Breathing Choices for the Crawl Stroke

When learning the front crawl (“freestyle”), learning to breathe comfortably takes a lot of practice. You have choices on when to breath. The two most common methods are:

- One breath per every arm cycle.
- One breath for every three arm strokes (alternate bi-lateral breathing).

Various books and videos will espouse one method as superior. Which one is best? Please understand that much of this is driven by the best methods for competition, where not breathing is the fastest way to swim! In competition, especially the sprint races, swimmers my only take a few breaths per length! So for the average fitness swimmer, this question might be better stated as “which one is best for you?” Every swimmer is different in body size, aerobic fitness, strength, coordination, and motivation.

Bi-Lateral breathing

Experts are in agreement on one point: It’s best to learn to breathe on both sides, i.e “bi-laterally.” Since the front crawl stroke is not symmetric, different motions and muscles come into play during the stroke cycle. For practice, it’s good to swim a whole length or more breathing to one side, then switching to the other so you do the same yardage for each side. This is easier than trying to master breathing every third stroke—that is a more difficult technique not necessary to swim efficiently!

Being able to breath on either side has several advantages:
- It helps to keep the body in a state of “balance”. That is, by using left and right side breathing, your muscles will get the same workout.
- In pool competition, you can choose to look at a competitor for multiple laps.
- In open water swimming, you can breath on the side where waves and/or the sun cause the least discomfort.

Respiration rates have priority

Your respiration (breathing) rate varies according to the level of exercise. For adults the typical resting rate is 15 breaths per minute, increasing to 40 – 50 breaths per minute as exercise intensity increases. The body has two ways to increase the oxygen supply:
- Increase the ‘tidal volume’ (the quantity of air that is inhaled and exhaled with every breath).
- Increase in the respiration or breathing rate (bpm). This is the number of inhalation and exhalation cycles per minute.

Let’s use an example based on moderate, sustainable, aerobic swimming.
Suppose Mary swims 25 yds. in 30 seconds (light to medium exercise, depending on her overall fitness). During 30 seconds, she takes 26 strokes (13 pulls with each arm). Based on this, what are the respiration rates for the two breathing methods?

Alternate/bi-lateral method:
The stroke rate is 1 pull for every 0.87 s. (26 pulls/30 s.). Three pulls will take about 2.6 seconds (3 x 0.87s). This results in a respiration rate of about 23 bpm (60/2.6). This is slightly above the normal resting rate.

One breath per cycle method:
Two pulls will take 1.74 s. (0.87 x 2). This works out to 43 bpm (60/1.74), which is in low end of the 40-50 “exercise” range.

Which method should Mary use? If she uses the alternate bi-lateral technique, she may not get enough air to match her exertion level. This obviously depends on her fitness level, etc., but the one breath per cycle is probably a better fit in this case. Sometimes, the swimmer may be concerned about hyperventilating at the higher rate, but with practice, the body will adjust the tidal volume to match the needs.

This analysis is based on a pace that you should be able to swim for extended periods of time. After several hundred yards, you should not be exhausted, and should feel that your breathing and effort “match up”, and that you can swim at this pace almost indefinitely. Sprinting and racing require a totally different analysis, which varies according to the racing distance, water conditions (open vs. pool), and more.

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Why can’t Johnny swim?

As a private instructor, many of my students have already taken lessons at the YMCA, Red Cross, or through other “learn to swim” programs. Virtually all of these students had failed to learn to swim at a level where the parents could be confident the child won’t drown if they fall into a pool or off a dock. Here are my personal observations on why the child didn’t learn what their parents expected.

1. Too Much Structure

Structured lessons as presented by the YMCA, Red Cross, etc. tend to emphasize developing many skills that can be “checked off” a list to designate a specific competence level. This is fine—a solid principle for education. But I think they go overboard.
For example, the Red Cross Water Safety Instructor’s Manual (2009) has checklists for “Learn-to-Swim” at six levels. At Level 1, here are 2 typical items for check-off (click here for full Level 1 list):

  • Back Glide: Demonstrate, with support, at least 2 body lengths
  • Back Float: Demonstrate, with assistance, at least 3 seconds

At level 1, almost every listed skill is not really a skill–assistance and support are allowed. If a back glider has support, what difference does it make whether they go 2 body lengths or 20? So even though there are many “check-offs”, little has been achieved. As the levels advance, actual skills are eventually tested, but the buildup is very incremental. More examples:

At Level 4, the student is expected to swim butterfly for 15 yards, but is only required to tread water for 2 minutes! This is “out of whack”. Any experienced waterman would agree that the ability to calmly tread water for 10-15 minutes is far more useful than swimming butterfly (which is a stroke strictly for competition and not useful for anything else but “showing off”).

The long lists of criteria give the appearance of highly organized, sophisticated instruction. In reality, the basic skills to survive and have fun in the water are being overshadowed by checking off “meaningless” accomplishments, with an inappropriate emphasis on sophisticated stroke analysis and instruction in areas that pertain to competitive swimming only . For example, “Level 5”: teaches flip turns for swimmers who are only required to swim 50 yards. If you can only swim 50 yards, you are not even close to being ready for competition at a level that requires flip-turns!

 

2. Not Enough Practice

Kids need a break and fun in the water has many health (mental & physical) benefits!

Kids need a break and fun in the water has many health (mental & physical) benefits!

An hour or two of lessons per week is time well spent for the beginning swimmer, but to really progress, another 2-4 hours (ideally 2-3 days) of practice and play will make all the difference. Why? Well, just think about other sports. Would you expect someone to learn to ride a bike or throw a ball if they only did this for 1-2 hours per week? They probably would eventually learn, but progress would be very slow and frustrating.

Swimming is unique—not only does it require learning controlled breathing and a new sense of body control, but skills that are developed on land, such as walking, jumping, and running are of no real use in the water. Entirely different skills are required to move around efficiently and stay safe in the water. The “muscle memory” for swimming is gained from practice—there is no substitute. For toddlers, time spent in a wading pool is valuable. They can learn to put their face in and have fun, without the need to journey off to a public pool that may be too deep, etc.

The takeaway here:
To think that a child can be easily “water-safe” just by taking lessons, without spending many hours practicing and playing in the water is simply wishful thinking.

3. “Big-drag” Swimsuits

What a drag! Why make learning even harder by wearing these?

What a drag! Why make learning even harder by wearing these?

In recent years, the fashion aspect of swim suits has overshadowed the functionality. Granted, not everyone should wear a “Speedo”, but if you want to go fast as you can, you simply must wear sleek, low-drag swimsuit. For beginners, wearing knee length (or longer) “board shorts” along with a t-shirt are just a real drag that will make learning to swim much harder.

Swimming is one of the rare sports where the “uniform” has a huge effect on performance. A key skill for beginners is to streamline the body (e.g. front glide) and “feel the water”, whether that is the “pull-push” that you do when stroking or the drag that may come from poor body alignment (bottom dragging). With the big suits, a huge amount of drag is introduced, and it isn’t predictable. Trying to learn basic floating and swimming with these outfits is a real handicap. It takes a great deal of energy to overcome this drag.

As a comparison, imagine how silly it would be to train for track and field while wearing heavy work boots. Or if you were learning to ride a bike, would flat tires help?

For best results, I would advise parents (and swim program directors) to get your students into some “jammers” (i.e. longer Speedos for boys) or a decent racing suit. They will learn much faster, and they can always put on the baggy stuff once they have mastered basic swimming and water survival.

"Jammers" combine low-drag and modesty.

“Jammers” combine low-drag and modesty.

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“Swim Baby, Swim” video by Esther Williams

I’m always on the lookout for good instructional material for teaching swimming. You have probably seen small babies (1-2 yrs.) that can be tossed (or fall) into deep water and manage to recover so they can swim to safety or calmly float. How did they train these babies to become “waterproof” or “water-safe”?

Esther Williams was a champion swimmer. She peaked around 1940 and would have been in the Olympics, but the Olympics were cancelled due to the start of WWII. She became a huge movie star in films that featured her beautiful swimming and diving. In 1984 she produced and starred in an instructional video, “Swim Baby, Swim.” I had high hopes that this 1984 video (out of print) would “unlock” the secrets of teaching babies to swim. Boy was I wrong!

The most glaring problem is an omission…

In the “5 steps” from the video, somehow the baby goes from being held up in the pool to being able to recover from a push or fall into deep water, with clothes on! Unfortunately, over the course of the 45 minute video, Ms. Williams does not  show how you teach a child to rollover onto her back and then, do a calm back float. Somehow, the baby knows!?

Cheap Vinyl floats mean Danger!

The 2nd problem is her advocacy of using cheap vinyl blow-up float tubes for non-swimmers. These tubes are fragile–easily punctured by rubbing against the pool, fingernails, etc. and are very slippery, which makes it easy for a small child to just drop through and get into serious trouble very quickly.

There are many good instructional videos for teaching babies and toddlers, but this isn’t one of them. Not only is it incomplete, but it contains bad information. Any floatation device used by a non-swimmer should have U.S. Coast Guard approval, and should fit the person properly.

 

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Propellers, Bernoulli, and Swim Science

What the heck is Buoyancy doing here? (Click for larger image)

What the heck is Buoyancy doing here?
(Click for larger image)

Since Doc Counsilman’s research on swimming began in the 1970s, coaches and swimmers have been using scientific methods to find the best way(s) to move through the water quickly. Imitation of champions’ techniques were a sensible way to improve, but the science behind the performance tended to lag behind. Most instructional books will, at some point, refer to the physics of the Bernoulli Principle, which explains how airplane wings generate lift. The same principle applies to boat propeller design and the hydrofoils used on some watercraft.

Usually, you will see a vector diagram or drawing that attempts to explain arm and hand motions as relevant examples for swimmers. There is one slight problem: Our hands and arms are not shaped in a way that would make them useful as lift generators based on Bernoulli. That is not to say that sculling is wrong–it is definitely a component for an efficient stroke. Here is a link to a summary of studies of the physics that make for efficient, fast (championship) swimming, specifically the role “lift” plays in overall stroke performance.

Swimming Technique: Propulsion through drag or lift? (opens in new window, site is bilingual).

The article was published in 2001, and much of the research was done in the mid-1990s. The conclusion states:

In this example, many of us were quick to accept theory as fact before sufficient evidence was available. It may still be too early to state that freestyle propulsion is dominated by drag, but the commonly held belief that it is dominated by lift may be ill-founded and incorrect.

(from Rushdall article)

(from Rushdall article)

Yet most books, written after this research was published, still have the obligatory diagrams, etc., attempting to tie the Bernoulli Principle to proper technique!

Here is a link to another article, by Brent Rushdall, that debunks the whole “lift” theory:
Lift is not an Important Force in Swimming Propulsion (opens in a new window).

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Video Underwater – GoPro Hero 2

One of the best ways to improve in any sport is to watch yourself on video. The ability to see yourself objectively is the most basic, true feedback. Add a little coaching, and you have a great combination for improvement. Underwater video analysis of swimmers is nothing new, but until recently, the equipment was costly and/or complicated. Now there are many ways to get high quality video without spending a lot of money. For 1000Swimmers “home grown” video analysis, we use the GoPro Hero 2 camera, and based on that experience, here are some tips that can save you time and money.

Beware of the Blur

The Hero 2 camera is still for sale around $200 in all sorts of configurations with various accessories. But before you buy, you should be warned that the standard water-proof housing with a fish-eye lens does not take sharp images underwater!

The Underwater housing makes the display difficult to see, but otherwise works fine.

The Underwater housing makes the display difficult to see, but otherwise works fine.

Even though the housing is rated for 197 ft. (60 m.), any underwater images are blurred (see the video demo of the 2 housings). In the air, it works fine. The obvious question is, “Why bother with a waterproof housing when the images are poor?”

The Solution
For about $35 you can buy an improved waterproof housing. It has a flat lens cover. That is the setup that we use in the underwater analysis videos on this site. It will add about $35 to our cost, but then you still have the other housing for non-water shots.

Save the Packing !

The GoPro does not have a standard tripod mounting plate.The camera comes with a great deal of plastic packing pieces. One piece you should hang onto is the display pedestal. It serves as a basic mount for simple shots and makes it easier to hold without your hands getting in the picture. You can set it down in a calm area, such as the pool bottom and you’ll get great video.

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