How to Stop Breathing in Water When Swimming
To avoid breathing in water while swimming, focus on proper breathing techniques and rhythm. This involves coordinating your breathing with your strokes and ensuring you exhale fully before turning your head to breathe.
The key to preventing water inhalation is a controlled breathing process:
- Exhale Completely: Before turning your head to breathe, fully exhale underwater. This creates space in your lungs, reducing the chance of inhaling water when you take a breath. This is emphasized by many resources, including Effortless Swimming (https://effortlessswimming.com/breathing-in-freestyle-how-to-stop-choking-on-water/), which highlights that most choking incidents are due to not exhaling enough.
- Controlled Inhalation: When you turn your head to breathe, take a quick, controlled breath. Avoid gasping; a smooth intake minimizes water entry. As noted in the YouTube video "[How to Swim Without Getting Out of Breath - YouTube]( )", a slight head turn is sufficient to get your mouth out of the water for a quick breath.
- Rhythmic Breathing: Establish a consistent breathing pattern—e.g., breathing every three strokes. This helps to anticipate when you need to breathe and reduces the likelihood of taking in water due to surprise or disorientation. The Speedo article (https://www.speedo.com/blog/advice/how-to-breathe-while-swimming/) advises maintaining a relaxed facial expression during this process.
Preventing Water Up Your Nose
While focusing on mouth breathing is paramount, addressing nose entry can enhance your swimming experience:
- Proper Head Rotation: Turning your head just enough to breathe, rather than lifting it high out of the water, will minimize the amount of water entering your nasal passages. This is also mentioned in the YouTube video reference.
- Consider Nose Plugs: Though not ideal for learning proper technique, nose plugs can help minimize water inhalation through the nose. This is touched on in the Wallen Swim article (https://wallenswim.com/how-to-avoid-water-up-the-nose/), highlighting how blocked noses lead to full breath-holding, raising the risk.
Practice and Patience
Developing proper breathing technique takes time and practice. Start in shallow water to build confidence and gradually refine your breathing pattern as you improve. Remember to focus on relaxation; panic often exacerbates water ingestion, as pointed out by Swimming.org (https://www.swimming.org/openwater/panic-open-water-swimming/).
