How to Breath in Swimming
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- At the Race Club camps we often discuss how much and where to breath in swimming and they generally have a good sense of what they are doing but when we ask “How do you Breath in Swimming” there is usually a pause.
Over the years we’ve observed hundreds of Olympic swimmers underwater and what we’ve notice they almost all have in common is what they do with the air once it is inhaled… in other words how and when they breath is very similar.
While training at our beautiful facility in Islamorada, the Florida Keys, Coach Gary Hall was approached by a local renowned marine biologist and he informed Coach Gary that like swimmers, the emperor penguin traps air bubbles under it’s wings and when a predator is near or attacking, they will emit those air bubbles giving them a burst of speed that allows them to jump out of the water…. Find out more of this fascinating aspect of swimming that is often misunderstood.
Subscribe to our website to see the entire series on how to breathe that includes videos on how often to breath in a specific swim race, where to breath….
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Amanda Kendall - Olympic Hopeful 2020 USA
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Interesting, I read about this before but there were only assumptions in the article which led me to forget about this, it is hard to do small things over and over again when you do not "feel" or "see" the results, measuring is a must. I will check Lane 2 video later.
Great. We agree and that is why we test with good technology.
Thank u so much for this video, i never knew that blowing bubbles out while facing down actually affects the swimming itself. Amazing!!!
You are welcome!
It affects swimming negatively or positively?
Loved the penguin clip. I can remember seeing the bubble trails, but never stopped to think about where they came from, and why. Always thought it was from speed through the water, but since they are coming from under water, no source of air other than their bodies.... Another use for that propulsion drag meter (you do have some fun toys....) would be to help figure out exactly what the best hand/finger positioning should be. I would think you need one of those endless pools where you have constant current, and can compare different hand positions: closed hand. slightly open fingers, open fingers like you are palming a basketball... I am also wondering if cupping your hand compared to a flat hand would make any difference. I just picked up some of those Finis hand paddles with the thumb hole in them and they are cupped/concave. They don't quite allow me to get as much finger spread as I feel comfortable with.
I also have to try and figure out if the slow exhale would make any difference with my over arm side stroke because the bubble trail probably wouldn't go all the way down the length of my body....
Thanks for the interest in this topic. We actually have done some studies about finger positioning and we talk about it here in one of our Aqua Notes.theraceclub.com/aqua-notes/what-is-the-best-streamline/
You might be surprised by what we found when testing drag
Brilliant study of breathing/drag, left field and innovative. Thank you.
You are welcome!
Yes, I totaly agree! Bubbles makes easier to swim. A few weeks ago one friend told me to swim behind him in the swimming pool (he used the fins and did a lot of bubbles). It is really true...it was much easier. He said that swimmers for long distances cannot swim behind somebody like it was sometimes done because of this effect of bubbles.
Yes...the bubbles help, but so does swimming right behind another swimmer (in the slipstream). A swimmer moving through the water creates a stream that flows behind him in the same direction. Getting into that stream (drafting) creates a huge advantage...a great tactic in open water.
Incredible
Thank you!
This is insane! You guys are so ahead of the curve!!!
Thank you! We try to be.
As always, excellent analysis.
yours are excellent too
Mamteusz Tadeusz thanks Mamteuz
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
I really like that you are studying these factors, excellent work! A few questions: what was the variance in the test runs? Did you try using a median comparison and nonparametric paired analysis? Did you try making bubbles in the second half of the run, and computing results? I fear there is a few possible sources of bias. 1. The conditions during first half of the pull differs from the second in that there is a start with an acceleration first meters. The swimmer has to assume streamline pos. Might take a second,look at first say 4 datapoints 2. The shift to bubbles is hard to produce at exactly 50m, and what if the dragreducing effect builds up during 2 seconds? 3. The end phase how did you make sure that the length of pull during second half exactly corresponded to first. You can look at last 2 values of datasets to see if there was deceleration. I would propose to compare full length pulls over the pool to avoid bias. Make sure the swimmers conditions are identical between trials. As many trials as possible. Mix up bubbles no bubbles randomly to avoid bias from swimmer. Avoid fatigue by doing more than 1 session, then you can compare test-retest values to see what your condition accuracy is. Some thoughts from a fellow researcher/reviewer/swimmer
Thanks for your email. lRegarding the air bubbles under the body, we do that with a fixed body position (streamline). During this test, we take the middle part of the 50 meters perhaps 25 meters only (about 10 seconds of data) to allow the swimmer to assume and hold the correct body position. That amounts to about 200 data points. I did not do standard deviations but found the changes in speed and drag force measured to be small. Since we video the swimmer simultaneously and synchronously to the test, we can see when the air bubbles are being released and are present, which was included in the data of the second test. The swimmer held his breath on the first test. The drag values were adjusted for the exact same average speed. Both tests were done with the swimmer under water.
@@theraceclub so you have the acceleration and deceleration phase covered, and identification of phases, suspected as much. Sounds promising! Still the swimmer might unconciously change something very slightly in his streamline, if he believes in the bubbles. It is a 7% difference, so small variations will matter. Blind testing is not possible. Still a crossover will prevent first and second half biases. Also randomly changing the order bubbles, no bubbles would probably cause the swimmer be less likely to change something unknown. Maybe retry with more swimmers if you are going for a publication?
@@magnusflondell2574 We will definitely repeat the study again. Small changes in body position do affect drag at the speed we are testing (2.3 m/sec).
@@theraceclub Might be an idea to test at supranormal race speeds and with a standardized "bubble maker" to prove your thesis exactly?
That's very interesting but i think it neglects an important aspect. the swimming (ideally) is done mostly on the surface...and it requires to stay as high as possible on the water especially in freestyle. i think you should have tested it while swimming freestyle. The reason is holding a breath can actually improve one's balance on the water getting him higher , significantly. i am not saying it's a must but you can see many Olympians holding their breath and only breathing out when about to breath in... the exhaling of bubbles is more common for underwater and flips for various reasons, but i don't know about speed
I believe you're referring to buoyancy & yes, lungs filled with air will make a swimmer positively buoyant - that's why we advocate for nose clips/limiting air release on underwater dolphin kicks & pullouts. Unfortunately, in order to correctly measure differences in drag during the actual freestyle stroke, it would require some very expensive computer simulations & extremely accurate inputs into those simulations! We'll leave those drag calculations to the physicists/hydrodynamics experts at the universities 👍 But that being said, we don't advocate for release all your air with these bubbles... just a small stream - this way we get the best of both worlds (reduced drag from bubbles + positive buoyancy due to enough air being in the lungs).
Excellent as usual... Just Thank you ! Say no more. PS: I loved the penguin comparison ....hahaha
Glad you liked it! Hop in Lanes 2 or 3 for many more awesome videos.
releasing the air through the nose in the water takes more effort due to water is heavier, I wondered whether this effort of pushing air out in the water takes a lot of practice so that it becomes effortless
Definitely takes some time to get used to, but if you swim a lot of freestyle you should have plenty of time to practice it!
I doubt that it is bubble, which reduces the drag. I would bet that by breathing out the swimmer releases the tension of muscle on his chest and reduces its volume. That causes lower resistance to water flow.
Perhaps, but not much volume of air being released. So I doubt it. Check out the entire video on our subscription. We give two other good examples of bubbles reducing drag.
finally someone answers my question, thank you
Happy to help, thank you for watching!
The quick kick can hurt over50s knees or legs. I pay most attention to using legs and feet to get the most propelsion
Yes, the biomechanics of the kicking motion are very important. To get the maximum propulsion, knees must bend, but not too much! Learn to kick from the hip flexors and extenders...and knee extenders.
Gary, Any comments about hypoxic training? Recently heard about it and have been trying it. It has seemed to make it easier for me to come off the wall and take a stroke or two before breathing...
I believe that hypoxic training at sea level is more beneficial to the sprinters (50 meters). With the higher stroke rate and problems created by breathing and dependence almost solely on anaerobic energy for this short duration, less breaths are better. Altitude training, which is really sustained hypoxic training, is beneficial to distance swimmers because it helps build a better aerobic system.
@@theraceclub Since I don't have access to high altitude training, I have been swimming 25 yard lengths with 1 breath using both freestyle (fairly simple) and my over arm side stroke, which is more difficult because it just isn't as powerful as freestyle. It has greatly added to my ability to take fewer breaths per 50 and 100 yard distances, and make it easier to put in a stroke or three before I break out. Doing one of the high octane lengths with my side strike, I accidentally slipped into flutter kick rather than my narrower whip kick style of scissor kick (compared to old school/life guard/combat swim side stroke), and found it to be much more efficient. Turns the side stroke into much more of a constant speed type of stroke rather than the kick and glide like breast stroke... I have a brother in law who played football at U of Wyoming, which is at 7000 ft. He did talk about the 5th quarter advantage that they had training at that altitude. I will be getting some swimming in at about 3000 ft, but that altitude change doesn't make much difference.
Thanks. It also helps to explain why I feel higher in the water when I am swimming close behind another swimmer, is that correct? Also, the exhale done as you describe has a calming effect. Double bonus.
Yes, absolutely
Intresting! But I can't help thinking about that you float less efficient with bubbles under you. I mean, you float better in water than in air. Or is this effekt minimal? Happy christmas.
The effect is similar to penguins that release bubbles under their feathers or cruise ships that release air under the hell. It makes them faster and more efficient.
@@theraceclub Hm intresting! Thank you for your anser. I am a sailor myself and i have traveld all over the world with really big ships and i have never heard of the air bubbels technology on such big vessels. You might be right but i find it more likely that a vessel that is extracting airbubbles in the water floats deeper and therefore has a bigger body under the surface (heavier deplacement). The draft of the vessel must be bigger (=deeper) because water makes things float better than air does. As a side note. The Bermuda triangel is Said to produce gas bubbels from the ocean floor and therefore ships sinks in those waters. But the rumors regarding the Bermuda triangel is obviously a diffrent saga….
How is exhale from the mouth?
Exhale from the nose to create the bubbles under the chest.
Dr. Hall
What is your thoughts on nose breathing during races? Not just exhaling. Thank you.
Other than releasing some bubbles from the nose after the breath inhalation, most of the other air exchange should be done through the mouth.
Does it also retain more oxygen volume in the lungs for increased blood oxygenation?
If I emulate that swim breathing style on my indoor racing bike trainer, I can watch my heart rate decrease as much as 10 beats per minute at the same steady power production. If I just inhale quickly and then exhale linearly, my heart rate goes up to a higher level.
It's an interesting phenomenon. Of course, there may be other factors.
It might! That would be an interesting study to conduct for swimming.
I usually do it because it's just way more comfortable. I can't exhale fully when I exhale everything at the end, so it makes sense to do it all the time while the head is in the water, and I never thought that this move would add more speed.
just make sure you blow the air through your nose, not your mouth, until the burst exhale at the end.
Scientifically speaking when we exhale slowly the air through the nose our muscles lose energy that's why professional swimmers hold their breath till the end and blow the air roughly at a quick moment but honestly I tried that professional way as much as I could but I found it tiring and I don't know how Olympians success at manner of last quick breath it's because of lots of practice or what
@@theraceclub I do trough both depending on I don't even know what
Y know and I have to thank : my coach : MARIA Inés Mato and Claudio Plit from Argentina
You are welcome!!
Nice to see you updating this channel again!
Thanks!!
makes complete sense. Air has less friction than water.
Thanks!
@theraceclub Very interesting video. I wonder how much pourcentage of speed you can gain with a reduction of 15N of drag. In your test, the speed is fixed (2.3m/s) and the force is variable (167 to 151N). If you do the other way around by keeping the force fixed and measure the speed with and without bubbles.
Actually, both the speed and the drag force vary, but the speed varies little. I don't know how one could possibly keep the drag force constant.
I AM AN ITALIAN COACH AND I HAVE SOMETHING TO ASK YOU.
1) IN THE TEST CARRIED OUT WITH BEN HUR, HAVE YOU DONE IT ONLY UNDER WATER OR ALSO IN THE SURFACE, AND THE RESULTS OF LESS DRAG WERE THE SAME?
2)DON'T YOU BELIEVE THAT SWIMMING 50 METERS IN APNEA THE LOSS OF AIR INVOLVES A LESS EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ARMSTROKE DURING DISTANCE AND A LOWER FLOAT?
Yes...test was done with Ben Hur ( we call it the Propulsion/Drag meter). Test was done underwater, not on the surface. Would expect less drag either way, but overall much more drag on surface at race speed. We don't recommend in the 50 meters exhaling until the very end of the race, since most elite swimmers do not take a breath. It is a good way to increase the speed at the end of the 50. If the breath was released early, it would be more difficult to not breathe and the swimmer would be less buoyant (weight of around 8 pounds vs zero).
Yes the test was done on Ben Hur (what we call Propulsion/Drag meter). It was done underwater, but would expect similar result on surface, but more drag overall. In the 50 m freestyle (or fly) sprint, we recommend keeping the air in the lungs until the very end of the race, expelling air through the nose during the final 10 meters. Air in lungs makes it easier to hold the breath and less weight (more buoyancy)...zero vs about 8 lbs.
@@theraceclub is it the same case with the 100m race
I mean of course we take more breaths in 100race but shall we follow the same technique in the first fifty
what happens if you need a nose plug because the chorine irritates my sinus so much that i'm sneezing all day if i don't wear it and people think i have covid?
Wear the nose clip. You can always force air out through the nose clip while swimming freestyle.
@@theraceclub thanks!!!!
great discovery. TU
Yes, indeed.
Watching this video, i imagine supercavitation torpedo!
Something like that!
Wow - as a lifelong competitive swimmer I had NO idea .
You can learn something every day!
If you look at natan Adrian he holds his breath till the last moment he tends to take the next one
He's a pro at breathing efficiently!
@@theraceclub yes, in my case I slice my exhalation into several pieces, i mean I exhale slightly and stop exhale and stop, i do it about three times or sometimes slowly releasing the air through my nose, how do find that way sir?
Less air in the lungs means less body volume. Less body volume means less friction. Maybe this is a bias in your experiment. My 2 cents.
Less body volume reduces drag, but not from lessening friction. I still think the air under the body reduces friction...and that is the cause of less drag..not the change in morphology.
Your research unfortunately is not accurate. The major factor that made lower the drag on the second 25 is not the reduction of drag in the skin of the swimmer due the bubbles he creates, but instead, it is the reduction in size of the chest. When we breathe out our diaphragm compress our ribis reducing the circumference of the torso.
I believe this is the major reason why your study showed up such a result. Still, the bubbles DO reduce the drag of the swimmer but we are not capable of surrounding our entire doby with bubbles.
Perhaps you are right. But I believe that the air bubbles do reduce drag on the underside of the human body while swimming. Too much evidence out there that supports this.
Is Race Club part of secret society ?? Just kidding 😂
We could never tell! haha
@@theraceclub I will figure it out 🤣🤣🤣
What is the relation about Cruise ship and swimming breath! Nothing of course. is it gopro commercial? Yeess, it is. Analysis just commercial break.
Almost none of these shots were done with a GoPro. We use a RED Epic camera which gives much better resolution. We use GoPro for our testing primarily.
Most impressive part is the data acquisition parts... every some hundreds of second, the velocity and drag force are visualized onto the screen. Fantastic technology!
@@leesanghwa8175 ITALIAN TECHNOLOGY........
What if the swimmer’s frontal drag was lower due to smaller frontal area of his chest after he exhaled ?
Could you measure drag without bubbles and empty lungs ?
That is a possibility, but not practical. Exhaling all of the air adds about 8 pounds of body weight but more important, less buyoancy, which will tend to increase frontal drag. One cannot swim long with the breath exhaled completely.
cruise ships suck, this video doesn't
Thank you - we strive to out-compete cruise ships daily!