you. Whatever sides you may breathe on, you've got make sure that you?re pulling on that side. So, if I wanted to breathe on my right side, I'll make sure that my arm is pulling, and as I'm pulling, then I'll rotate my head so I have a clear path to breathe. Because how would that look if my arm was in my face? There's no way. And that's where people start choking on the water, and then they think that they can't breathe, and take a breath while they try to swim. It's because your arm's in front of your face. So, again, on this side of the angle, we'll do it again. So, I put my hand in at a forty-five degree angle, it's fully stretched, my shoulders are straight, I'm pulling, making that S all the way back. As I'm pulling, I decide I want to breathe on this side. Take a breath; put my head back in the water. And that's how you would do step eight of freestyle swimming. In this section of freestyle, this is in continuation with step eight; it's all about your breathing. So your breathing can be, like your head's pretty much floating in the water, and watch how my head just rotates to one side, the air is in, I'll take a deep breath, put my head back in, and then do it for the same side. So watch. And that's it. That's how you would do that for the breathing. So you notice how I was just--little slight movement on each side."