Efficient Freestyle - Lesson 5 - Breath Timing

Breathing should happen within your natural stroke rhythm. It should not disrupt your rhythm and/or slow you down. To ensure this, we need to have the head and the body turning together - at the same time.
That’s where this Switch & Breathe Drill comes in.
It is a progression of the basic Switch Drill which we covered in 'This Is The Most Versatile Drill Ever Invented'.
These are very similar drills with 2 very different functions.
Switch Drill is is a body position exercise.
Switch & Breathe is a breath timing exercise.
These 2 drills can get a little confusing so we made these videos to help clarify the differences.
Movement sequence for Switch & Breathe Drill:
- start in streamline
- breathe sideways as many times as needed
- begin one stroke
- as you body starts rotating
- follow your shoulder until your face is out of the water
- breathe
Before trying the Switch & Breathe Drill you should be very confident that you are doing the Switch Drill correctly. If you are not getting into a balance and stable body position with each stroke it will be impossible to breathe without slowing down.
We recommend practicing all of these fundamental drills often.
You don’t need to do each drill every time you hit the pool, but you should constantly be revisiting the fundamentals of efficient swimming and trying to improve each time.
No junk laps!
Check out our Fundamental Efficiency Drills playlist for more great content.
Thanks for reading. Get in touch if you have any questions and remember to subscribe to be notified when new videos are released.
To the pool... Swim Smart!
www.coach-stewart.com
www.swimsmart.ca

[@AlexRybolov]

Very useful video! Thank you!

[@wendytaylor3432]

Great tips, Thanks Stewart

[@SwimSmart]

Thanks Wendy! I hope it helps you this week. No class for the next few Sundays so lots of time to practice this drill.