Breathing and Swimming

I went through this, mostly just getting out of breath far too quickly and having to stop and breathe at the end of the laps. One of the lifeguards at the college pool where I swim was chatting with me about this--he coaches kids swim teams and he told me I was going too fast and kicking too hard. Slowing down made all the difference in the world, in particular kicking a lot less than I thought I had to. It turns out your large leg muscles blast through oxygen. I now go slow, kick just enough to maintain my body position, breathe every 6 strokes and feel great. Ruth Kazez has become one of my gurus for thinking about swimming for fitness (not swimming to win ribbons, like I did as a kid). http://ruthkazez.com/Zeroto1milePreamble/pre-zero.html. Her assumption is that you are out of breath not because your technique is bad but because you just have to build up your cardiovascular fitness, and here's how to do that. If you like that and you get going well, http://ruthkazez.com/ZeroTo1mile.html. There is also a https://www.facebook.com/groups/102385074105/ Facebook group, which is very supportive and frequently answers questions exactly like this.

An update for anyone who's wondering how their advice worked: today I swam A MILE!!! It took me about an hour, but I just kept plugging away and I did it. Thanks again to everyone who posted here!

Like Emera Gratia's link says, making sure you breath out constantly while under water is what works... For me I find that I can breath out for four strokes, in for one, at first, but then need to adjust as I get winded... so I end up breathing out for three, in for one, and then later on to one in, one out for a bit until I feel like I Have the air I need. The "not enough time for a breath" feeling comes when I don't adjust the rhythm to how I am doing with the exercise ... and this changes each time I go depending on how tired or energetic I am. Another thing I do, and I think this is just mental, is that I tip my head to the side, and watch the arm arc over when breathing in. Somehow, that allows me to time the stroke to the length of my breath... I probably slow down on this stroke when needed, but somehow watching my arm come over helps with feeling in synch. I also leave a kick board at the end, and if I start to get that panicky feeling that I don't want my face underwater, I take it as a sign I need to slow down and I continue with kick board laps, until I calm down and can feel like I am not too winded to return to regular swimming OR I might switch to backstroke or side stroke for one lap for the same effect. Finally, going in the right speed lane (so you aren't trying to keep up with other swimmers or going to fast for the lane) makes all the difference for pacing. This can be hard in a full pool.

I started swimming again this year and I booked a few one-to-one lessons first. I found it really helpful because the other person can see what you're doing wrong and point it out in a way you can't visualise yourself. So she would say things like "you're not tilting your head enough, your ear should be parallel to the bottom" or "focus on that point on the wall as you lift your head" or "you're doing it better on the right side but keep your chin tucked in more when you're turning on the left side" etc. So I'd personally recommend taking advantage of the private lessons if that's an option.

The breathing tip I found most helpful is http://www.swimsmooth.com/exhalation.html.

That is so awesome. Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who answered! Since I asked this question, I've been going to the pool around 3 times a week, and the breathing is feeling a ton more natural. I think part of it was just time, and the suggestions about exhaling were helpful too. I have been practicing using a kickboard and counting out my breathing, which seems to have gone a long way towards feeling comfortable doing it while using arms and legs all at the same time. Thanks also for the links! The Swim Smooth stuff is great, and I love the visualizations since I don't really have anyone right now to watch and comment on strokes/kicking. I also love the 0 to 1650 stuff - I'm working on getting up to the Week One workout, and I'm really excited to use it as a way to organize swimming workouts as I keep going. It really helps me to have a strong structure/plan whenever I'm doing physical stuff, because otherwise I can easily fall into giving up because I don't feel like I know what I'm doing. I've looked into the lessons, but there is a waiting list, so it will probably be a few more weeks until I actually hear back from the gym office with any progress on that. Thanks again to everyone who commented here - it was super helpful to hear that this is normal, and your tips have been great in helping me push forward!

I suffered from a feeling of never having enough air before, too! On the advice of somebody here, I tried that total immersion video, and I took away two main things: -Go super slow and figure out what part of your body is doing what [I was fighting myself a bit] -Just kind of hang out in the water getting comfortable [how much of my face needs to be out of the water? Not my whole head! It's way easier to just kind of roll over a bit than to jerk my whole head out of the water!] before trying to swim quickly. I spent the first few minutes of each session doing that, and my breathing went from being a struggle to being much more relaxed. I was never a good swimmer, and I never will be, but now I feel that I can slowly get wherever if I am patient, instead of having about 10 minutes of desperate thrashing in me before I get exhausted and just let the sharks come for me.

Miko makes a wonderful point about dumper versus dribbler. Many many people seem to be dribblers and find dumping miserable and suffocating. Their best advice is to exhale slowly and continuously. I am a dumper. Dribbling makes me miserable and forces me to breathe much more often. Dumping on the 5th stroke and breathing on the 6th is what works for me. I suggest trying both and figuring out what works for you.