Swimming: Breathing Technique

Tuesday has rolled around again which means so has another swim session. Class number two went much better than the first one; my hair wasn't on my face like squid tentacles killing its prey, I got to work on breathing, and I wasn't drowning the whole time I was doing a swimming style that's similar to the breast stroke but with my back in the water facing up.

So how did I do with the breathing technique? Here's a list of the lessons I learned tonight, then you can decide if breathing kicked my butt or not.

Lesson #1 - Pigtails may be cute but don't bring them to the pool lanes.
Remember that swim cap I was supposed to buy, well I forgot about it until Sunday. I promptly ordered one online from REI (a nice bright yellow one so I can easily be spotted in open water if I ever become crazy enough to go for a swim in the cold Puget Sound waters....brrr, I get cold just thinking about it) upon which they confirmed my delivery for THURSDAY! The pigtails held strong for about thirty minutes after which little strands started slipping out and gluing themselves onto my face again.

Lesson #2 - What do you mean there's more to exhaling than just creating bubbles with my nose?
Last class my highlight was that I actually exhaled through my nose underwater creating lots of bubbles. I was thrilled because I was not afraid of doing so and in one of my laps I was actually trying to make more bubbles with every exhale. Little did I realize that I was pretty much just pulling my head out of the water and putting it back in just to create bubbles. Apparently, the arm movement, inhaling, and exhaling are all supposed to be in some sort of rhythm. Hmm, how to get rhythm?

Lesson #3 - Lung capacity and what it has to do with you.
Lung capacity has to do with your breath rate, and how deep (long) or shallow (short) it is. You hear it every now and then in sports/fitness articles and I knew what it was but never really realized how one's lung capacity effected one's performance. Well, I am ignorant no longer.
Towards the end of class I was starting to get into some sort of rhythm, and that was after I realized that I don't have great lung capacity. In fact, my lung capacity is very shallow which is why I felt like a mess when I tried to do three arm strokes and then inhale. Personally, I started to find rhythm when I inhaled with every stroke, meaning I was exhaling as I rotated my head to the other side.

Lesson #4 - Rhythm is not the same as timing.
Even after I figured out that I needed to breath with every stroke things still didn't go smoothly. At times I would splash some water in my face or pull my head out instead of just rolling, and in order to reset myself I would have to stop where I was and start the swimming process all over again. Timing, rhythm, coordination...I'm sure these are all things that will come with time and practice.

Looking forward to the improvements I will see and the new lessons I will learn next Tuesday.

Elo