I am not sure if this needed to be in Sports or H&F, but mods can move.
I started learning to swim in and want to get some tips from people who are good in it.
Do you wear goggles? I do, and when I dont, things get out of focus, and I started to panic as I cant see/check my surroundings (when under water off course). Will my eyesight under water get better (adjust to the surroundings) or should I keep using goggles?
Breathing: any good tips, as I am still struggling to breathe properly during front crawl. Not only exhaling under water is problem, but tilting to side so face could come up for me to breathe is also an issue
Remember most pools contain heavy amount of chlorine so any protection for eye or hair is strongly recommended. For breathing, its hard to get a tip unless someone is really advanced swimmer and still it'd be hard to apply on oneself. It just comes with experience. It'll be all good once you spend some time in water.. (not all the time..lol) :)
I dont quite understand your issues with breathing? can you explain a bit more and how are you breathing now?
In front crawl, I am suppose to breath out when my face is under water and then tilt my face sideways to bring it out or water (without lifting my head) and breath in. I am having problem with that. I fail to exhale under water, so when I tilt my face sideways, I already have oxygen in my lungs. Now in that half sec or so when my face i outside water, I am suppose to breath out first and then breath in. That is impossible in such a small window. If I could breath out properly under water, I just have to breath in when my face is out and not try to breath in and out at the same time.
Did you get my question now? Hope I explained it properly.
I seeeeeee, well what you should do is, go as long as you can with head under water maybe not even breathing out, as you start to feel the need to breathe out, exhale under water which you will be able to do as you have more urge and turn your head and take a breath.
Its not wrong to do it that way, the longer your head is under water the faster you go.
For example during training I used to take 1 breath per 25 meters.
I seeeeeee, well what you should do is, go as long as you can with head under water maybe not even breathing out, as you start to feel the need to breathe out, exhale under water which you will be able to do as you have more urge and turn your head and take a breath.
Its not wrong to do it that way, the longer your head is under water the faster you go.
For example during training I used to take 1 breath per 25 meters.
Does what I am saying make sense?
yes it makes a lot of sense in what you said.
TLK you need to take the breath after at least third arm recovery , Guess you are taking it on every recovery !
I think that is pretty much what inspiron also said. Third arm recovery would be a good distance (maybe not 25 meter though) without breathing.
breathing:
third or fourth arm recovery for casual swimming.....should do the trick.
goggles:
funny comment maybe but I can't get myself to adjust to the view with goggles.......even though the chlorine stings my eyes and yes the vision remains blurry, I prefer that because with goggles it looks like there is no water and I am floating in mid-air......that gives me the creeps!
In my case Muzna, goggles give me a clear view of where the floor of the pool is, where the walls are and what not, that actually helps me not to get panic.
Also for breathing, you need to build stamina and endurance, especially if you’ve just started swimming without having done any physical exercise before.
and it is the opposite with me.....as long as I don't know how deep the water is I'm fine.....
as soon as I have an accurate perception of the depth, particularly when we are in deeper pools more than 12-15 feet I start to panic.....
btw....this creeped out feeling has become more pronounced with age..... I don't remember being scared before.
I am a pretty good swimmer, been swimming since i have been 5 or 6.. I don't wear goggles though. They irritate me, i cant wear anything on my eyes. It gives me a headache.
For breathing, how about trying the good old method. Buy just practicing how long can you hold your breath under water, this will build your stamina. Regarding the question about your inhale/exhale inspiration already answered it.
I learned swimming when I was about 3-4 years and even after all these years I find googles very uncomfortable. I always tend to keep my eyes open the whole while and rather keep them that way then wear something. (Even though it contributes to extreme redness and irritation afterwards). But if you're used to wearing them, then I suggest you rather keep them on for that's the ideal way to do it especially if you swim for longer periods.
Breathing during casual swimming: Like everyone else said and to add on: I tend to take a long inhale above-water when starting my first crawl, then once underwater, hold breathe for few sec's and exhale from my mouth slowly as I gain momentum, and then tilt my head (Side crawl) once every now and then to inhale air from outside. You'll notice if you exhale underwater, you'll tend to remain longer underwater too (You don't have to side tilt every crawl but rather follow your breath and inhale when needed). Once you get there, learning to breathe-out underwater and side tilting every 3-4 storks would make the whole process more smooth and less daunting.
goggles for sure…cuz in pools there is chlorine which might burn ur retina …okay okay thats extreme but someone told me…her husband lost his eye sight for a day. so wear googles.
as for breathing problem…it adjusts with time…u just have to push urself.
i am also learning swimming and in 10 lessons (0.5 hour a week) i just need to fix my breathing…my instructor told me to count it…like after every three strikes, exhale…another good tip is watch lots of swimming video clips and jsut by sitting on the chair practice ur arm/face movement.
ps. i am also considering of getting nose plugs…its also good to dig these sports store and findout what exactly is there. i have a very long threshold of taking long breathing pauses and i need to learn breathing from my mouth instead of my nose. so lets see how much help can i get from these nose plugs.
If you cant swim without goggles, u dnt hve much of the options. For me I only use goggles when i go for swimming in sea or scuba diving, never used them for pool.
Your Swimming method is wrong, you have to breath underwater n i suggest you to start from this exercise (n trust me its not easy, so dnt take it lightly ) grab the corner of the pool, breathe in go underwater and blow/breath out/exhale, come up still blowing out then take 2 secs to breath in and again go down (same like u do push ups with bar ). Do 20 cycles in one go and abt 10 times in one session/day.
Warning: plz keep blowing until ur head completely comes out of the water or else u will drink lot of pool water.
Also for the time being u should only focus on the breathing issue, we will sort the tilting issue later on.
I used to wear snorkels when I was learning on how to swim since I could never tilt my head and as soon as I did my arms and legs would stop and put me out of sync with everything else. They make swimming snorkels as well.
!
…okay okay thats extreme but someone told me…her husband lost his eye sight for a day. so wear googles.