Open Water Front Crawl Breathing

A high percentage of people I’ve coached over the years, that are typically learning front crawl (freestyle) or have learnt to swim front crawl recent to their coaching session, struggle with the breathing aspect of the stroke. One of the major barriers to swimmers progressing is a poor breathing technique and a lack of confidence when it comes to breathing.

So… the best way to typically improve a certain aspect of your stroke is to isolate that part of the stroke and carry out drills on that specific aspect without having to worry about the rest of your stroke. For example, if you want to work on your leg kick, you’d perform leg kick drills and ditch the arms. You’d use a kick float for example. This way your sole attention is on the aspect of the stroke that you’re trying to improve.

Breathing is no different. What I typically suggest is that you work on your breathing in the safest environment possible. This would be the bath tub. If you don’t have a bath, possibly a large bucket outside, on a table. The bath provides you with a safe, warm and calm environment. If you breath in some water, you simply have to lift your head and you’re sat in the bath!

STEP 1 : Start by kneeling in the bath and simply learning forward and putting your face in. When breathing during front crawl you’re not looking to fill your lungs with as much air as possible. Breathing is the slowest and least streamlined part of the stroke. You want your face out (well half out) and your breath to be as quick as possible. Also, if you open your mouth nice and wide and take a massive gulp of air, you’re more likely to get slapped in the mouth with some chop/small wave. So it’s a short sharp breath in and then a short sharp breath out, once your face is in the water. Should take under a second to breath in and marginally longer to breath out. You obviously breath out whilst your face is in the water. You should do so through your mouth and nose. If you don’t breath out through your nose, you tend to get water going up it. You’d want to repeatedly breath in and out in this manner for up to a minute or two at a time. Try this a few times, possibly on different occasions, until you’re confident and/or bored to the back teeth of doing it.

STEP 2 : You could then progress into the open water. Stand at around chest depth or slightly under and lean forward and carry out the same exercise. Again, 1-2 minutes at a time.

STEP 3 : Once you’re confident with your breathing you simply (hummmm), marry up your stroke with your breathing.

POTENTIAL ISSUES : the odd person has real issues with breathing out through their nose. If you have a persistent problem and find water going up your nose, it might be worth thinking about a nose clip. When you first start practicing front crawl, if you can only breath to one side ensure that any chop is hitting you on the back of the head and you’re not breathing directly in the direction of choppy water.

Another issue or problem you might encounter might simply come from you being too eager to start swimming. Always acclimatise and make sure you’re comfortable before starting your stroke. If you simply get in and start trying to swim or try the breathing stroke drills, you may gasp for air as you’re simply not used to the water temperature. Always take your time.

Just remember that the human brain can only really focus on one task at a time. We can multi-task but that’s simply the brain flicking from one activity to another very quickly. This is why it’s important to work on the breathing in isolation and get to a point where you don’t have to think about it. From there, you can then pay attention to the aspects of your stroke that you need to. Not worrying about the breathing aspect should also make you more confident when first starting out.

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Learning front crawl in the sea

This year we’ve taken 3 people that don’t currently swim front crawl and we’re meeting them once a fortnight for swimming lessons. With each session they’ll have ‘homework’ to take away with them. The aim is to teach them to swim front crawl (or freestyle as it’s also known), over the course of the summer. We’ll then make a short documentary and release it at the end of the summer, charting their progress.

The idea is really to show exactly how straight forward it is to learn front crawl, particularly in the sea…where you have additional buoyancy. They may not (they won’t) be expert swimmers by the end of the summer but they’ll certainly make big steps forward. We’ll also set targets and goals throughout the summer and carry out some exciting swims, as they progress.

We’ll add to this article and video throughout the summer (particularly video footage), as we go.

SESSION 1 : really a meet-and-greet. We also set them some homework based on breathing. The idea being that you practise front crawl breathing in a controlled and safe environment at home, so that when it comes to swimming in the sea you’re ready and confident. It makes it far easier to think about your arm pull or leg kick, when you don’t have to think about your breathing.

SESSION 2 : We looked at what I call the ‘neutral’ position or ‘streamlined’ position in the water. A position where you lie stretched out in the sea and let the water hold your weight. From there, you then add the arm action and breathing. A poor leg kick is one of the main elements preventing a lot of people from achieving a good body roll. It’s also too much for the brain to focus on…simultaneously thinking about pulling and kicking, so we leave the leg kick ‘til much later.

Breathing when learning front crawl

It’s become very obvious over the last 5 years + of running Sea Swim Cornwall that breathing or simply the act of putting your face in the water is quite a big barrier to swimming front crawl for a lot of people. The other issue is that if you haven’t mastered breathing, it makes it incredibly difficult to then work on your leg kick, arm pull, body position etc when you’re still focused on your breathing. Over the last few years we’ve developed a nice little exercise that introduces breathing technique slowly and in a safe and controlled environment.

Step 1 : this can be done in the open water but I think it’s far better done at home. Simply fill the bath up, then sit on your knees and put your face in the water. You’re simply looking to breath out in the water and then bring your face up and out of the water and breath in. These aren’t big breathes, where you’re filling your lungs up. They’re shorter, sharper and quicker breathes. Repeat this for 5-10 minutes until you’r enice and comfortable doing it at quick intervals.

Step 2 : Once you get used to step 1 try and progress to lying flat in the water (on your knees) and breathing to the side…as you would swimming. You’re then looking to having your face in the water for around 2 seconds (breathing out), turn your head to the side and breath in for around 1 second. Keep repeating this for an initial period of around 30 seconds and once you start to get more confident extend the time period to 1 minute +.

Alternative : you can also try this in the open water or with a bucket full of water. Simply stand just deeper than waist depth and lean forward and follow the steps above.

Step 3 : not really a step. Just remember that in the open water the water is a lot colder! Acclimatise to the temperature before trying these breathing exercises. Don’t go straight in and start try them whilst gasping for air and getting used to the cold!

Step 3 : once you’re comfortable with your breathing start to them work on your stroke. Particularly breathing whilst using your arms.

Remember : worth being aware that lots of people that start swimming front crawl in the open water get worried about taking in a mouth full of water. They try to avoid this by over-rotating and bringing their mouth as far away from the water as possible (effectively looking up). This is fine in the very short-term. The problem with doing this long term is that you’re over rotating to achieve this high breathing position. To prevent yourself from rolling too far over and flipping onto your back your leg kick often then become wider (like the stabilisers on a bike). This in turn creates drag and slows you don’t, as well as sapping your energy and preventing you from getting into a rhythm.

Moving forward : it really depends on your lung capacity but you generally want to breath every 2 if your swimming distance. You can breath 3…and you might find that you swim a little straighter doing so. You do this to try and stay in the aerobic energy system for as long as possible…ie. you continue to use Oxygen. If you go into your anaerobic system earlier than you need to, you’ll more than likely find that you get tired and stiff far earlier.