The perfect freestyle breath is somewhat of a mythical creature in the swimming world. Does it exist? Have you ever seen one? Or better yet, accomplished one yourself? Although it might seem an impossible feat to have a freestyle breath so perfect it rivals that of the genius owned by the inventor of pizza from way back in the day, it can definitely be achieved. AND it’s something you can work on in the comfort of your own home! Alone! 6 feet away from someone else! I mean, you can work on it anywhere and at any time. Any takers?
To put it simply, all you have to be able to do in order to have the perfect freestyle breath is sniff your armpit. Or have the ability to check out that hot guy/girl/donut sitting behind you. Easy, right? And by that I mean, what in the world am I talking about (and where is that donut…)? But alas, I’m getting ahead of myself. When you go to take a breath, the first thing to keep in mind is that you want to keep your head down. DO NOT LIFT YOUR HEAD. Sorry to yell, but that one’s pretty key here. Turning your head, as opposed to lifting your head, allows you to get your air while still maintaining your straight spine, shoulder/hip alignment, and streamline position. Lifting your head causes your legs and hips to sink, breaks your straight spine, puts your shoulders/hips out of alignment, and prevents you from having a proper streamline. Simplest thing to keep in mind is that you want to TURN your head to breathe, not LIFT your head to breathe. Once you’ve committed to turning your head, we can move onto the next step.
Now, let’s break down my analogy about smelling your pits and scoping out the babes. Your head follows where your eyes look, so you want to make sure you’re looking in the right direction to help keep your head down and not lift it up. My favorite cue to give, when we have a client in for a lesson at SwimBox, is to turn your head to the side WHILE looking back towards your armpit/the back corner of our pool. My husband’s favorite cue is to “check out that hot guy behind you.” One of his clients coined this phrase when he was explaining the movement to her for the first time. Gotta love how our brains work to help us understand things, huh. Anyhoot, the point of both of these cues is to keep your eyes looking down while you swim, then when you turn your head to breathe to look back and in the same direction as your arm about to exit the water.
How can you work on this in between watching Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix for the 657483 time and picking out just the right sweatpants you want to wear tomorrow? Two things. First, work on simply turning your head to each side without any added movement. You can do this any time you’re sitting upright and have space to move (ie, not while you’re lying down). I want you to make this movement to understand the difference between lifting your head up when your’e in the water and simply turning it to the side. Second, put one arm up like you’re swimming and have one arm out in front of you (if you’re sitting simply put one arm straight up into the air like you’re reaching towards a cloud), and work on trying to turn your head while looking back towards your armpit. This is the movement you want to make in the water. Now I know this isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely a start to understanding the how to obtain the perfect freestyle breath.
Don’t forget to see it in action! Watch our Freestyle Breath Video to see the end goal of what you’re working towards!
