Re: Breathing Technique

swimhag wrote: 
ekurth@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Most elites will hold their breath for a little bit as soon as their
faces return to the water.  I strongly suspect that it's because they
are most bouyant at that point.  So if they can hold onto the air for a
moment, they will ride a little bit higher overall during their stroke
cycle.  For an example of this, you can look at Michael Phelps
swimming.  His video is about half way down the page in the freestyle
section below:

http://www.buehlerbluemarlins.net/videos/barcelona2003/barcelona.html


Great video Eric! You are correct, the theory behind this "breath
holding" was that it will keep more air in the lungs and allow better
buoyancy.

I can't see the buoyancy effect of holding the breath and exhaling violently being worth it. The difference in buoyancy between the case of exhaling continuously and the case of exhaling in a short burst can't be all that great, given that for the first half of the exhale the lungs are relatively full. Actually, I see that as I exhale continuously, I do it slowly at the start and much faster as my head turns to the side. If the body is correctly positioned, I think the time to overcome the inertia to start sinking would be significant, maybe longer than the time to start the next breath.

However, the instructor who suggests this method says not to
breathe out through the nose at all, just the mouth, and to exhale as
quickly and forcefully as possible after the pulling hand has already
passed going under the head.  Phelps seems to have some air coming out
of his nose and he doesn't seem to be really holding his breath as much
as allow it to distribute in his lungs right after inhaling then
exhaling as soon as he starts his pull after extension.

You are probably seeing him right off the turn. Everybody exhales through the nose a bit off the turn to clear the water out that gets in while you are upside down in the turn.

Tonight I tried holding my breath till after I pulled past my head and
then forcefully exhaled and found it exhausting unless I was swimming
very slowly. It may have some merit as a drill but I had trouble with
it when trying to go fast or trying it after doing butterfly.  When
breathing every 3 strokes as opposed to every other stroke I did notice
that I hold the air a bit longer but still gradually exhale, not
forcefully after starting the final pull before the next breath.  It is
the forceful exhalation that I have a problem executing.  The
instructor said that if you can execute this technique you should NOT
be winded but I found the exact opposite unless I was just basically in
a cool down speed.

You might be developing your "forceful exhalation" by restricting the flow. That's not what the instructor means. Relax everything in the air passage and use the diaphram. It's more like the way that big pillowy thing collapses that you jump into from a burning building. You just let all the air go.
.

Loading