Efficient Freestyle - Lesson 6 - How To Breathe Without That Sinking Feeling

To ensure you don't slow down when breathing we need to coordinate both the head and body movements at the same time. Get this timing wrong and swimming will always be harder than it could be.
Learning to swim without breathing is pretty simple and most people can pick up the main movements in only a few hours practice.
But everything changes when you have to turn your head to breathe!
This whole series of drills have been progressively building up to help you breathe without slowing down.
First you need to have good balance to reduce drag.
• Efficient Freestyle - ...
Then you need to have enough body rotation so that you can turn your neck and breathe without your head lifting up.
• Efficient Freestyle - ...
Adding the arm stroke makes this much more complicated, so next you need to be able to consistently hit a balanced and streamline body position with each stroke.
• Efficient Freestyle - ...
Once you can do that reliably, then it's time to start moving your head. This comes in 2 parts.
Part 1 - Struggling To Breathe? Try This Drill
• Efficient Freestyle - ...
Part 2 - How To Breathe Without Sinking (This Video)
• Efficient Freestyle - ...
These are the key drills we use in all our courses. Regardless of where you are on your swimming journey the fundamentals never change.
Reduce Drag = Use Less Effort = Swim Faster
Now, head to the pool and Swim Smart!
www.coach-stewart.com
www.swimsmart.ca

[@DaisyZhangAI]

Would it be correct to say that key to this drill is to make sure that the face and hand should enter water at the same time? (And part 1 of the drill in the previous video is to focus on when/how much the head needs to turn to get air?) basically, part 1 focuses on getting air, and part 2 focuses on going back into water?

[@SwimSmart]

I find it easier to think about your head and your body rolling together, but yes, if you have the awareness to recognize what your head and hand are doing at the same time, then yes do that!

[@billjenkins2503]

Extremely hard exercise, please provide easier exercises.

[@SwimSmart]

Hi Bill, to do this exercise well, first you need to be proficient at all the drills that come before it. if you have not watched those then go back to Streamline Drill first, after that do Switch Drill and make sure you are doing these drills with fins. After you can do those, then try this one again.