front crawl breathing

In article <[email hidden]>,

Anne Rogers said:

I've been
breathing every stroke rather than every other as I'm pregnant.

Congratulations!

Are you saying that you breathe left, then right, then left, etc, very
rapidly? I've done that as a drill (to emphasize maintaining a
streamline while breathing), and gotten pretty good at it, but it
shouldn't be necessary even if you're in your 8th month.

Or are you saying you're breathing every left or every right, but not
both? That's pretty much normal.

Are you saying you would like to skip strokes while breathing? As in:
breathe left while stroking right, stroke left, stroke right, stroke
left, breathe left while stroking right? I can do that for short races,
but I run out of air in longer events.

And I'm not even pregnant. :-)

Quoted message said:

Here's what I think I'm supposed to be doing

head in the water, breath out through my nose gently

Some people find that they also need to breathe out through the mouth.
The point is to exhale enough to make room for the fresh air.

Quoted message said:

head comes out, instantly over mouth as if saying "pa", short and sharp
then take a deep breath

Exhaling with a short "pa" has good and bad points. There's a
trade-off. It's good in that it might clear some water away from your
lips, and exhale a bit more stale air (which shouldn't be necessary if
you exhale enough while under water). It's bad because it takes time
that you should be using to inhale instead.

If you're just leisurely doing laps, it doesn't matter.

But in a race, the time requirement is the deciding issue. If you feel
the urge to exhale with a "pa", you need to exhale more while under
water instead.

Quoted message said:

Can someone help?

Besides the above, most beginners have trouble because they feel an urge
to lift their heads while breathing. Don't do that (at least not until
your balance and lumbar strength are as good as Janet Evans'😉. Keep the
top of your head in the water, rotating your head and body to bring your
mouth out of the water.

Rotating your body gives you a bit more time with your mouth out of the
water, and also has the added advantage of bringing your shoulder out of
the water to reduce drag.

Ross

Hi Ann, If you breathe every stroke you might hyperventilate. Why not
continue to wear your nose clip and breath out through your mouth the
way your teacher wants you to. The best way is to breath out
underwater and then roll to breath in every three strokes. Dont lift
your head, just roll over a bit so your mouth is above water. I guess
saying "pa" at that time clears the last bit of air out of your lungs
before you breath in. That sounds like a good idea. If you relax and
don't try too hard, being pregnant won't matter.

Ross Bogue said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Anne Rogers said:

I've been
breathing every stroke rather than every other as I'm pregnant.

Congratulations!

Are you saying that you breathe left, then right, then left, etc,

very

Quoted message said:

rapidly? I've done that as a drill (to emphasize maintaining a
streamline while breathing), and gotten pretty good at it, but it
shouldn't be necessary even if you're in your 8th month.

Or are you saying you're breathing every left or every right, but not

Quoted message said:

both? That's pretty much normal.

Are you saying you would like to skip strokes while breathing? As

in:

Quoted message said:

breathe left while stroking right, stroke left, stroke right, stroke
left, breathe left while stroking right? I can do that for short

races,

Quoted message said:

but I run out of air in longer events.

And I'm not even pregnant. :-)

Quoted message said:

Here's what I think I'm supposed to be doing

head in the water, breath out through my nose gently

Some people find that they also need to breathe out through the

mouth.

Quoted message said:

The point is to exhale enough to make room for the fresh air.

Quoted message said:

head comes out, instantly over mouth as if saying "pa", short and

sharp

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

then take a deep breath

Exhaling with a short "pa" has good and bad points. There's a
trade-off. It's good in that it might clear some water away from

your

Quoted message said:

lips, and exhale a bit more stale air (which shouldn't be necessary

if

Quoted message said:

you exhale enough while under water). It's bad because it takes time

Quoted message said:

that you should be using to inhale instead.

If you're just leisurely doing laps, it doesn't matter.

But in a race, the time requirement is the deciding issue. If you

feel

Quoted message said:

the urge to exhale with a "pa", you need to exhale more while under
water instead.

Quoted message said:

Can someone help?

Besides the above, most beginners have trouble because they feel an

urge

Quoted message said:

to lift their heads while breathing. Don't do that (at least not

until

Quoted message said:

your balance and lumbar strength are as good as Janet Evans'😉. Keep

the

Quoted message said:

top of your head in the water, rotating your head and body to bring

your

Quoted message said:

mouth out of the water.

Rotating your body gives you a bit more time with your mouth out of

the

Quoted message said:

water, and also has the added advantage of bringing your shoulder out

of

Quoted message said:

the water to reduce drag.

Ross

Quoted message said:

Are you saying that you breathe left, then right, then left, etc, very
rapidly? I've done that as a drill (to emphasize maintaining a
streamline while breathing), and gotten pretty good at it, but it
shouldn't be necessary even if you're in your 8th month.

that is what I am doing

Quoted message said:

Or are you saying you're breathing every left or every right, but not
both? That's pretty much normal.

I can manage that for about 2 strokes, then am very very short of breath.
I'm not unfit, but last time I measured my lung capacity, it was fairly
small even when not pregnant.

Quoted message said:

Some people find that they also need to breathe out through the mouth.
The point is to exhale enough to make room for the fresh air.

Quoted message said:

head comes out, instantly over mouth as if saying "pa", short and sharp
then take a deep breath

Exhaling with a short "pa" has good and bad points. There's a
trade-off. It's good in that it might clear some water away from your
lips, and exhale a bit more stale air (which shouldn't be necessary if
you exhale enough while under water). It's bad because it takes time
that you should be using to inhale instead.

If you're just leisurely doing laps, it doesn't matter.

well it's fairly leisurely, but with having to relearn everything I'm about
at the stage of just about managing a length, but not always, I keep getting
something wrong, then mucking up the breathing and having to stop!

Quoted message said:

But in a race, the time requirement is the deciding issue. If you feel
the urge to exhale with a "pa", you need to exhale more while under
water instead.

Quoted message said:

Can someone help?

Besides the above, most beginners have trouble because they feel an urge
to lift their heads while breathing. Don't do that (at least not until
your balance and lumbar strength are as good as Janet Evans'😉. Keep the
top of your head in the water, rotating your head and body to bring your
mouth out of the water.

Rotating your body gives you a bit more time with your mouth out of the
water, and also has the added advantage of bringing your shoulder out of
the water to reduce drag.

Thanks, that's exactly what the coach has been trying to get me to do, it
just takes time to train my body to do it automatically.

Thanks for your help

Anne

Quoted message said:

Hi Ann, If you breathe every stroke you might hyperventilate. Why not
continue to wear your nose clip and breath out through your mouth the
way your teacher wants you to. The best way is to breath out
underwater and then roll to breath in every three strokes. Dont lift
your head, just roll over a bit so your mouth is above water. I guess
saying "pa" at that time clears the last bit of air out of your lungs
before you breath in. That sounds like a good idea. If you relax and
don't try too hard, being pregnant won't matter.

And if I breathe every other, I might drown! I've noticed when we are
practicing just the leg kick with a float that the other women take a lot
longer between each breath and I really am pushing myself to the limit.

I don't have a nose clip handy, so I won't go back to that, I don't think
the coach would be very happy and when the only words we can understand is
yes, no and hello, I couldn't explain.

Anne

In article <[email hidden]>,

Anne Rogers said:

I can manage that for about 2 strokes, then am very very short of breath.
I'm not unfit, but last time I measured my lung capacity, it was fairly
small even when not pregnant.

I understand. Lung capacity is not my strong suit either. But with a
bit of practice, you can still exhale enough under water so you're ready
to start inhaling the moment your mouth clears the water.

Quoted message said:

well it's fairly leisurely, but with having to relearn everything I'm about
at the stage of just about managing a length, but not always, I keep getting
something wrong, then mucking up the breathing and having to stop!

Then it's probably good that you're going slowly. If the movements are
new to you, you need to concentrate on doing them well. And you may
need to stop stroking occasionally and just glide on your side while you
regain your balance. That's ok.

Ross

Anne Rogers said:

And if I breathe every other, I might drown!

No, you won't, the water will hold you - and this might be part of
your problem with the breathing: maybe you don't trust the water and
instead of relaxing, you start to panic and breathe every stroke.
Therefore I would propose (additionally to what the others already
said) that you spent some time on doing basic balance drills - relax,
feel the balance and enjoy the floating, relax more.

Then start to work on your breathing (first with basic drills here as
well if you like to - easy kicking with a float would be a start, and
if you feel more comfortable in the children's pool, use this). Don't
push yourself in this, stay relaxed, and try several ways to do it to
see what fits for you - hold your breath for a moment before breathing
out or immediatly start to exhale, breath out through mouth and nose
or only nose, reduce the amount of air you are exhaling through your
nose, maybe try it without this "pa"-thing, and check your head
position (if you are too deep in the water, breathing is not as easy)
as well as your timing (if you start too late or stop too early with
the head rotation, the time for getting air is decreasing).

Stay relaxed includes: don't do much of a kick - if your legs move
more than just a little bit, you are wasting energy like hell and you
need a lot of air. Check you water position as well, the more you are
away from a horizontal position, the harder you have to work and, here
again, you need a lot air. Your other movements like the stroke should
be calm and relaxed as well - if your stroke is slow, you have more
time to get air, if you struggle less with the water and stop rotating
continously for air, you waste less energy.

If possible, do some backstroke in between - kicking is much the same,
you get a lot of air and feeling for the balance, and this will relax
your backbone from carrying around someone else 🙂.

Practice a lot is going to help then as well - you are getting used to
breathe and it's becoming more easy, plus your lung capacity will grow
automatically.

Hope that something of this is a help for you 🙂
Sybille

Its the kicking that tends to make us breathless. If they have
pull-buoys there, try one. Its a float for the legs. I wonder if
being pregnant gives you more buoyancy or less?