Breathing is often the hardest part of learning to swim and making your stroke more effective and efficient. Have you ever wondered how some swimmers make their breathing look so effortless? Ever watched elite swimmers who look like they barely even move their head to breathe? It’s almost as if the water moves out of the way to allow them to take their breath!
This is called breathing into the bow-wave. If you are swimming with enough speed and with your head in the correct position, the crest of your head will push against the water creating an air pocket for you to get your breath.
As you turn your head to the side, instinct tells us to lift our head up. We want to get our mouths out of the water as much as possible to ensure we don’t get any water in our mouth. Unfortunately, as many of you know this causes us to over-rotate and lose balance and stability in the water. Lifting your head causes maximum interruption to your stroke. The trick to breathing into the Bow Wave is to not lift your head.
How to:
- As you roll your head to the side to breathe, keep your head low in the water.
- You should have almost half of your face still in the water. A good way to judge this is to have one goggle still in the water when you breathe.
- Push the crown of your head down, when in the right position your head will move the water and create the wave.
- Don’t worry if you find you can’t do it consistently, or it is more difficult on one side compared to the other.
Check out this video of Paul demonstrating. 👍
Need some help? Ask your Salty Fit coach in your next session. Or why not see what your breathing looks like in our upcoming video clinic.
