Breathing – Basic

The basics of swimming includes the correct technique of breathing, floating in water, learning how to use flotation device/aids and basic water safety awareness. For this post, we would first look at how to breath when swimming.

Importance of breathing correctly

Breathing correctly is the fundamental to getting started in swimming. With the correct breathing technique, there is a lowered risk of consuming water when swimming, lowered risk of water entering nose when swimming and an increase in stamina.

How to Breath

Breathing when swimming is different from how we usually breath when exercising (inhale through nose, exhale through mouth/nose) or when we are resting (breathing through nose only). However, when we swim, we would have to  exhale through nose and inhale through mouth. This is also commonly known as blowing bubbles through nose. Although this may sound easy, there are many pointers to look out for. The things to look out for includes:

1. Inhale through mouth, exhale through nose (blowing bubbles)
2. There is no pause in the process of exhaling
3. The process should be natural and doesn’t require mental effort
4. Exhaling lasts for at least 8 seconds each time

Methods to learn

1. Mmm, Nnn method
   • Pros: The alphabets M and N requires the individual to keep their mouth close to be able to create the sound, as such, it helps to reduce the use of mouth to blow bubbles
   • Cons: The constant stream of air out of the nose is weak and there is a slight chance that water might enter the nose when the individual stops making the sound
   • Steps:
     1. Start by creating the Mmm/ Nnn sound above the water
     2. Lower body till the nose is submerged in the water
     3. Continue creating the sound
     4. Notice a slow and constant stream of bubbles
2. Blowing nose method
   • Pros: Blowing nose is a natural action that many is used to. It is useful for those who are afraid of water entering the nose as this method lowers the risk of water entering the nose.
   • Cons: It cannot be executed for an extended period of time and the individual would need to learn how to slowly reduce the amount of air blown out of the nose.
   • Steps
     1. Hold breath
     2. Submerge head into water
     3. Start to blow nose and slowly raise body up above water at the same time.

Practices

Below are a few sets of practices that can be used to improve breathing techniques.

1. Extended Blowing Bubbles
   • Goal: To increase lung capacity and to be able to blow bubbles for a longer period of  time.
   • Steps:
     • Blow bubbles for 10 seconds for 10 repetitions with only 1 inhalation between each repetition.
     • Build up from 10 repetitions of 5 seconds > 8 seconds > 10 seconds.
2. 5-3-5 Practice
   • Goal: To increase control of stopping, and restarting continuing blowing bubbles after stopping.
   • Steps:
     • Blow bubbles for 5 seconds, then stop for 3 seconds and blow bubbles for another 5 seconds again (5-3-5).
     • Complete 10 repetitions with only 1 breath between each repetition.
     • Build up from 3-2-2 > 4-3-3 > 5-3-5.
3. All direction breathing
   • Goal: To reduce the chances of water entering nose when swimming.
   • Steps:
     • Blow bubbles in an upright position, head tilting to left, head tilting to right and looking up to the sky position.
     • Repeat each direction 5 repetitions (total 20 reps) for 5 seconds each.
     • Take only 1 breath between each repetition.
     • Take note to slowly increase the degree of tilt.
     • Try to achieve being able to blow bubbles with head tilted backwards looking behind.