How to Breathe when Swimming Freestyle | Side Breathing Technique

So you're going to hold the kickboard like this, thumb on bottom, fingers on top, holding it at the bottom of the board. You're going to stretch the kickboard out in front of you, and you're going to have your face down in the water. The other arm is by your side, okay? The other arm is by your side. So with your face in the water, you're going to be kicking. When you need a breath, I want you to roll towards your back, not all the way, but towards your back with your ear on your shoulder, and breathe. Right here, it's a little uncomfortable for the neck, but it's very comfortable for the body. My body feels at rest, okay? I can kick here for as long as I needed to. When I stop kicking there, I might have a little crick in my neck, but it's better than what most beginners do when they breathe to the side, which is they lift. They don't roll. They lift, and that causes all sorts of problems. This is what a beginner who doesn't do it right might do, might try. Can't hold this up. Even I can't hold it up for very long. Got to lay that head down and lay in the water. Don't let that ear come above the water. Don't show me your ear. Don't let your chin drop to the bottom like this because you lifted up your forehead. Your mouth is on your chin, not your forehead. Don't lift your forehead up. Lift your chin out like this. Your chin is what needs the breath. That's where your mouth is located. Three, two, one. Push off and then roll for a breath. Keep that head low. Keep it low. More of that. Yep. Okay. Forehead needs to stay back. Forehead. Oh, okay. Don't lift up. You got to lay it back. Your whole head is still submerged. It's more. It's more on your back. Yeah. It's more behind you on your back. People, when they see the side breath, they, yeah, oh, it's gorgeous. Yeah. When people hear or see side breath, they think lift and look. Got it. It's not a lift and look. Okay. It's a roll. God. I tell a lot of my swimmers, you'll see more things behind you than you will in front of you. Okay? Okay. It's to the side and slightly behind you. Not to the side and slightly in front of you. You want to spin like this? Yeah. Good. Kick big. Good. Now, switch it to the other arm. Down. There it is. It's very tempting once you feel yourself sinking. Put the head up. It's very tempting to pick the head up, but what's happening when you're sinking is you're just getting off the wall. Your body rose from that push off, rose up, and then it's sunk down. In that moment, don't lift your head just kick stronger and your body comes back up to the surface Okay, okay in that moment when you live when you decide to lift your head That's the wrong instinct kicking in and it'll just sink you more If you can stay low and just kick fast as your body rises back up to the surface much easier Good roll great breathe breathe. Yeah Good now what I'll do for you is we do this across the deep end Easier if you're holding on to that keep for tight. Hold on to it Hold on to it tight. I'll be able to pull you across So we'll both be kicking hard and you'll get across the pool faster than you've done anything yet this week You're about to zoom across the pool So I'll give you good practice and you'll be able to get in the right position. You clearly have a better shot Okay She also doesn't need me to pull breathe Good face back in and you're there face back in Good good. Yeah, three two one Lay the head down There you go now kick back And breathe with your mouth Good. Oh, yeah. Now you're light as a feather and And we're almost there Good when you're doing this drill and you're learning it as a beginner Roll more towards your back if you're a competitive swimmer out there, especially in high school or college You should be completely on your side. Okay, you need more of a challenge But as a beginner be more on your back when you do this drill You're too much on your belly two things are happening one If you're too much on your belly, it's really hard to turn your face to the side you're gonna hurt it's gonna hurt your neck Okay, and number two is you're gonna choke on water because you can't roll as much So you can breathe in water like I am right now. It's not gonna be a very good experience If you roll more to your back Now you have this nice open window to breathe into Nope she's fine See how she's more Face down Now get to your back roll your back and dismount. Good job squirrel three, two one. Oh Great. Great job Yes. Yes Lay the head down Because the water levels here you can be all the way up there lay down kick bigger bigger and This mount from your back Being able to do that drill well is important We're gonna do it again, but I'm gonna take away their kickboards now So they're gonna do it without the kickboards and we'll do it in the shallow end first just across the pool and width wise Before I attempt to let them take it down to deep end So when they're doing it on the other side this way this time they have no board So when you have no board There's a temptation to use this arm to either pull or to push you Up by waving down at the bottom of the pool and pushing water down towards the bottom to pick you up Don't let don't give in to that temptation. Give your hand something to do What I do is I'll stick my hand farther in front I'll pretend as though right when I push off the wall I could already reach the other wall and from the moment I push up to the moment. I touch the other wall I'm constantly just closing that gap By reaching as much as I can Okay, give your hands something to do so it's not tempted to start Waving at the bottom of the pool and making you imbalanced out about the wrong instinct Which is that you have to lift up to breathe don't have to lift up Gotta stay down reach that hand and pull far in front Arm up Big nice Wow Yeah, that was nice. Oh, yeah Yeah, I thought for sure this arm was gonna want to pull but you didn't pull at all do one And turn Breathe and when you turn especially on your off side, yeah roll more to your back on your side Yeah, it makes you more buoyant makes the breath come easier Okay, the more you roll to your back the easier the breath will come because the more buoyant you will be you push off You're gonna sink it first Sink it first and then you kick to get up and then lay your head back chicken breathe Good. All right now for this drill I'm only gonna make them go through the deep end with their good arm and I'm gonna be holding them and helping them and Boosting them when they need it because I want them to have fine success breathing. I don't want it to be a struggle for them Good Good breathe Good face back down. Oh Face back down so you can see where you're going nice At some point once you feel like you've got your breath, yeah, put your face back down. Oh Okay, so you can see where you're going. Yep Good Good job. The kick got big enough. It kicked me a couple times. Oh cool. Yeah. Good job. Was it a good kick? Yeah, it felt like it because at one point He started carrying me. Yeah, oh, she's going with her off arm Breathe good Good excellent now, you're gonna dismount from your back. Good job. Good memory. Good memory It's large my bad Roll to your back Roll to your back and dismount Cuz we have fins on Okay, they're ready for freestyle. So here's how it's gonna go. I'm gonna have them. I'm gonna have to trees take three strokes I'm gonna have Warren take two And when they breathe, they're gonna get into that handling kicking position and take as many breaths as they need Once they feel comfortable Then they're gonna put their face back down in the water and do two more strokes or for the trees three more strokes Okay, at first you might see them doing a lot more breathing than swimming. That's okay Eventually they'll start to realize they can get their breath a lot sooner than they used to and they can start swimming sooner than they used to and Then you'll start seeing them do more swimming than breathing we're gonna Only have time for a few of these laps today, and then I'm gonna be meeting them in Houston Coming up soon, and we'll see if we can get more footage of their follow-up lessons here in Houston next time. All right Down breathe, you're good now put your face back down and swim Nice job good. I Thought I was gonna have to help him more than I did I basically kept my hands off Once he got on his side, he was breathing just fine So I took my hands off and let him finish it on his own. That was exciting For her own benefit good job Good come to this wall Good. There you go. There you go. You found it Good job, good job Good there it is Yeah, we got a dude breathing on both sides good job Good job you guys Congratulations, I'm really proud of you Welcome if you found this video helpful Make sure you splash that like button subscribe to the YouTube channel for free become a member today We're gonna be increasing the price of the membership soon Also go ahead and follow us on the other social medias that are like Instagram and tick tock at all the other ones buy Some merch we are keeping one color each year But every four years as you just saw we did our red color version So if you missed that sorry gonna have to wait till the LA Olympics in 2028 with that said, thanks for watching I'm Johnny rocket and let's get swimming