Subject: RE: The Swim Breathing Thread - How to make it feel effortlessThis is a great thread, Suzanne. Any chance you could turn it into a BT article? I advocate practicing "breathing meditation" (just another form of breathing drills) and I really think what you've outlined here is helpful for folks not just in swim training, but to ease into OWS for newer swimmers. Doing focused breathing the first bit of an OWS during races can also really calm the anxiety that can set it (sometimes even for seasoned swimmers) and this is good stuff to do, especially doing it in practice so you're already used to it. Having a good swim start can make an enormous difference for the rest of the race, and while it may SEEM like you're going slower by taking a few yards at the beginning to BREATHE, the smoothness and efficiency far more than makes up for any deficit, which would certainly be worse if you were thrashing around and trying to get a hold of yourself with your HR skyrocketing. |