Breathing mistakes in freestyle

Each stroke is divided into the armstroke (which is divided into the entry, the downsweep, the catch, the insweep, the upsweep and the recovery), the kicking, the timing, the body position, and the breathing. There are common mistakes that swimmers do and I'll try to help you diagnose and correct them. Todays post will be on breathing mistakes that swimmers usually do in freestyle.                                                                     

                                                                                             

                                                                 

The most frequent mistakes that swimmers make when they breathe are: turning the face too soon or too late, lifting the head, returning the head to the water too slowly and, pulling the head back and out of alignment.

                                

1.  Swimmers interfere with their natural body rotation when they turn the head to breathe before the arm on the opposite side has entered the water. This isi because they are trying to turn the head to the opposite side while the body is still rotated toward the side of the recovering arm. To breathe, they will most likely rush the recovery of the arm forward so that they can get the body rotated in the direction the head is turning. Swimmers must wait until the body rotates toward the breathing side before they start turning the face in that direction. This will be after the recovering arm has entered the water in front of them.
2. Swimmers who turn the head too late usually have what is called a hitch in their strokes. Turning the head too late causes them to breathe during the arm recovery instead of the underwater stroke. As a result, they hesitate or make a slow recovery to allow time to breathe. This hesitation delays the downsweep of the other arm, which in turn causes them to decelerate more than usual during the stroke phase.
3. The error of lifting the face from the water to breathe is seen only occasionally and then only among novice swimmers. These swimmers usually try to swim without rolling the shoulders and have to lift the head forward to get the mouth out of the water. They should be taught to roll the body toward the breathing side, leaving the head in the water as they rotate the face to the side.
4. The mistake of not returning the head to the midline after breathing is common even among top-level swimmers. They do not rotate the head back to the middle after breathing or they return it too slowly. In either event, they fail to rotate the body sufficiently toward the non breathing side. This causes them to sweep the hand too far outward during the upsweep and during the recovery of the arm on the non breathing side.

There are many drills that can help you correct them. If you need any help finding them, send me a pm or comment on this post.