Exhaling with Swimming

I hum to myself as I swim, this keeps a continuous flow of air out while my face is in the water allowing me to roll and do a quick inhale and start all over. The faster/harder I swim the harder I hum so that I can fully empty my lungs by the time that I roll to breathe. Are you breathing every arm set, every 2, ??? This also may influence how much you exhale while face under. If you are breathing every arm set, it is difficult to get it all out, you might try breathing every 2 or even 3 arm sets and see if that helps you.

blow bubbles. perhaps you are not inhaling enough? work on fast inhale and blow bubbles out.

Im breathing every 2.

Sometimes it helps with kids to have them hum underwater between breaths. Kind of fun and will confuse other swimmers, if nothing else!

I normally get people to say the word Bubble, underwater and breath on the 3

 A good breathing drill, is to swim 50m breathing on the 2 then 50 on the 3 and so on through 4,5,6,7,6,5,4,3,2 

Edited by WildWill 2015-05-15 4:35 AM

This, was the skill that made the most difference for me swimming.

Physically I have always been able to swim but the breathing and water up the nose kept me from enjoying swimming at all.

For me it was really a progression. But it is still something that I have to concentrate on while swimming.

You'll get there!

What I did (and still do) is do 200-300yds of kicking before my main set. Instead of keeping my head above water the entire time, I only exhale below water and pop up to inhale. This get rid of the drowning/can't breath panic that you may have if you're first starting. At first I had a hard time just overcoming the water pressure but now that I swim a lot, it's nothing. I still do the "drill" since I'm just used to doing it now.

Try getting into the habit of forcibly exhaling with the "spearing motion" of the hand entry on the opposite side just before taking a breath, similar to how a boxer exhales with a punch. Not only does that help clear the lungs for more fresh air intake, it can help make sure you're reaching far enough to get good body rotation for the following breath.