Marion Freijsen A blog about Sports, Fitness & Health

Swimming

As a (former) triathlete, swimming is 30% of the race. Not so much in time, but definitely in effort I never knew how to do freestyle, and started out doing my triathlons swimming my 1500 metres or even 3km doing breaststroke instead of freestyle. But although I was a fast breast-stroker, I realised soon enough that I simply would never improve my speed out of the water until I switched my style to freestyle. So I did, from one week to the next, I simply stopped doing any breaststroke.

I’ll never forget those first few weeks of doing freestyle, I was totally drowning every time I got in the lake or pool or whatever body of water I had to conquer. I was spluttering my way through, breathing hard, and moving my arms in a copy style of what everyone else was doing around me. Until someone told me I should not even begin to focus on my arms but on my breathing. That was the turning point for my freestyle and soon I started simply gliding through the water instead of causing the pool to overflow.

I’ll cover swim training in future blogs – but let me give you a few simple tips on how to breathe, try this in a pool and you’ll feel the difference! I’ll describe this based on breathing on the same side, every other stroke (Stroke being one hand going through the full cycle).

1. Your arms should be moving in a figure 8 movement- your left hand is right at the edge of your swimsuit/trunks when it exits from the water, as your right hand is breaking the surface in front of your head at the same time and pulling underneath your body.
2. As your left hand exits the water behind you, and moves over your head, your head turns slightly to the left in the space left by your elbow and you breathe in. Your right eye stays under water at all times, you don’t need to raise your neck out of the water, you merely swivel your head on your spine to the side!
3. As your elbow straightens and your arms starts to prepare for entry into the water in front of you, your head swivels back to the middle, both eyes front (not straining your neck!) and you start to exhale, under water.
4. by the time your left hand has completed its path underneath your body, and you start to raise it out of the water again, you have exhaled fully and are ready for your next breath.

Have fun, don’t drown, and don’t try and do this fast immediately – just take your time to get a full breath and exhale fully before you draw the next!